The M.VICS cockpit system Hyundai Mobis showcased last year helps with autonomous driving with the inclusion of various new technologies, including an ECG sensor, driver monitoring camera, and carsickness reduction technology.

Hyundai Mobis has become the world’s first to develop an integrated controller that analyzes the driver’s vital signs, such as posture, heart rate, and brainwaves, the company announced.
 
Dubbed the Smart Cabin Controller by the company, this technology consists of four sensors for measuring the vital signs of occupants, a controller to analyze such signs, and software logic. It can be said the company has developed something akin to an advanced brain that can analyze vital signs that change in real time.

While there are already controllers that are capable of processing certain vital signs in the mobility industry, this is the first time for a dedicated healthcare controller to be developed that can perform an integrated analysis of various vital signs. With this new controller, the company is now well on the way to realizing safety technology that is focused on the occupants rather than in terms of vehicle performance.
 
Hyundai Mobis expects that this dedicated vital signs controller will contribute to enabling the vehicle to play a role as a ‘moving health check-up center.’ The company plans to preoccupy the market, which is currently in a fledgling state, by combining this new healthcare technology with mobility. To this end, automotive suppliers are unprecedentedly showing a move toward securing experts in biotech or robotics.

The Smart Cabin Controller is equipped with four sensors: a 3D camera that captures the posture of occupants, an ECG sensor mounted on the steering wheel, an ear-set sensor to measure the brainwaves flowing around ears, and an HVAC sensor to measure the temperature/humidity and carbon dioxide level of the cabin. The controller analyzes various vital signs collected from these sensors in real time to help with safe driving.

For example, it recommends switching to the autonomous driving mode if the ECG sensor detects a high stress level in the driver, and it opens windows or switches to the outside-circulation mode if the CO2 level is too high. This technology is expected to further evolve to be able to guide the vehicle to an emergency room in case of an emergency, such as cardiac arrest.
 
Last year, Hyundai Mobis also became the world’s first with its development of the M.Brain, a brainwave-based driver monitoring system, and is globally expanding its sales activities with M.VICS, an autonomous driving cockpit system equipped with various new healthcare technologies, including an ECG sensor, driver monitoring camera, and carsickness reduction technology.

• Joint HELLA and Faurecia stand concept at the Automotive Engineering Exposition 2022 in Yokohama picked up on the new design language of the FORVIA umbrella brand
• Numerous product highlights for safe, sustainable, advanced and customised mobility were presented

At the trade fair, HELLA and Faurecia presented a variety of different technology highlights for automotive future trends. From the HELLA portfolio, the exhibits included 77 GHz radar sensors, an indispensable key component for automated driving, as well as the structure-borne sound sensor SHAKE and numerous other sensors that make driving safer, more efficient and more comfortable. In the field of electromobility, a major focus of the trade fair was on the 12V Li-ion battery. This is used in electric vehicles for both quiescent current and redundant power supply; in vehicles with combustion or hybrid engines, it can also replace the lead-acid battery. HELLA additionally presented the innovative Coolant Control Hub, the first product of its kind to bundle all the necessary functions for efficient thermal management in electric vehicles into a single system.

Faurecia’s trade fair presentation focused on automotive seats and interior components, among other things, as well as a tank system for light commercial vehicles that stores gaseous hydrogen at 70 megapascals, with a 15 to 20 percent weight reduction through optimization of the carbon fiber structure and a maximum mass density of 7 percent, a lightweight and efficient tank design and storage system. In addition, displays with advanced image processing technology were introduced that maintain visibility even in sunlight and contribute to a reduced power consumption. Other product highlights included camera-based systems that monitor the status of vehicle occupants to promote safe driving, and cameras with proprietary technology such as E-mirrors and Surround View that ensure safety around the vehicle.

The new projects will engage the expertise of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Iowa, Virginia Tech and Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. Data from each project will be published and openly presented to maximize the output from these collaborations and studies for benefiting the advancement of automotive safety industrywide. 

