Far-seeing individuals in the auto and components industry are already talking about the ‘autonomous’ vehicle but it’s some way off yet, a senior safety and driveline components company executive has said.
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“There are those in the industry that talk about getting in the vehicle, programming the GPS to get you where you want to go, selecting the route, pressing the button and the vehicle takes you there,” said TRW Automotive executive vice president of sales and business development, Peter Lake, in an interview with just-auto.
“I don’t see that for a long time. Whilst the engineering technology is there, we can do a lot with the technology as it is today, but if you think of the safety case that would have to be put together and if you think, more to the point, about just what the litigation situation might be in North America, for example, when you completely hand over responsibility to the vehicle, rather than the driver, then I see those as significant barriers for the foreseeable future to that autonomous mode.”
But he believes many individual technologies such as automatic emergency braking – which TRW already has in its arsenal of electronic trickery – could quickly be adopted.
He acknowledged there are cost and affordability issues but noted that TRW is working on reducing these – he cited the supplier’s recent development of 24GHz (using more standardised electronic components rather than “exotic” 77GHz radar) for systems such as automated emergency braking and active cruise control.
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By GlobalData“I see that as a great way of getting the ‘eyes’ on the vehicle at relatively low cost.”
He said government-driven consumer demand for low-CO2 vehicles had spurred developments such as TRW’s integrated electro-hydraulic power steering systems.
Once you have electric power steering and electronic stability control on a vehicle, now demanded by consumers and regulation in many markets, you have the basic building blocks of a lot of the new electronics technology, requiring little more than sensors to turn them into more sophisticated automated systems.
“You want automatic parking, then, great, just stick a couple of ultrasonic sensors on there or perhaps a 24GHz radar looking sideways and you can do that,” Lake said. For incremental cost.
He said it was a “virtuous” circle – market demand for low CO2 emissions leads to the electric power steering system being a must-fit as standard, adding the extra functionality might only then require a EUR100 24GHz sensor so it is relatively cost-effective.
Other low-emissions technology from TRW included such basics as low-drag, lightweight brake callipers and suspension parts through to automated cruise control which can optimise fuel consumption.
Electro-hydraulic power steering, which the company thought would be “transitonal technology”, is “going to be around for the forseeable future”, Lake said, noting that TRW has just developed a 1kW unit suitable for the likes of Daimler’s 3.5-tonne Sprinter van line.
“[Zero] point 3 of a litre fuel saving, eight grammes of CO2 cut. If a vehicle like that is currently 250g, with an EU target of 175g in the future, say, that 8g is 10% of your required saving and a one-year payback for the operator.
“And once that technology is on the vehicle, it opens up a new vista once you add some sensors.”
For the more imminent future, Lake sees automatic emergency braking and park assist becoming more common while the increasing use of electric park brakes, evolving to electro-hydraulic park brakes, adds additional functionality such as hill holder and automatic park brake application.
“I think you’re going to have collision-warning-type devices available to you at relatively low cost, distance warnings. Feedback to drivers. They’re overloaded.”
He feels any move away from steering wheel and pedal control (a la the Airbus airliner maker’s switch to the ‘side stick’ 20 years ago after years of control columns) is “counter intuitive but, who knows, it might come”.
Some form of steering wheel-mounted brake control would be more likely, Lake thinks, but even that is not intuitive, he adds.
“I think you are going to see by-wire,” he said.
“Whether it’s a hybrid system that optimises what you can do with 12-volt or maybe it’ll be 24-volt. None of us went to 42-volt because it was too expensive, and didn’t make sense, but 24-volt might.”
“If we do see very high volumes of electric vehicles, it really depends on what architecture they put on them. Is it going to be 300-volt or are they going to make 12- or 24-volt available?
“We could come up with a hybrid system of electric [brakes] on the rear and hydraulic on the front, or all-electric, but it’s an issue of having that power available.
“I can see a pull for electro-mechanical braking and so forth but again it will come down to cost.”
He said any new technology had to add significant new functionality rather than being ‘me-too’ – the same as what’s on the car – otherwise, there’s not a lot of reason to adopt it.
Lake noted that a lot of TRW’s US production had been moved to Mexico while European output had progressively moved east but it was “evolutionary rather than revolutionary and, paradoxically, some of these low-cost regions aren’t as low-cost as they used to be”.
Electronics might be made in China for global supply, but for many other components, “we are very efficient in out European plants, manufacturing in high volume and we’ve got low-cost sourcing in any case” so there isn’t the justification in moving it to the Far East.
“In this economy, who’s going to gamble long, long term, where low cost is?” asked Lake, noting current exchange rate movements and the low US dollar.
“It doesn’t make sense to put all your eggs in one basket. We’re lucky, the way TRW’s come together [from a variety of companies worldwide] it’s given us a diversity and geographic spread.”
Lake said TRW had anticipated “for some time” the US trend away from SUVs back to passenger cars.
“The rate at which we switch [to passenger car supply] is a function of the rate at which our customers switch,” he said.
The broad range of products in the TRW portfolio should meet the requirements of all customers, regardless of segment, he said.
Graeme Roberts
