The facility focuses on sensors for autonomous driving, cyber security, and big data. The Alliance is currently testing and working on over ten joint prototyping projects with Israeli startups at different stages, among them are: Apollo Power, Argus, AutoTalks, BrightWay Vision, Electreon, Enigmatos, IRP systems, Karamba, Moodify, Saferide and Upstream.

The lab’s location in Atidim Park enables it to carry out Proof of Concepts (POCs) in ideal conditions and co-develop prototypes in Tel Aviv’s smart city experiment zone. With a surface area of 1600 square meters, the lab provides startups with the space to test technologies with real vehicles.

The lab also works in close cooperation with Alliance Ventures, the Alliance corporate venture capital fund that plans to invest up to $1B over five years in startups, early-stage technology companies and entrepreneurial talents and has already invested in Maniv Mobility fund in Israel.

The FCA proposal follows initial operational discussions between the two companies to identify products and geographies where they could collaborate, particularly as they develop and commercialize new technologies. These discussions made clear that broader collaboration through a combination would substantially improve capital efficiency and the
speed of product development. The case for combination is also strengthened by the need to take bold decisions to capture at scale the opportunities created by the transformation of the auto industry in areas like connectivity, electrification and autonomous driving.

The proposed combination would create a global automaker, preeminent in terms of revenue, volumes, profitability and technology, benefitting the companies’ respective shareholders and stakeholders. The combined business would sell approximately 8.7 million vehicles annually, would be a world leader in EV technologies, premium brands, SUVs, pickup trucks and light commercial vehicles and would have a broader and more balanced global presence than either company on a standalone basis.

The benefits of the proposed transaction are not predicated on plant closures, but would be achieved through more capital efficient investment in common global vehicle platforms, architectures, powertrains and technologies. FCA’s Board strongly believes that this combination, which would have the scale, expertise and resources to navigate the rapidly
changing the automotive industry, would create new opportunities for employees of both
companies and for other key stakeholders.

Combining the businesses will bring together complementary strengths. The combination
would create a brand portfolio that would provide full market coverage with a presence in all key segments from luxury/premium brands, such as Maserati and Alfa Romeo, to the strong access brands of Dacia and Lada, and would include the well-known Fiat, Renault, Jeep and Ram brands as well as commercial vehicles. Groupe Renault has a strong presence across Europe, Russia, Africa and Middle East, while FCA is uniquely positioned in the high margin segments in North America and is a market leader in Latin America. FCA’s evolving capability in autonomous driving, which includes partnerships with Waymo, BMW and Aptiv, is complemented by Groupe Renault’s decade of experience in EV technology where it is the highest selling EV OEM in Europe. Groupe Renault also has a well-established and profitable financing business (RCI Banque).

This proposal offers the opportunity to create the #3 global automotive company with broad, complementary and strong brand and geographic presence and important strengths in transforming technologies. It also confirms and enhances the value of the existing Alliance and its potential to become even stronger in the future. While there is no certainty that this proposal will result in a transaction, the Board of FCA has strongly supported and approved the proposal which will now be reviewed by the Groupe Renault Board of Directors. The definitive agreements for the proposed combination are subject to negotiation and to final review and approval by the FCA and Groupe Renault Boards. Completion of the proposed combination would also be subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by each company’s shareholders, as applicable, and the satisfaction of antitrust and other regulatory requirements.

A unified worldwide mapping system will guide self- driving cars safely and efficiently. That is the goal of HERE Technologies and its regional mapping partners NavInfo of China, Increment P (IPC)/Pioneer of Japan and SK Telecom of Korea.

The four companies  have formed the OneMap Alliance to offer a global, standardized and dynamic high definition (HD) map from 2020. The global HD map offering is aligned to the specification developed for HERE HD Live Map.

Together, the companies plan to offer a consistent HD map across regions at a time when several automakers will be bringing to market vehicles with high levels of automation. The OneMap Alliance is open to new, strategic partners who are shaping the future of automated driving, mobility and smart cities.

HD Live Map is a dynamic digital representation of the road environment that utilizes camera and other sensory observations of millions of cars to self-heal. This means that, as the world changes, the map corrects and calibrates itself to ensure it stays useful and trusted. It is designed to give vehicles an uninterrupted picture of the road environment – even when there’s a truck or building blocking their view – with awareness of upcoming lane configurations and their meaning.

HD Live Map can also be complemented by additional HERE data services that bring to the vehicle useful information about jams, potential road hazards and the best routes to take.