With the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the center will launch two projects: Tailored Training Based on Driver’s Self-perceptions and Knowledge and Risk-Anticipation Training to Enhance Novice Driving. The first will investigate how best to promote the proper use of safety technologies when faced with preexisting misconceptions. Through the project, researchers combine longitudinal observation and driving simulator research to investigate various approaches of educating misinformed users about safety technologies. The second will study software designed to improve scanning, target identification and correct glances while assessing its effect on driving performance, future crashes, and traffic violations.

In partnership with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the center will carry out the Caregivers’ Attitudes Towards Pediatric Vehicular Heatstroke Risks and Solutions project. Here, scientific surveys and focused group interviews will be used to analyze societal attitudes surrounding perceived risk factors and the acceptance of mitigation strategies.

With the University of Michigan-Dearborn and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), Toyota’s center will carry out two projects focused around vehicle crashes. Researchers from both institutions will work on the Library of Real-world and Simulated Corner Cases for AVs-Vulnerable Road User (VRU) Crashes and Interactions. This project will study multiple, naturalistic, driving databases to identify complex VRU interaction scenarios, for use in a safety assessment. Carried out with UMTRI, Equity in Crash Protection: Considering Human Variation for Assessing Injury project takes a different approach. Here, the Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) will be used to investigate different body shapes of males and females and how to enhance crash protection for population diversity.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will head the Evolving Characteristics of Non-Driving Activities project, which will seek to study driver behavior in vehicles equipped with L2 driving assistance features that have driver monitoring systems. The study aims to understand which non-driving related activities drivers engage in while using these systems. The University of Iowa will head the Quick Response Consumer Education Needs and Over-the-Air Updates project. Through it, the institution and the center will work to understand the ways in which changes to safety technology operation impact driving performance and behavior before investigating various education methods to maximize understanding of new operation.

With Virginia Tech, and its Transportation Institute, Toyota’s center will understand how ADAS can help drivers to naturally avoid intersection crashes in the Driver Evasive Action Trends in Intersection Crashes project. It will analyze several naturalistic intersection driving datasets with crash/near-miss/normal intersection driving scenarios to develop and integrate driver models for a driver-supportive intersection system. Alongside Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), it will also carry out Predicting Behavior of Vulnerable Road Users (Bicycle & e-Scooter). This project works to identify how interactions between bicyclists, micro mobility users and other traffic participants can be enhanced to improve safety. In it, researchers will collect and analyze naturalistic driving data in multiple U.S. cities to create interaction models between vehicles, bicyclists and e-scooters to develop a stress-free driver assistance.

Projects are selected based on their application to CSRC’s new research tracks for the next five-year period – Human-Centric, Safety Assurance and Assessment – which weave together the diverse interdisciplinary backgrounds of CSRC’s team. Each project is designed to be completed in a short amount of time to emphasize agility for more rapid results.

CSRC is considering additional projects and will announce more at a later date. CSRC will also seek out new partnerships who can offer new perspectives and offer different research methods for addressing safety issues facing at-risk and vulnerable populations.

Ouster’s high-performance digital lidar sensors are used in three locations on the bus, and help the bus eliminate blind spots with their wide field of view and high resolution. This deployment is the result of a multi-year strategic customer agreement entered into in August 2020.

QCraft launched China’s first regularly operated 5G robobus project in Suzhou, China followed by Shenzhen, China last year. QCraft plans to have at least 100 autonomous buses on open roads in China by the end of this year, with significant growth anticipated in the years ahead.

The introduction of auto-nomous systems for traffic use in 2025 is currently being prepared at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. Christian Senger, Head of Autonomous Driving: “This year, for the first time, we are conducting field trials in Germany, in which the self-driving system by Argo AI will be used in a version of the future ID. BUZZ by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. The aim is to develop a ride-hailing and pooling concept similar to what MOIA offers today. In the middle of this decade, our customers will then have the opportunity to be taken to their destination in selected cities with autonomous vehicles.”

As part of their cooperation, Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles have invested equally in Argo AI, a company specialized in software platforms for Autonomous Driving. The goal: the consistent and fast development and use of autonomous systems. In addition to the initial investment of one billion US-Dollars, Volkswagen also brought its subsidiary AID (Autonomous Intelligent Driving) into Argo AI. With the budget for the autonomous driving budget now confirmed by the Supervisory Board, VWCV is taking the next significant step towards the future of autonomous mobility.

