ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘autonomous-vehicles’ CATEGORY

Chris Ruff is the President and CEO of location-based technology outfit Glympse and was a recent a guest on The Field Service podcast. Here Deputy Editor Mark Glover cherry-picks some highlights from the interview including automotive technology, machine learning and a misty-eyed look at the hardware that inspired him.


Let’s travel back to 1999, the year of the Palm VII, seen as the first truly wireless handheld device. Chris was (and still is) a fan. “It was why I got into wireless,” he says with nostalgia. “The idea that we run little applications on mobile devices was hugely inspiring to me. It was amazing because, until that moment, most of our experiences were from a dial-up modem in hour homes and we’d sit in front of our PCs, and that was how we got content and communicated with people.

“Now all of a sudden with this mobile device we were able to view content and share things with people. It really became the beginning of mobility and mobile applications. Starbucks had an app where you could find stores. It was really amazing, you could find coffee on your Palm VII.”

Is it collecting dust in Chris’ loft? “I might have it in a box somewhere,” he says laughing. “I tend to keep all my devices. I know I have seven generations of BlackBerries up there. They soon became my addiction."

“Mobile device improvements have been modest ones,” he says when I ask him about the evolution of mobility hardware. “They are mostly around cameras and screens but the underlying tech has been pretty stagnant for several years and generations now. It means it’s becoming a pretty mature market, just like the PC,” he suggested.

Chris has been with Glympse just over a year now, prior, he spent a significant chunk of time – 18 years – at connected car technology and automotive telematics provider Xevo where he joined in its infancy, overseeing various executive positions and becoming its President, CEO and Chairman. He remains on the board.

"Starbucks had an app where you could find stores. It was amazing, you could find coffee on your Palm VII...” 

The potential of automotive technology, therefore, forms a good part of our conversation, most notably when I ask where he sees the next big disruption in field service. “I believe that in the big Iot space that autonomous driving will create a huge change in field service,” he says. “It’s going to make everything more productive, it will improve communications with consumers and it’s going to make it safer. I think this will re-shape the industry more than any tech enhancement than we have today.

He also cites machine learning as a significant enabler in the sector, providing service in real-time and pre-empting faults but he thinks another pinch point could be the way a product is delivered, syncing with the arrival of the technician.

“We’re currently looking at way of tracking two or more things simultaneously, in a healthcare scenario, for example,” he explains. “Here a skilled nurse and the drugs they need to administer need to be at the patient’s house at the same time.

“You could see that in some of the advanced field services and even big machinery cases; where the part and tech show up at the same time, assisted by machine learning that alerts the service company when the asset is about to break.”

I ended the podcast by asking what motivates Chris in his work. His answer is wide-ranging that touches on potential of technology as well as making a difference in society. “I’m motivated by two things,” he says. One is being able to continually push the envelope of what’s available using technology. Two is making a difference in the world.

Can he cite an example? “During the hurricane season, while the search and rescue operations were taking place, teams were using Glympse to keep track of each other, ensuring they wouldn’t lose touch while they carried out the task.

“That to me is super inspiring. That I can work on technology that actually makes a difference in people’s lives.”

Börje Ekholm says telecommunication company will complete roll-out this year and network upgrade will compliment new technology such as Augmented Reality and autonomous vehicles.

 

Speaking at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona this month, Börje Ekholm Ericsson's CEO and President, said the firm expect to switch on the 5G network over the next 12 months and the robust network will facilitate ventures including Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

Ericsson had previously announced 5G deals with 14 service providers across Europe, US, Asia and Australia including US Cellular and Telstrar. Memorandums of understandings have been signed with 42 other service providers and Ekholm told journalists to expect further announcements.

Citing research from the Ericsson Consumer Lab, he said that smartphone users will soon see the impact of the new coverage. "Consumers and enterprises are waiting for 5G," he explained. "One-third of smartphone globally will change either immediately or within six months to a service provider that switches on 5G."

In a landmark agreement between Volvo Trucks and Norwegian mining company Brønnøy Kalk AS, six autonomous Volvo FH trucks will transport limestone over a five-kilometre stretch in a mine. Tests of this solution have been carried out successfully and will continue throughout 2018 to become fully operational by the end of 2019.

The deal represents Volvo Trucks’ first commercial autonomous transport solution that will run in a real operation. It is a new solution whereby the customer buys a transport service where Volvo Trucks takes full responsibility for the delivery of the limestone to the crusher.

Whilst we may be still some way from seeing autonomous vehicles being used in service logistics, this is an interesting and possibly pivotal new development.

---

 

Be social and share...

