Daimler and Bosch, two giants of the auto industry, have
been jointly developing a self-driving system which they will be ready to trial
in the second half of 2019.
The first of the trials will be run in the heart of Silicon
Valley, specifically between downtown and west San José along the busy San
Carlos/Stevens Creek corridor. With more than a million residents, San José is
the third biggest city in California.
Crucially, the first trial will run just a few short miles
from the headquarters of Apple and Alphabet Inc., two rivals competing in the
self-driving car race.
The trial will be an on-demand ride-hailing service using
self-driving car prototypes based on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. It won't be a
public trial, though, as only select users will be able to hail a ride, via a
dedicated app. And there will still be a safety driver behind the wheel for
monitoring purposes.
In addition to testing the self-driving system, the trial
will look at how self-driving cars can be integrated into existing transport
networks. It's still unclear how many cars Daimler and Bosch will deploy in the
trial.
The two firms have teams working together on the complex
software to control the self-driving cars, with Nvidia's
Drive Pegasus chosen to provide the computing power. In addition,
Daimler is tasked with integrating the software and hardware into cars, as well
as providing the prototypes and test facilities. Bosch is tasked with handling
the components specified during the development work, such as sensors,
actuators, and control units. Both firms have been testing self-driving cars on
public roads since at least 2013.
Daimler and Bosch announced in 2017 that they are working to
develop a Level
5 self-driving system. However, the cars in the trial will operate at Level
4 capability. A Level 4 self-driving system can operate without a driver in
select conditions. The conditions usually include operating within a
pre-determined, sufficiently mapped area, known as geo-fencing, as well as
within certain weather restrictions. The ultimate goal is the Level 5 system
which can handle all conditions expected of a human.
Daimler and Bosch will face stiff competition from two
frontrunners in the self-driving car race. Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo plans to
launch the first commercial self-driving car service later
this year in Phoenix, Arizona, while General Motors gears up to commercialize
self-driving cars in 2019.
source: https://www2.motorauthority.com/news/1119762_vw-wants-to-use-quantum-computers-to-manage-public-transportation-and-taxi-fleets
by Viknesh Vijayenthiran
http://www.boscheuropean.com
No comments:
Post a Comment