Source: HERE

On April 26, 2018, the sale of 100% of the shares in the ZKW Group by the former sole owner Ulrich Mommert to LG Corporation and LG Electronics was decided. ZKW, a specialist in premium lighting and electronic systems, is partnering with the LG Group, one of the world’s largest technology companies, with total revenues of approximately $ 150 billion in 2017.

In order to sustainably expand its position at the forefront of technological development, the owner and management of ZKW decided to enter into this forward-looking partnership with LG, which secures ZKW’s long-term successful development.

The synergies anticipated from this strategic alliance should enable the new group of companies to assume the leading role worldwide in automotive lighting technology as well as in autonomous driving. Together with ZKW, the LG Group wants to become one of the top 10 automotive suppliers worldwide by 2025. ZKW’s product offering optimally complements LG’s existing product and technology portfolio.

With LG, ZKW gains access to valuable resources and key know-how in order to continue its successful growth course. ZKW benefits from LG’s extensive technology portfolio, thus sustainably improving its competitive position. LG has every confidence in the lighting specialist: ZKW will become the global competence center for automotive lighting within the LG Group.

One of the most convincing arguments for the merger of LG and ZKW was the opportunity to develop pioneering products for automotive concepts of the future by combining LG’s extensive electronics expertise with ZKW’s leading automotive know-how. In the future, ZKW will be able to offer its customers particularly innovative and competitive new products, also in the field of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems – Driver Assistance Systems FAS).

As a result of the transaction, LG’s automotive division is gaining a major fulcrum in Europe, facilitating cooperation with the leading European car manufacturers, with whom ZKW has been combining a successful partnership for many years.

The corporate headquarters of the ZKW Group will remain in Austria over the long term. Even after the transaction, the ZKW Group remains self-sufficient in its decisions and actions within the LG Group. The existing management team of the ZKW Group will continue to be responsible for the more than 9,000 employees worldwide. LG has guaranteed the production sites in Austria for at least 5 years. ZKW expects the additional growth potential to create even more jobs at all locations.

Source: ZKW Group

• Grab app allows select commuters to book and ride in nuTonomy cars
• Partnership to research end-to-end user experience from hailing to drop-off

nuTonomy, the leading developer of state-of-the-art software for self-driving cars, and Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing app, announced a partnership to expand nuTonomy’s ongoing public trial of self-driving cars in Singapore, the first such public trial anywhere in the world. The trial will give select Grab users a chance to experience the full end-to-end experience of e-hailing and riding in a nuTonomy self-driving vehicle (SDV).

Combining nuTonomy’s SDV software and technology system with Grab’s proven fleet routing technology and mapping in its app will enable both companies to study the end-to-end user experience of on-demand hailing of SDVs. In particular, the trial will be a valuable opportunity to conduct user experience research around how passengers book and interact with SDVs. The results will be used to enhance Grab’s routing technology and mapping for SDVs, as well as improve the comfort, performance, and safety of nuTonomy’s SDVs.

Beginning today, select Grab customers can use the Grab app to book a ride in a nuTonomy SDV through a special “robo-car” fleet icon. All rides are free-of-charge and customers may travel within the one-north business district as well as to adjacent neighbourhoods. A nuTonomy safety driver and support engineer will ride in each nuTonomy SDV to observe system performance and ensure passenger comfort and safety. If a trip requires travel on roads outside of one-north, the safety driver will take control of the vehicle for that portion of the trip. The public trial will run for the next two months, and may be extended by the companies for as long as it continues to yield valuable feedback and data.

Karl Iagnemma, CEO and Co-Founder of nuTonomy, said, “Partnering with Grab to expand our public trial in Singapore will yield valuable feedback and consumer insights as nuTonomy readies our on-demand self-driving car service for commercial launch in 2018. nuTonomy’s sophisticated software enables self-driving vehicles to navigate complex urban environments comfortably and safely. This exciting new partnership with a leading ride-hailing company – and its large and growing customer base across Asia – will ensure that we’re also delivering a high quality transportation service that consumers trust.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3gtlFwG_SY&w=360&h=260?rel=0]

According to Grab’s traffic data, drivers in Singapore are less likely to accept a passenger booking request originating from or destined for remote locations. For example, in the more remote areas of Singapore like Jurong Island, Lim Chu Kang and Tuas, passengers are four times less likely to get a successful ride booking on their first try. These findings illustrate the transportation need in the nation’s underserved remote locations that robo-cars can help meet.