Volvo Trucks has been using connectivity for many years to support customers with efficient service planning. Now technologies are opening up new opportunities to take truck uptime even further. Enabling a deeper, more thorough analysis in real time so that we can predict some potential failures that may otherwise have resulted in an unplanned stop.

It is interesting for us in field service to monitor just how rapidly vehicle automation is moving forward in the logistics sector as it will surely translate from HGV to LCV soon enough and Volvo Trucks are currently pioneering in the field. 

---

Be social and share...

Commercial fully autonomous vehicles appear to be getting ever closer to a genuine reality as Knorr-Bremse offer a glimpse into their upcoming announcements at the  IAA Commercial Vehicles show being held in Hanover later this month.

Knorr- Bremse, a global market leader for braking systems and a leading supplier of other rail and commercial vehicle systems, will be demonstrating a truck that can master sections of the route on motorways/freeways in fully autonomous mode, including overtaking manoeuvres. In addition, Knorr-Bremse will be showing extremely efficient ways of making such highly automated systems fail-safe.

In the outdoor New Mobility World arena at the fair, Knorr-Bremse will be demonstrating a prototype truck that can drive along motorways/freeways in fully autonomous mode. Traffic conditions permitting, it can also automatically overtake a slower preceding vehicle. In line with the motto “We pave the road to automated driving”, at booth 30 in hall 17, the company will be showcasing product and system solutions that lay the foundations for such highly automated vehicle systems, as well as illustrating how the complex automated functions can be rendered fail-safe in a cost-effective way.

 

"Knorr-Bremse will be demonstrating a prototype truck that can drive along motorways/freeways in fully autonomous mode..."

 

According to Dr. Peter Laier, Executive Board Member of Knorr-Bremse AG responsible for the Commercial Vehicle Systems division: “In the next few years we’re going to see a gradual shift from more and more versatile driver assistance systems to automated driving and thus to vehicles that can temporarily take over the driving completely, freeing up the driver to handle other tasks or get some rest.

The key to engineering such systems is a deep-seated understanding of commercial vehicle dynamics, which are far more complex than in the case of cars. The millions of ABS, EBS, ESP, emergency braking and lane departure warning systems that we have in the field bear lasting witness to our expertise in this area and form the basis for us to leverage the potential that exists in driver assistance systems and automated driving.”

Dr Jürgen Steinberger is a Member of the Management Board of Knorr-Bremse Commercial Vehicle Systems where he is responsible for the field of automated driving: “At the IAA we will be demonstrating our sovereign command of all three dimensions of highly automated driving functions – environment recognition, decision-making and actuation. Another decisive aspect is a smart redundancy concept: When the vehicle takes control, everything must be designed in a way that the vehicle cannot run out of control even if an electronic subsystem fails. Simply doubling up the critical components, as was originally demanded, makes no economic sense. At the IAA we will be demonstrating how a modern braking system can even temporarily replace the steering. Our redundancy concept for automated driving illustrates how to combine outstanding performance with cost-effectiveness.”

 

Redundancy: The real challenge behind automation

For more than a decade, the automotive industry has been developing automated driving functions in a bid to improve both safety and driving comfort. Beginning with driver assistance, these different levels of automation are progressively transferring responsibility from the driver to the vehicle. There is now a broad consensus in the automotive industry on the use of a six-level model to describe the graduated transition to full automation. This model is based on a paper published by the Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAEI) in late 2016. This document defines the role of the human driver at each of the six levels of automation and aims to provide both lawmakers and the automotive industry with a clear and unambiguous framework for defining regulatory provisions and technical specifications.

 

"The technology underpinning the six-level model of driving automation spans three different dimensions – vehicle stability, manoeuvre planning and navigation/connectivity..."

 

The technology underpinning the six-level model of driving automation spans three different dimensions – vehicle stability, manoeuvre planning and navigation/connectivity. The first of these dimensions comprises actions aimed at improving braking distance and preventing skidding or sliding. These actions are performed by means of ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) and ESP (Electronic Stability Program) functions which also form the basis for the next dimension – “manoeuvre planning”. Here environment sensors such as radar, video and laser-based systems are used in combination with active steering intervention to support automated vehicle control. The third dimension – navigation/connectivity – delivers the necessary extended environmental information and supports vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure interaction over a wide geographic range.

As driving becomes automated, the question arises for manufacturers how they can ensure fail-safe operation in a cost-effective and reliable way. At the fair, Knorr-Bremse will show that, with the necessary vehicle-related know-how, failure of the active steering system can be compensated for without installing a redundant set of the relevant components.

Highly automated driving functions generally predicate the ability to constantly monitor the operational readiness of the various subsystems in the vehicle. Only when the entire system – including its redundancy structure – works as intended can the driver take care of other duties while the vehicle is in motion.

