Page 7 - EE Times Europe Magazine | June2020

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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
Full AV Stacks: Five Years In, Does the Progress

Measure Up?

By Junko Yoshida

he road to Level 4 and Level 5
self-driving cars is still long and
winding, and these days, even the
T AV industry is conceding the point.
Delayed autonomous-vehicle launches
by multiple leading automakers and tech
suppliers are sufficient evidence, but a
stronger telltale sign is that discussions have
begun among tech companies and car OEMs
acknowledging that the development of fully
autonomous vehicles can’t be achieved with-
out an ecosystem to support it.
While commitments by each company
might vary, automakers and tech companies
have begun forging collaborations to tackle
the challenge of making self-driving cars drive
safely. This pragmatic approach contrasts viv-
idly with the heady days five years ago, when
the emerging market was flush with venture Over the past five years, EE Times has with whom — is messy. In an attempt to make
capital funding and riddled with bombastic AV covered a lot of wheeling and dealing among sense of it all, Juliussen sorted the AV-
claims and market predictions. the carmakers and tech suppliers pursuing platform chaos into three bins: robotaxis,
It is now a foregone conclusion that AV the AV dream. Where do all those deals and OEMs, and high-tech software (Figure 1).
startups propped up by hype and cheap partnerships stand now? What progress has
VC money will vaporize as the investment really been made? ROBOTAXI PLATFORMS
community’s enthusiasm for L4 and L5 To get some answers, we enlisted the help In the robotaxi bin, Juliussen listed ride-
wanes and Covid-19 gnaws away at the of Egil Juliussen, research director and princi- hailing companies Uber, Lyft, and Didi along
broader economy. Also clear, however, is that pal analyst for Automotive Technology at IHS with five others: Aptiv-nuTonomy, FiveAI,
those who have already made substantial Markit, to review the shifting AV landscape. Oxbotica, ZMP, and Zoox. Among these,
investments — and certain progress — in the Our goal was to identify the survivors still Juliussen highlighted three that appear to be
development of AV platforms aren’t walking developing their own AV software stacks. We making headway: Aptiv-nuTonomy, Didi, and
away from the development of their own full wanted to explore the who, what, where, and Uber. He identified Aptiv-nuTonomy and Zoox
AV stacks. They see it as the tech challenge when of their projects. as having their own AV software stacks.
of a lifetime and the one that will determine The first task was untangling the web of Zoox, founded in 2014, is working to
their fortunes in the long haul, if not for the “announced” partnerships among the leading develop a robotaxi AV from the ground up. For
immediate future. players. The relationship map — who’s in bed the time being, however, Zoox has retrofit-
ted Toyota Highlanders with its self-driving
system and is running trials in San Francisco’s
Financial District and North Beach area.
Aptiv (formerly Delphi) three years ago
bought nuTonomy, a Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology spin-off focused on the
development of software for self-driving
cars and autonomous mobile robots. In
September, Aptiv announced a US$4 billion
50-50 joint venture with Hyundai. The deal,
completed in March, is considered a coup for
Aptiv-nuTonomy.
Relationships get muddled, however, when
OEMs start making multiple deals on AV
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK high-tech software suppliers.
stacks with robotaxi platform vendors and
For example, Hyundai’s allegiances remain
unclear. The South Korean automaker was
among the early investors in Aurora, which
launched in January 2017 and is developing
a full AV stack called Aurora Driver. Aurora
Figure 1: Relationships are messy. (Image: IHS Markit)
www.eetimes.eu | JUNE 2020