The commercial vehicle brand is responsible for the development of fully autonomous systems and their commercial use in urban areas. VWCV will develop and build Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV), such as robo-taxis and vans.

Additionally to the investments in Argo AI, the Group is also investing billions in projects of the Car.Software Organisation that develops, in parallel and independently of Argo AI, assisted and automated driving functions up to level 4 for the private mobility sector of all Volkswagen Group brands.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles develops the vehicles in which Argo’s self-driving system (SDS) will be used. They are based on the all-electric ID. BUZZ, which will have its world premiere next year. The developments are already running at full speed, to not only electrify the iconic Bulli, but to also transform it into a groundbreaking autonomous vehicle with SDS.

By integrating the autonomous i-Cristal shuttle into Transdev’s existing mobility service networks, the companies aim to improve the efficiency and convenience of mass transportation solutions. Autonomous mobility can be woven into the fabric of transportation networks to distribute service when and where it’s needed, while also optimizing the fleets, lowering transportation costs and improving customer experiences.

Over the next year, Mobileye will work with Transdev ATS and Lohr Group to integrate and deploy i-Cristal autonomous shuttles leveraging Mobileye’s AV technology, Transdev ATS’s technology and Lohr Group’s industrial expertise. The three companies will initially test vehicles on roadways in France and Israel, aiming to ready technology designs for production by 2022. The companies expect to deploy self-driving i-Cristal shuttles in public transportation networks by 2023.

Through the collaboration, Mobileye and Transdev ATS will bring their technologies into the electric i-Cristal shuttle, manufactured by Lohr Group, which features space for up to 16 passengers and is fully accessible via a ramp. The shuttle can travel at speeds up to 50 kilometers per hour and is designed to safely and efficiently operate within today’s public transportation networks with Transdev ATS’ solutions. These solutions integrate Transdev ATS’ technology like the AV Supervision and expertise in deployment and operation services for public transportation operators and cities. The objective is to allow self-driving technology to become a daily reality.

Together with the Cayenne, a grey Panamera is also on the Nardò Technical Centre’s (NTC) driving dynamics platform in southern Italy this morning. At the Porsche Engineering proving ground, engineers are now investigating the performance of autonomous driving functions. Toledo has printed out a whole stack of test scenarios on the tray above the dashboard, including driving in parallel lanes with sufficient distance between vehicles, changing lanes to the right or left, and avoiding an oncoming vehicle.

Such tests for autonomous driving functions at SAE Level 4 (fully automated driving) are now part of everyday life at the NTC – this is where the mobility of tomorrow is tested until it is ready for series production. But continuous development of the NTC itself is also required: “A revolution is looming in the automotive industry over the next five to ten years, caused by trends such as autonomous driving, connectivity and e-mobility,” says NTC Managing Director Antonio Gratis. “We must adapt to this – with new infrastructure and new capabilities.”

What this means can be seen on the circuit of the test centre: the inner circular track, which in the past was used primarily for testing commercial vehicles, was given 48 kilometres of new road markings in 2020. Now part of it looks like a three-lane European motorway, while another part is set up as a three-lane US highway.

In the future, some tests at the NTC might actually be carried out without any people at all: in February 2020, a Porsche Cayenne drove more than 600 kilometres at a maximum speed of 130 km/h on the circuit – without human intervention. During the endurance test, the steering wheel and pedals were operated by a steering robot, and a test driver was only on board for safety reasons. “This form of test automation promises higher efficiency and better reproducibility,” says Palermo. “But it cannot completely replace human drivers.”

In addition to the improvements to the test tracks, a further innovation is preparing the NTC circuit for what is to come. In the future, a fibre optic cable will act as a data backbone, connecting displays, traffic lights and transmitter masts along the route to enable communication between vehicles and the surrounding infrastructure (vehicle-to-infrastructure). To this end, the NTC has prepared the infrastructure for laying 91 kilo­metres of fibre optic cable around the circular track and the vehicle dynamics platform.