---

You can find out more in person by visiting  Knorr-Bremse at the IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Hanover from September 20-27, on booth A30 in hall 17 and in outdoor area D107. At the Automechanika fair in Frankfurt am Main from September 11-15, Knorr-Bremse will be on booth 91 and booth 98 in hall 3.0.

---

 

Be social and share

Approximately one in three companies (32 per cent) believe the business use of artificial intelligence will be commonplace within the next decade, new research from TomTom Telematics has revealed.

The study found that 22 per cent believe virtual reality will be in common usage, while around one in five anticipates the prevalence of in-vehicle working due to the development of autonomous vehicles.

However, almost a third (32 per cent) fear they may struggle to keep pace with the rate of technological change. Furthermore, one in two (49 per cent) believe those that fail to embrace digitalised processes and the Internet of Things are at greater risk of going out of business.

“Complacency can sound the death knell for businesses,” said Beverley Wise, director UK & Ireland at TomTom Telematics.

“Companies should be mindful of the pace of change and keep a close eye on the solutions and processes that will help ensure a competitive future – from smart mobility and connected tech to advanced manufacturing and design systems. Many of today’s new emerging technologies will disrupt and revolutionise commerce, and in the process become the standard for tomorrow.”

Almost half of companies (46 per cent) believe remote working has or will become, the norm within the next 10 years. Remote working is currently proving more prevalent among larger companies (58 per cent) than their SMEs counterparts (37 per cent).

“The onus is on businesses, both large and small, to adapt to this new era of hypermobility and connected working that is being ushered in by advancements in areas ranging from telematics and the connected car to iPaaS and blockchain solutions,” added Wise.

“Such connected technologies and unified communication systems are unshackling workers from traditional working patterns - an empowering development that is set to significantly impact productivity and business efficiency.”

---

Be social and share

An open ecosystem of best-in-class technologies working seamlessly together will be at the heart of the automated transportation systems of the future.

That is the shared vision of Renovo (Renovo.auto), a mobility software technology company, and HERE Technologies (here.com), a global leader in mapping and location services. Today, the two companies announced that they have entered into a partnership to deploy open interfaces for highly and fully automated vehicles. They believe an open-standards approach will fuel greater interoperability and data exchange across the transportation ecosystem, boosting safety, efficiency and comfort for passengers.

In the first phase of their collaboration, Renovo and HERE are working on a new technology interface to maximize the utility of sensor data generated by fleets of automated vehicles in the ‘self-healing’ of highly precise maps. The companies intend to make the interface available for fleets of highly automated vehicles powered by Renovo’s AWare operating system, enabling them to provide data that can be used to update a service such as HD Live Map, the mapping service for automated vehicles from HERE. This service uses different types of sensor data to identify change in the real world and provide a highly-precise, continuously-updating map across the road network. An automated vehicle equipped with HERE HD Live Map knows exactly where it is and has a better understanding of what lies ahead and what it should do in different scenarios.

 

"As we build the data infrastructure required for autonomous cars, collaboration between key technology providers and across industries is mandatory..."

 

As we build the data infrastructure required for autonomous cars, collaboration between key technology providers and across industries is mandatory,” said Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies. “With AWare, Renovo has a powerful operating system for automated vehicles. Our partnership and integration into the AWare ecosystem will help expand access to data that’s vital to building automated mobility systems that people can trust.”

“HERE Technologies is a leading creator of mapping and location services with a bold Autonomous World Vision, and we are delighted to enter into this partnership with them,” said Chris Heiser CEO and Co-Founder of Renovo. “We enable our customers to develop and deploy fleets of highly automated vehicles, and these deployments are made possible by an open ecosystem of best-in-class technologies.”

HERE is a privately held company backed by several investors: Audi, BMW, Bosch, Continental, Daimler, Intel and Pioneer. With this partnership, Renovo is joining one of the largest technology ecosystems in the automotive space.

AWare is already powering highly automated vehicle fleets on public and private roads today including that of Voyage.auto. HERE is the newest addition to the rapidly growing AWare ecosystem which includes Samsung, Verizon, Velodyne LiDAR, Parsons, INRIX, Argus Cyber Security, Affectiva, Phantom Auto, Metamoto, Understand.ai, NIRA Dynamics and Bestmile.

---

 

Be social and share

A new report commissioned by Aberdeen Standard Investment’s AIPUT fund (Airport Industrial and Property Unit Trust) has highlighted the scale of progress and future potential for the adoption of automated transport and logistics technology at the UK’s airports, including London’s Heathrow, which recently received the formal support of Parliament for its third runway plans.