Anthony Tan, CEO and Co-Founder of Grab, said, “Grab and nuTonomy share a similar vision of advancing Singapore’s world-class public transport network by offering the widest range of mobility services to commuters. This landmark tech partnership is a step towards supplementing Singapore’s transport network with an innovative driverless commuting option for underserved areas of Singapore – all accessible through the Grab app. We look forward to collaborating with nuTonomy to research this future mobility solution as part of our growing platform of mobility offerings.”

“Singapore’s vision is to become a leading location in Asia for the innovation and commercialisation of future mobility technologies and services. We welcome the partnership between nuTonomy and Grab, which will contribute to the development and deployment of self-driving technologies here. It is also a great testament to the vibrancy of the urban mobility ecosystem in Singapore,” said Yeoh Keat Chuan, Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board.

The partnership expands nuTonomy’s first-ever public trial of its self-driving car service, which it launched on August 25 in one-north, where nuTonomy has been conducting daily testing of its self-driving cars since April. Encompassing light and heavy traffic routes, one-north has been designated by Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) as the testbed for self-driving cars. Singapore is uniquely positioned to become a car-lite society with its world-class public transit network and infrastructure, making the nation an ideal market to trial SDV technology.

Individuals interested in participating in the trial may register at http://grb.to/2cVDk2c

Source: Grab

WABCO, a global supplier of technologies that improve the safety, efficiency and connectivity of commercial vehicles, and Mobileye, a global leader in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD) technologies, today announced that they are joining forces to develop solutions for commercial vehicles that leverage advanced emergency braking ADAS functionalities and Mobileye’s REM technology that provides real-time data for precise localization and high-definition lane data.

The solutions will combine Mobileye’s leading vision system and mapping technology with the control and actuation technologies from WABCO’s industry-leading portfolio of electronic braking, stability and emergency braking systems in combination with capability for active steering control. The WABCO-Mobileye solution will benefit commercial vehicle manufacturers and operators through more advanced safety capability to help reduce the risk of accidents.

Furthermore, it is expected that, through this cooperation, REM data from this vision system in vehicles will be integrated with real-time data gathered from WABCO’s rich onboard source of digital information about the vehicle’s systems and its performance – all of which will be streamed for cloud-based computing and off-vehicle data analytics support.

“Our partnership with industry-leading Mobileye exemplifies our continued technology leadership in advanced driver assistance systems, and it supports WABCO’s pole position to create a ‘cocoon of safety’ around the commercial vehicle through 360-degree sensor detection,” said Jacques Esculier, WABCO Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Mobileye provides major innovation for passenger cars, allowing us to bring this level of intelligence to support commercial vehicles.”

“We are excited to expand WABCO’s strategy to offer differentiated safety, efficiency and digital connectivity solutions that mobilize vehicle intelligence for real-time status insights and critical systems control, assisting drivers with higher levels of driving automation,” said Esculier.

“Our cooperation with WABCO, a world leader in safety enabling technologies for commercial vehicles, adds value to our systems by providing full actuation of the brakes and by leveraging WABCO’s sophistication in advanced braking systems for commercial vehicles,” said Ziv Aviram, Mobileye Co-founder, President and CEO. “The inclusion of our innovative REM technology into the WABCO-Mobileye system further enhances its capabilities and creates a system with a high degree of safety for the benefit of commercial vehicle manufacturers and operators.”

Source: Mobileye

TRL has engaged in a strategic alliance with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Joining organisations such as Apple, Google, BP, Intel, BT and BAE Systems as a member of the CSAIL Alliance Program, TRL will work closely with MIT to enhance its existing knowledge and capabilities in the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning and develop research initiatives for future transport needs.

The CSAIL Alliance Program offers unparalleled intelligence on advanced technology, access to thought leadership in emerging fields and broad recognition of TRL at one of the most dynamic and innovative research centres in the world. Through the membership, TRL will have access to the CSAIL – the largest research laboratory facility at MIT – as well as research groups spanning robotics, natural language processing, networks, databases, cryptography, web science and more. TRL staff will also be able to engage with leading researchers in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics technologies, identifying opportunities to collaborate to improve knowledge and accelerate development in this area.

Speaking about the decision to join the CSAIL Alliance Program, TRL Academy Director, Professor Nick Reed said: “Technology is advancing rapidly and is already driving dramatic changes within the transport industry. TRL’s role has always been to predict, understand and evaluate how such developments can deliver improvements in the safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of our transport systems. MIT’s CSAIL facility is world renowned for its research in the development and application of new technologies and joining the Alliance Program will help to ensure that TRL remains at the forefront of innovation in transport. We are looking forward to collaborating with CSAIL and partners in our ongoing programme of research surrounding automated transport systems and self-driving cars.”

Source: TRL