Automated driving Comment: The autonomous car is not coming

Related Vendors

FAULHABER Drive Systems

Wuxi InfiMotion Technology Co., Ltd.

The times for big promises about highly automated cars are over. Even if Mercedes-Benz achieves another success, the industry is focusing on assistance systems.

Mercedes-Benz is allowed to use its "Drive Pilot" in the USA. The manufacturer intends to offer the Level 3 system to its customers there in the course of the year. This puts Mercedes in a pioneering role that the company is likely to retain for some time. After all, apart from a few Chinese manufacturers, including Xpeng, Tesla and Mobileye, hardly any major company is still talking about automated driving.

At CES at the beginning of January, the focus was on Level 2+ or, as some say, Level 2++. The industry has recognized that the hurdles for highly automated cars are still too high in almost all areas for the next few years. On the hardware side, there is still a lack of a redundant and, above all, reliable sensor set at all times. Functioning and affordable lidar sensors are still out of the question: "The only reason why Tier 1 suppliers are still holding on to lidar is because they don't want to write off their investments," an insider told "Automobil Industrie" in Las Vegas.

Hardware and software not ready for automated driving

In addition, many manufacturers lack the appropriate electronic architecture to process the data in the vehicle. The software is also not mature, and there is a lack of tools that allow the systems to be tested and validated with manageable effort.

Finally, there is the question of liability that each manufacturer must answer for themselves: "We are not taking that risk," said BMW CEO Oliver Zipse.

Furthermore, Zipse does not see a business model for Level 3 systems in cars. Due to the current limitations that hardware and software present to developers, the technology must be turned off "in tunnels, in rain, in darkness, in fog" - "What's the point? No customer will buy that," summarizes the BMW CEO.

Drive Pilot turns off

Mercedes customers also have to accept that the Drive Pilot cannot be activated if certain activation conditions are not met. "Good lighting conditions are an example of this," the automaker's press office said in response to inquiries.

This leaves the industry to gradually improve established technology. For example, VW together with Bosch or as many suppliers demonstrated at the CES in Las Vegas: Improved radar technology that can replace lidar sensors in the short to medium term, for example from NXP or Plastic Omnium, high-resolution thermal images from IR sensors from Adasky or Valeo, for example, new concepts for the use of stereo cameras such as those from Nodar or improved validation tools such as those offered by Etas, Foretellix and TTTech Auto, among others.

CES 2023 provided a preview of the upcoming tasks: to better utilize existing technology instead of promising a big breakthrough. The industry seems to have understood this, and especially the suppliers were able to present themselves well in this light.