Self-driving goals amp up
Big-name carmakers look to Aurora startup in pursuit of autonomous driving, writes David Linklater.
Hyundai and Volkswagen have each formed separate partnerships with self-driving technology specialist Aurora to produce Level 4 autonomous vehicles in the next few years.
Hyundai has been particularly vocal and ambitious: in an official statement it says it plans to ‘‘bring self-driving Hyundai vehicles to market by 2021’’, with the Aurora partnership to ‘‘focus on the ongoing development of hardware and software for automated and autonomous driving and the back- end data services required for Level 4 automation’’.
Levels of automation have already been agreed upon by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Level 4 vehicles can operate without human input or oversight under select conditions.
‘‘We know the future of transportation is autonomous, and autonomous driving technology needs to be proven in the real world to accelerate deployment in a safe and scalable manner,’’ says Dr Woong Chul Yang, vice-chairman of Hyundai Motor Group.
A new-generation Hyundai fuel-cell vehicle will become the first model to be utilised in the test processes starting this year.
The fuel-cell powertrain is thought to be particularly suitable for testing: self-driving technology requires a massive amount of power to support the large amount of data communication as well as the operation of hardware. Hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles can provide a stable electric power supply without concerns about driving range.
VW has said it plans to integrate Aurora systems into a variety of its brands and across different product categories: selfdriving pods, shuttles or delivery vans, to self-driving trucks without a cabin. The two companies have been working on putting VW platforms and Aurora sensors together for city ridehailing services for the past six months.
VW displayed its first fully autonomous vehicle concept, the pod-like Sedric, last year. The name is a contraction of ‘‘Self driving car’’.
The German maker has defined its goal of autonomous driving with a Self-Driving System (SDS) in its future programme Together – Strategy 2025.
Says VW chief digital officer Johann Jungwirth: ‘‘Our vision is ‘Mobility for all, at the push of a button’. This means that we want to offer mobility for all people around the world... ‘At the push of a button’ stands for simplicity and the ease of use. In the future people can of course use our mobility app or digital virtual assistant to hail a self-driving electric vehicle to drive them conveniently door-to-door, or use our Volkswagen OneButton which has GPS, connectivity and a compass.’’
Aurora might just be the most important technology company you’ve never heard of. The Silicon Valley startup was founded two years ago by current CEO Chris Urmson, formerly of Google, robotics expert Drew Bagnell (chief technical officer) and Sterling Anderson (chief product officer), who worked at Tesla.
Aurora’s mission statement says it ‘‘works at the intersection of rigorous engineering and applied machine learning to address one of the most challenging, important and interesting opportunities of our generation: transforming the way people and goods move.’’
Aurora was the 37th company to receive an autonomous-car testing permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Its goal is to develop everything needed for autonomous driving inhouse: sensors, software and infrastructure. Everything except the cars themselves. That’s where Hyundai and VW come in.
Hyundai Motor Group vicechairman Woong Chul Yang