In a bid to develop a new, flexible platform for self-driving shuttles and other vehicle products at full automation Level-4, the automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler has established long-term cooperation with Mobileye, an Intel company and leading provider of automated driving solutions.
The rolling chassis from Schaeffler, a modular platform for new mobility concepts, is combined with the Mobileye Drive self-driving system.
According to Schaeffler, the platform will offer customers worldwide solutions for Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) and Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS).
By combining Mobileye’s AV technology with Schaeffler’s rolling chassis, both companies can offer an autonomous, highly flexible and adaptable vehicle platform that meets automotive safety standards with the necessary redundancies and thus enables the rapid scaling of autonomous transport solutions from 2023. Mobility service providers and transportation of goods companies will thus pave the way for the introduction of autonomous shuttles economically viable, as operating times and efficiency can be significantly increased.
Rolling Chassis
The Rolling Chassis from Schaeffler is a flexible, scalable platform for new, driverless mobility solutions for transporting people or goods or for special applications such as mobile charging solutions or pop-up stores on wheels. The modular platform shows the wide range of technologies from Schaeffler and offers a flexible architecture. In addition, a wide variety of variants can be implemented depending on customer requirements – from a simple drivetrain via an e-axis and central steering to the use of four Schaeffler Corner Modules, the company said.
The corner modules, which each allow a steering angle of up to 90 degrees, have been further developed in the direction of series production and scalability. They include the wheel hub motor, the wheel suspension including air suspension, which makes it possible to lower the vehicle for entry, the actuator for the electromechanical steering and a brake, the company stated.
The Mobileye Drive self-driving system is a turnkey AV solution that delivers safety via two core concepts: Mobileye’s formal Responsibility-Sensitive Safety model for the safety of the system’s decision-making and a perception system featuring True Redundancy whereby two independent subsystems (cameras and radars+lidars) combine to enable robust perception. In addition, the self-driving system can also be deployed without geographical limitation thanks to Mobileye’s Road Experience Management AV mapping technology through which a proprietary, crowdsourced AV map of the global road network is created and then continuously and automatically updated using data gathered from mass-market advanced driver-assistance systems.
Matthias Zink, CEO, Automotive Technologies, Schaeffler AG, said, “Rapid regulatory and technological change, increasing urbanisation and growing social awareness of mobility are increasing the need for alternative, novel concepts such as autonomous people or logistics movers. They play a crucial role in sustainable mobility and are a future field in our Roadmap 2025. With the partnership with Mobileye, we want to develop autonomous shuttles to series production.”
Johann Jungwirth, Vice President, Mobility-as-a-Service, Mobileye, said, “Mobileye Drive is a versatile, scalable solution that enables any vehicle type to become self-driving. The new and innovative Schaeffler rolling chassis vehicle platform equipped with Mobileye Drive will enable broad deployment of autonomous shuttles and other driverless transportation solutions starting in the next couple of years.”