The NTC is also working on its own mobile communications infrastructure, which will enable further tests of autonomous driving functions and vehicle-to-vehicle communication. And in a few years’ time, ‘Sim City’ is set to join the new test area – a city with moving houses and traffic signs, in which different urban scenarios can be set up for testing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Perrone Robotics is a pioneer in the autonomous vehicle space, having developed one of the first driverless vehicles in 2005 using its patented full-stack autonomous vehicle software platform called “MAX”. The Company subsequently developed a “drop in any vehicle” retrofit kit based on MAX and is used in road worthy all electric transit vans, neighborhood electric vehicles, and tractor trailers for logistics. Dubbed TONY, (TO Navigate You), the kit is capable of Level 4/5 autonomy.  

Perrone Robotics has delivered over 30 different vehicle types for multiple use cases, ranging from logistics to public transportation. The Company recently announced the deployment of an all-electric, fully autonomous, paratransit vehicle to the Jacksonville Transit Authority capable of speeds of up to 65 mph and operable on public roads. 

The Bestmile Fleet Orchestration Platform receives ride requests in real-time, intelligently dispatches vehicles with optimized routes based on traffic and the rides’ destinations. The platform allows mobility providers to control operational and customer experience requirements across multiple service types, including passenger and delivery solutions. The platform continually updates fleet status, traffic, and demand data, always sending the right vehicle to the right place at the right time.  

The Bestmile platform includes a complete suite of operator control systems. It supports mobile applications that can be easily configured, and the platform’s APIs can be used to integrate operator tools and applications. The technology is cloud-based and can manage multiple fleets and locations. 

Operations will start in a defined area in which the baggage process is simulated. In the second phase, the trial will be continued in an operational environment to bring baggage to the aircraft. The autonomous vehicle will be loaded in the baggage area, after which it will navigate to an aircraft stand via a fixed route. The vehicle is manufactured by ground-handling equipment supplier TLD, with EasyMile supplying the autonomous software. 

he Department for International Trade (DIT) will support some of the UK’s most innovative automotive businesses to exhibit for the first time at the Frankfurt Motor Show, taking place from the 10 to 15 September. Andrew Mitchell, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Europe, will open the UK pavilion and meet with the co-exhibiting companies as well as representatives from the German automotive industry.

In the ‘New Mobility World’ hall, UK companies will showcase new emission-free and sustainable technologies, ranging from Oxbotica’s parking software and the electric Swifty Scooter, to the London EV Company Limited’s iconic, electric black cabs.

Pony.ai is the leading autonomous driving technology company in China, with a mission to revolutionize the future of transportation by building the safest and most reliable solution for autonomous mobility. Since late 2018, Pony.ai has been testing its robotaxi pilot service, PonyPilot, starting with Guangzhou, making it the first company to launch a robotaxi operation and offer autonomous rides to the general public in China. In June 2019, the company also obtained a robotaxi operation permit in California, demonstrating its ambition and commitment to mobility services at a global scale.

Toyota is the global automotive leader with over 10 million in annual vehicle sales worldwide and a vision of bringing the joy and freedom of movement to all. With an aim to become a mobility company firmly rooted in China, Toyota will accelerate its business in China via collaboration with selected Chinese companies while continuing to contribute to the development of Chinese society.

Autonomous driving technology is the key to creating a better transportation system and delivering value to the lives of many. Through such collaborations, Toyota and Pony.ai are accelerating the arrival of a safer, more efficient, and more enjoyable mobility future for all.

SpotHero is driving the digital transformation of the $20B off-street parking industry with hardware and software solutions aimed at drivers, parking operators and property owners, and mobility partners. The company offers the largest place to buy and sell parking in North America and has helped digitize nearly 7,000 parking facilities in the US and Canada. SpotHero’s consumer products help millions of drivers find, book and access parking, while the SpotHero developer platform and API powers parking at scale for fleets, connected cars, and urban mobility apps.

