As the pace of development in autonomous and electric powered cars continuously accelerates predictions are already being made about how quickly the majority of vehicles on European roads will be electric and autonomous.
Traditional automakers have begun rolling out their own driverless and assisted driving vehicles, with several announcements this week alone.
BMW, Volkswagen Group, Ford, Daimler, have announced the forming of a new joint venture based in Europe to build almost 400 fast charging sites along motorways for electric vehicles.
The automakers involved, which also include Audi and Porsche, mentioned that the charging stations will offer power levels of up to 350Kw, which in comparison to Tesla, is more than double of its Supercharger network.
Its network is based on the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard which uses a connector that is fully compatible with most current and next generations BEVs.
Its BEVs are engineered to accept this full power of the charge stations, which can recharge brand-independently.
The build-up, which is planned to begin in 2017, is expected to give customers access to thousands of high-powered charging points by 2020.
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Harald Kruger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, said: “This high-power charging network provides motorists with another strong argument to move towards electric mobility.
“The BMW Group has initiated numerous public charging infrastructure projects over the last years. The joint project is another major milestone clearly demonstrating that competitors are combining forces to ramp-up e-mobility.”
All automobile manufacturers intend to make substantial investments in creating the network, underscoring each company’s belief in the future of electric mobility.
Mark Fields, president and CEO, Ford Motor Company said: “A reliable, ultra-fast charging infrastructure is important for mass consumer adoption and has the potential to transform the possibilities for electric driving.”
Next page – what is the most complex automated drive system being rolled out, and where?
Also this week Delphi Automotive PLC and Mobileye said they are to conduct the most complex automated drive ever publicly displayed on urban and highway routes in Las Vegas for CES 2017.
The 6.3-mile drive is to showcase Delphi and Mobileye’s Centralised Sensing Localisation and Planning (CLSP) automated driving system, which is expected to be ready for production by 2019.
Its CLSP system will feature several advanced technologies will include, location capability, which ensures the vehicle known its location with 10cm even without GPS connectivity.
Free space detection, to help the car navigate complex lane splits or areas lacking lane markings, 360-degree pedestrian sensing.
A 3D vehicle detection, which is to detect vehicles at any angle, it can detect partial cars by identifying vehicles by overall shape and wheel movement if a car is stationary or parked.
It enables lateral turning vehicle detection critical for intersections and path and motion planning, which allows the car to behave more human-like in its driving behaviour an determine the best path forward.
The automated driving solution leverages key technologies from each company, including Mobileye’s EyeQ 4/5 System on a Chip (SoC) with sensor signal processing, fusion, world view generation and Road Experience Management (REM) system, used for real time mapping and vehicle localisation.
Glen De Vos, Vice president of services for Delphi said: “Three factors will separate the leader from the pack in the race to offer driverless vehicles by 2019-best-in-class perception sensors such as cameras, radar and LiDAR, automotive experience and computer processing speed.”
Next Page: Which tech giant is creating a dedicated IOT based automated driving division
Finally, is Intel, who has announced that it is creating a group named the Automated Driving Group (ADG), dedicated to self-driving solution development.
The company also revealed that Tom Lantzsch, former executive vice president of strategy at ARM, was appointed as Intel’s new senior vice president and general manager of the IoT group.
Doug Davis, who previously led the group, has now been given the role of leader for Intel’s ADG organisation.
Intel will be joining Mobileye and Delphi to develop a low-cost system for self-driving vehicles that’s slated to begin sales to carmakers in 2019.
It will be adding its high-speed core i7 processors for use in the Delphi and Mobileye platform. Other than autonomous driving, it is to also focus on other driver assist technologies which will aid the work Intel is currently doing with other automakers such as BMW, Tesla and Daimler.
In an interview with Techcrunch, an Intel spokesperson said: “Automated driving is a long term growth opportunity for Intel. We believe there is an incredible opportunity to reinvent the driving experience and it will take a global ecosystem for this vision to come to fruition.
“The new ADG organisation will provide the necessary focus and support for our long-term investments needed for our long-term investments needed for our strategic automated driving endeavors.”
