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n autonomous and self-driving vehicle news are Continental, Aurora, Arbe Robotics & RoboSense.
Continental & Aurora Partner
The technology companies Continental and Aurora Innovation, Inc. have entered into an exclusive partnership to deliver the first commercially scalable generation of Aurora’s flagship integrated hardware and software system, the Aurora Driver. The organizations will jointly design, develop, validate, deliver, and service the scalable autonomous system for the trucking industry. The system is expected to be available for carriers and commercial fleet operators across the U.S. and to help reduce costs to facilitate broader adoption. Continental will leverage its decades of experience in systems development for safer, more reliable automotive solutions to industrialize the Aurora Driver and deliver the entire hardware set as well as a new fallback system. In the unlikely event of a failure in the primary autonomy system, the fallback system is designed to ensure a driverless truck can continue the driving task until it reaches a safe position. Additionally, Continental will manage the complete lifecycle of its supplied autonomous hardware kits for the Aurora Driver, from the manufacturing line to decommissioning. The first start of production is expected in 2027, following the expected launch of Aurora Horizon, Aurora’s subscription trucking service underpinned by the Aurora Driver, in 2024.
“At Continental, we are proud to demonstrate our leading technology expertise by being responsible for the development, manufacturing and implementation of the autonomous driving system kits and the fallback path for Aurora’s autonomy system,” said Nikolai Setzer, CEO of Continental. “In this exclusive partnership, we bundle our systems competence with Aurora’s industry-leading autonomous technology for our common goal to jointly realize the first commercially scalable autonomous trucking systems. A crucial step towards autonomous mobility.”
“Delivering autonomous vehicles at scale has the potential to dramatically transform modern transportation, bringing new accessibility, safety and efficiency to the movement of goods and people,” said Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO at Aurora. “Continental’s legacy in development and industrialization of automated driving systems, combined with its commitment to transform transportation make it an ideal partner for Aurora. Their depth of expertise will be pivotal to scaling Aurora’s autonomous trucking service, Aurora Horizon.”
Increased safety, reduced fuel consumption and quicker delivery times
Given the continued strain on the global supply chain, autonomous trucking solutions have the potential to help meet today’s growing demand and ease the strain currently experienced worldwide. Autonomously powered trucks have the ability to operate around the clock opening up the possibility for cargo between Dallas and Los Angeles (comparable to Berlin to Madrid) to be delivered within less than 24 hours. As a result, fuel consumption can potentially be reduced by around ten percent, while the delivery time can be shortened up to three times compared to that of a human driver. With more than 1.35 million annual global deaths on roadways according to the World Health Organization, autonomous vehicles represent an opportunity to transform travel safety for millions of individuals and the transportation of millions of goods. Through this joint work, Continental and Aurora are committed to improving safety, delivering scalable and predictable driving capacities via the Aurora Driver, as well as enhancing efficiency with higher utilization.
Autonomous trucking system – the implementation
In this first-of-its-kind partnership, Continental will be responsible for the autonomous driving system kits which will leverage a wide spectrum of Continental’s extensive automotive product portfolio from sensors, automated driving control units (ADCU), high performance computers (HPC), telematics units, and more, to the complete fallback system which covers the full chain of effects. Continental will integrate these hardware components into pods which will be supplied to Aurora’s vehicle manufacturing partners. This will advance the product offering for autonomous trucking customers.
Frank Petznick, head of the Autonomous Mobility Business Area, which will implement Continental’s contributions to the partnership with Aurora: “Continental and Aurora will bring the commercial freight market, limited by supply chain constraints in many markets of the world, to a new service level. The first commercially scalable autonomous trucking system provides exciting opportunities for passenger transportation in the coming years and paves the way for broad adoption of autonomous mobility.”
Industry’s first hardware-as-a-service business model
Continental and Aurora have agreed upon a hardware-as-a-service business relationship, based on mileage driven, to deliver safe, reliable, uptime-optimized and commercially scalable autonomous driving systems to customers through the Aurora Horizon platform. Aurora Horizon was developed to offer a safer, more reliable, predictable, and cost-efficient driver service to supplement human driver supply. Using this service, carriers and fleet operators will be able to better utilize the potential of their vehicle fleets, scale business on demand and help address today’s driver shortage.