In the first half of 2019, SpotHero:

• Reached half a billion dollars in all-time sales, the majority transacted within the past year. The company is now on pace to reach $1 billion all-time transactions within the next year;

• Assembled a team of executives from Uber, Expedia, Groupon and Cars.com, and is planning to double product and engineering headcount to more than 100 in the next year;

• Announced SpotHero for Fleets, an industry-first parking-as-a-service solution designed to support the car sharing economy and help accelerate the mobility industry’s eventual transition to autonomous vehicles;

• Hit 900-plus distribution partnerships and integrations including everything from Google Assistant, for voice-enabled parking; Waze, for seamless in-app navigation to parking; Hertz and car2go for fleet parking; WeWork, for commuter parking; and Moovit, for multi-modal parking;

• Rolled out SpotHero for Business to over 600 corporate travel and enterprise clients.

The body line of the Audi AI:ME demonstrates how emotion and spatial economy can form a perfect synthesis in an electrically driven compact car. There is a reason that the name AI:ME emphasizes the relation to the Audi AIcon, the study of automated long-distance operation introduced in 2017. The affinity of the body line and the concept of these two cars will become evident in Shanghai.

Compact architecture, electric drive: The concept

With an exterior length of 4.30 meters (14.1 ft) and a width of 1,90 meters (6.2 ft), the Audi AI:ME takes up as much traffic space as a present-day compact car. However, the wheelbase of 2.77 meters (3 ft) and the height of 1.52 meters (5 ft) indicate interior dimensions that are more likely to be found in the next higher class at least. This is made possible by the architecture of the electric drive. It allows for short overhangs and a large-volume interior without a propeller shaft tunnel. The drive unit is positioned on the rear axle and mobilizes 125 kW (170 metric hp).

For the occupants, the compact drive package offers a maximum amount of objectively available space, spatial comfort, and a great deal of variability. The Audi AI:ME is designed as a 2 plus-x-seater. Its layout relies on a variety of configurations for seat positions and stowage space. While only the individual seats at the front will be used during most journeys, the car offers space for up to four people in the front and on the rear bench if necessary.

Audi AI:On our way to automated mobility

Audi AI:ME and Audi AIcon: two concept cars whose very names refer to the new, two-letter abbreviation under which Audi is bundling an entire cluster of innovative mobility technologies. Audi AI is the cipher for a variety of electronic systems that relieve strain on drivers and simultaneously offer them new possibilities to use the time spent in the car. To this end, Audi AI also uses strategies and technologies from the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Audi AI also combines vehicle intelligence, which makes automated driving possible in the first place, and interaction intelligence, which turns the vehicle into the occupants’ partner. The name of the Audi AI:ME thus already makes the connection between AI and the users themselves. Audi AI systems are capable of learning and thinking, while also being proactive and personal. Thanks to Audi AI, models bearing the four rings will be both intelligent and empathetic in the future. They will be able to continually interact with their surroundings and passengers, and thus adapt themselves in a better way than ever before to the requirements of those on board.

Automated driving at level 4:

What is long established in rail transportation and even aviation is at the threshold of a breakthrough in automotive transportation—automated driving. The Audi AI:ME is designed for use in the city and for driving at what is known as level 4. This is the second-highest level on a standardized international scale for increasing automation. Although systems with level 4 do not require any assistance on the part of the driver, their function is limited to a specific area—such as highways or a specially equipped area in inner cities. In these places, the driver can completely transfer the task of driving to the system. The driver needs to resume the task only when the car leaves the area defined for fully automated driving. By contrast to the Audi AIcon, a vehicle with level-5 function that is always fully autonomous, the Audi AI:ME is therefore equipped with the traditional steering wheel and pedalry control elements in addition.

This means that the car, as well as the remaining road users, will drive automatically in a defined traffic area equipped with the corresponding infrastructure in the future. Self-regulating and self-controlling flows of traffic allow the vehicle to glide along calmly, avoiding heavy longitudinal or lateral acceleration. This is an important requirement for the occupants of the car to be able to detach themselves mentally from the traffic around them.

Aside from major automotive manufacturers, companies developing autonomous and connected vehicle technology face a daunting risk of losing critical startup time and money buying and modifying a vehicle to use to test their software. Vehicles must be drivable by wire and equipped with a technology stack that includes onboard cameras and sensors, as well as the processing power to manage the vast data generated by the vehicle.

