SUPPLIER EYE

Toward a “by wire” vehicle

When President Kennedy proclaimed in 1961 that the U.S. would put a man on the moon by 1969, the engineers and scientists involved knew that building the delivery systems had to be a staged process of constant improvement. Creating the knowledge base, supplier capability, test regimens and importantly, the experience and reliability, were all tightly defined through the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Skipping a step or shortcutting any development phase would have resulted in failure.

The road to autonomous driving is, to a lesser degree, a “moonshot” of its own. This is becoming evident as new “by wire” capabilities are integrated into the vehicle in stages. Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), Lane Keeping Assistance (LKA) and other enhanced control/detection technologies require a host of new technologies: new sensors operating in “fusion” with others that are more flexible; offering vastly enhanced computing speed and capacity; and networked connectivity are vital building blocks in the incremental journey to SAE Level 4 and Level 5 vehicle autonomy. Virtually every subsystem will need to be modified-and in some cases, re-invented.