Continental and Aurora plan to provide this scalable solution to Aurora’s vehicle manufacturing partners. Continental parts are expected to be produced and assembled in its newly built manufacturing facility in New Braunfels, Texas, as well as others across the company’s global footprint.
Arbe Robotics Partners with Weifu, KargoBot & DiDi
Arbe Robotics Ltd. (NASDAQ: ARBE) (“Arbe”), a global leader in perception radar solutions, today announced that Arbe and Weifu High-Technology Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with KargoBot, DiDi’s autonomous freight company, to provide 4D Imaging Radars based on the Arbe proprietary chipset. The three parties agreed to establish a cooperation platform in China to jointly promote the R&D and commercial applications of 4D Imaging Radars in the field of autonomous driving, as announced by Weifu in a separate release earlier today.
DiDi Global is a leader in innovative mobility technology in China, providing safe, inclusive, and sustainable transportation and local services worldwide. KargoBot, DiDi’s autonomous freight company, focuses on the R&D and commercial operation of autonomous driving technology for L4 autonomous trucks. In 2023, KargoBot obtained a commercial autonomous vehicle test license in Beijing. As of March 2023, KargoBot’s cumulative revenue has exceeded 100 million yuan. Following an extensive evaluation process, KargoBot chose Weifu’s imaging radar system based on Arbe’s chipset to enhance safety in their autonomous trucks.
KargoBot has announced that it has developed an innovative, hybrid unmanned solution that consists of a lead driven vehicle equipped with a driver assist solution, followed by multiple L4 autonomous trucks. This solution can greatly improve the efficiency of various scenarios in commercial operations. At present, KargoBot has more than 100 autonomous trucks. Weifu will develop and produce 4D Imaging Radars utilizing the Arbe chipset to meet the needs of KargoBot’s L4 autonomous driving system, including high-speed data processing, 360° perception, and real-time intelligent decision-making, to help autonomous vehicles provide safer and more reliable logistics and transportation services.
“As a well-known manufacturer of domestic auto parts, we are honored to be chosen by KargoBot to provide Imaging radars for L4 trucks, which have the most demanding safety standards and require advanced sensing capabilities,” says Xu Yunfeng, CEO of the Weifu Group. “Our collaboration with Arbe allows us to deliver customized, cutting-edge imaging radar solutions with high performance, high perception, and high reliability to the rapidly growing autonomous driving and V2X markets. This strategic cooperation is a significant milestone in our mission to provide unrivaled safety and autonomy to the Chinese automotive industry.”
Arbe’s Perception Radar chipset revolutionizes automotive safety, providing ultra-high resolution to support advanced perception capabilities at mass market price, with top performance in all environments, weather, and lighting conditions. Arbe’s solution leverages 2,304 virtual RF channels, complemented by robust processing supporting more than 100,000 detections per frame; it delivers imaging 100 times more detailed than the leading radar solutions on the market, enabling stationary object detection, false alarm elimination, and interference avoidance and mitigation.
“We are excited to announce that DiDi’s KargoBot will be incorporating radars based on Arbe’s chipset into their L4 trucks,” says Kobi Marenko, CEO of Arbe. “As a recognized leader in the industry, their selection of Arbe’s solution is a testament to the superiority of our advanced technology. The implementation of next generation imaging radars will advance the development of autonomous vehicles and contribute to a safer future for everyone.”
KargoBot, Weifu, and Arbe agreed to continue to deepen the strategic cooperation and combine technology, capital, and talent to further develop advanced technological products, and accelerate the commercialization of autonomous driving solutions in the field of logistics and freight.
RoboSense M Series in Ten Auto Brands
RoboSense, a world-leading provider of Smart LiDAR Sensor Systems, announced its M series LiDAR products, which assisted more than 10 well-known global automakers showcase nearly 20 intelligent vehicle models at the 20th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition 2023 (referred to as the Auto Shanghai 2023), presenting the excellent performance of their intelligent driving assistance systems to the audience.