The StreetDrone Xenos platform provides a combination of hardware—including modified Renault Twizy vehicles—and software to form a foundation for integrating the technologies that need to work together for connected and autonomous vehicles to be safe and reliable. Bestmile makes StreetDrone vehicles “fleet ready” for testing scalable fleet services in addition to testing individual vehicle performance.

Bestmile’s Mobility Services Platform enables vehicles of any brand or type to communicate and work as intelligent fleets. Its technology enables human-driven and autonomous vehicles to work together to deliver on-demand services with optimized dispatching, routing, pooling, and energy and maintenance management. Bestmile’s platform also offers advanced matching algorithms that can process traveler, vehicle and third-party data to send the right vehicle to the right place at the right time. Data intelligence and machine learning constantly improve system performance. Service providers around the world use the platform to configure service areas, define key performance metrics such as vehicle utilization and wait times, and monitor services in real time.

The e.GO Moove GmbH joint venture (which partners e.GO and ZF) is providing the e.GO, Mover, a fully electric, connected and automated shuttle. ZF is equipping this people mover with electric drive systems, steering systems, and brakes as well as ZF’s ProAI central computer (using artificial intelligence) and sensors which enable automated driving functions.

Transdev, through its global Autonomous Transport System (ATS by Transdev), will provide its supervision system, connected infrastructure, and client application. The partners’ integrated solution will offer the market’s best quality of service and overall passenger experience while ensuring the safety of passengers, which remains the first priority of both partners.

The partners will start working together immediately to provide a fully functional solution by 2020, with priority markets in France and Germany.

Author: Anu Jose – Research Analyst

Under the agreement, the two companies will collaborate on the development, deployment and operation of autonomous vehicles with a view to providing customers self-driving services in London by 2021.

The companies will work together to create detailed, digital maps of more than 250,000 miles of public roads in and around the capital. These maps will record the position of every kerb, road sign, landmark and traffic light in preparation for the deployment of autonomous cars.

The CalAmp distracted driving solution will be available as a standalone, over-the-top micro-service or as part of a bundle with other CalAmp services such as CrashBoxx, Lojack SecureDrive and CalAmp’s fleet management applications. The micro-services will enable CalAmp to deploy driver safety technology to a large percentage of its telematics device installed base.

Unlike other distracted driving products on the market, Katasi’s patented technology works in concert with CalAmp telematics products and paired mobile devices to block text messages at the source network level. This network-based blocking technology assures a more robust distracted driving avoidance solution for any customer whose telematics services are powered by CalAmp technology. It provides a user experience that is seamless to the driver and is automatically engaged while the vehicle is in motion.

Earlier this summer, Kroger, America’s largest supermarket retailer, and Nuro, maker of the world’s first driverless delivery vehicle, announced a partnership to begin testing grocery delivery using Nuro’s robots. Through the new self-driving delivery vehicles, customers will receive their groceries at their curb – safely and quickly.

Where: Fry’s Food Stores (single location): 7770 East McDowell Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85257

When: Customers can place delivery orders starting Thursday, August 16

How: Customers shop via frysfood.com or the Fry’s Food Stores mobile app and place their order based on slot availability

What: Grocery orders can be scheduled for same-day or next-day delivery by Nuro’s fleet of self-driving vehicles

Price: $5.95 flat fee; no minimum order

Nuro will begin the pilot using its self-driving Toyota Prius fleet and will introduce its custom R1 driverless vehicle this fall.

Source: Kroger

Up to ten Five AI’s vehicle’s will be driven in for 10 months by fully trained, human safety drivers in the same way as any normal, road-going vehicle. The vehicles are not demonstrating autonomous technology at this stage.

The data gathering exercise is designed to enable FiveAI to gain a comprehensive understanding of the road environment and the behaviour of all road users including drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. This will be happening at different times of the day and night. The data gathered will be used solely to develop FiveAI’s driverless vehicle technology. Data (such as imagery for object recognition and geometry to measure distance) will be collected, processed and stored in full compliance with UK and EU law including the GDPR, and will not be used in conjunction with any other datasets which could be used to identify individuals, or for any other purpose.

FiveAI’s data gathering vehicles feature an obvious array of front-facing sensors on the roof, and are clearly branded to ensure full transparency.

Source: Bromley Govt. and FiveAI blog