AIPUT currently holds 2 million sq ft of buildings at Heathrow, dedicated to supporting the airport’s freight and logistics service providers.

The report, produced jointly by specialist UK aviation real estate consultancy, ChappellKing and Dornier Consulting International GmbH, explores the potential efficiency gains from automation across a plethora of airport-related functions such as cargo-handling and logistics operations, as well as passenger transportation both to and within airports.

Commenting on the report, AIPUT Fund Manager, Nick Smith, said:  “Autonomous technology promises enormous benefits to airports and the service companies that support them, transforming the way airports work and improving efficiency and safety, both for passengers and other airport users. At Gatwick, for example, 90% of the airport’s airside vehicles are stationary at any one time, which is both hugely inefficient and demands a vast amount of space.

A much smaller pool of electric-powered autonomous vehicles would drastically cut costs, free up land, reduce emissions, and improve safety. In Düsseldorf, a newly-developed robotic car parking system has demonstrated a 60% reduction in required parking space compared to human drivers.”

“Airports and airport real estate providers need to be ready for the introduction of automated technology as soon as operational and safety regulations permit.  AIPUT intends to stay ahead of the curve by embracing automation, working with our tenants and partners to build autonomous technology into our site masterplans; which we believe will adapt and future-proof our UK estate assets, ensuring that our clients’ buildings and facilities will be able to accommodate and benefit fully from the rapid development of autonomous technology.”

This winter in Norway an autonomous snowplough was tested at Fagernes Airport, with a single machine able to clear an area of 68 acres in a single hour.Trials of a variety of autonomous technological applications have already taken place at a number of UK airports. The first trials of automated air-side vehicles have been completed at Heathrow in collaboration with IAG Cargo and Oxbotica.  Gatwick, meanwhile, recently became the first airport in the world to trial the use of autonomous vehicles to shuttle staff across the airfield, demonstrating that autonomous vehicles can operate safely in highly-complex airfield environments.

This winter in Norway an autonomous snowplough was tested at Fagernes Airport, with a single machine able to clear an area of 68 acres in a single hour. Autonomous technology increases the precision with which snowploughs operate, improving safety during the removal of snow and while driving information and low visibility.

The UK Government has signalled its support for the industry, with the announcement of £22.4 million of funding under the Industrial Strategy for off-road self-driving vehicles, which it believes will revolutionise productivity in a range of sectors, including mining, ports and airports.

As in many other fields of technological development, airports are providing the testbed for a plethora of different autonomous applications.  AIPUT will be ensuring that it is at the forefront of planning for and providing the cutting edge facilities that greater automation will require.

Be social and share

The field service sector could see huge benefits from self-driving cars so the recent announcement from Byton should be of interest to field service organisations everywhere...

BYTON, an innovator of smart, premium electric vehicles, announced a partnership with Aurora, a leading self-driving technology company.

The partnership will help BYTON incorporate Level 4 (L4) autonomous-driving vehicle capabilities into BYTON vehicles and enable BYTON to become among the very first group of carmakers to bring L4 and eventually Level 5 (L5) cars to market.

In the next two years, BYTON and Aurora will jointly conduct pilot deployment of Aurora’s L4 autonomous driving systems on BYTON vehiclesIn the next two years, BYTON and Aurora will jointly conduct pilot deployment of Aurora’s L4 autonomous driving systems on BYTON vehicles. Additionally, BYTON and Aurora will explore the use of Aurora’s self-driving system in BYTON's series production vehicles. According to the Society of Automotive Engineers, L4 autonomous vehicles can drive independently in most environments, with the expectations that humans may need or choose to drive in some conditions.

"BYTON is designed for the age of autonomous driving. We are pleased to partner with Aurora, as Aurora is supremely focused on a mission to deliver the benefits of self-driving vehicles safely, quickly, and globally," said Dr. Carsten Breitfeld, CEO and Co-Founder of BYTON.

Dr. Daniel Kirchert, President and Co-Founder at BYTON, added, "I'm confident that Aurora will be instrumental in helping BYTON achieve its objectives as an innovator of smart, premium electric cars with Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous driving."

Chris Urmson, CEO at Aurora, said “We are excited to partner with BYTON, an innovator in the electric vehicle industry, to further advance our goal of delivering self-driving vehicles quickly, broadly and safely. We look forward to piloting this technology in California.”

Earlier this month at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, BYTON premiered its BYTON Concept and announced plans to design and build smart premium electric cars for the Chinese, U.S. and European markets. Sales are set to begin in China in 2019, and sales in the United States and Europe to start in 2020.

Be social and share