At the end of August, ZF Friedrichshafen AG announced that it had started production of solid-state LiDAR sensor systems called ibeoNEXT for Hamburg, Germany-based Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH. ZF holds a 40% stake in Ibeo. The first systems will be delivered to partners and customers worldwide from October 2020, including for the first series application, which includes the system’s electronic control unit, in Great Wall Motors’ Wey premium SUV, which moves to series production from 2022.
The LiDAR sensor is based on a new type of solid-state, photon laser measurement technology “without moving parts,” so the sensor is said to be more robust and less affected by environmental influences and vibrations. By processing many laser pulses in parallel, the sensor can generate a high-resolution 3D model of its environment in real time, with the capability to recognize crash barriers and road markings as well as vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians along with their position and movement. The compact design of the ibeoNEXT and its control unit were developed by Ibeo and are now being produced by ZF in Plouzané near Brest, France.
“We are convinced that LiDAR systems are a key technology for automated and particularly, autonomous driving, as they provide high-resolution 3D point clouds of their surroundings,” said Aine Denari, Senior Vice President and General Manager of ZF’s Electronics and Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS) Division. “And thanks to their laser technology, they function effectively under difficult weather conditions.”
The LiDAR system in the Wey application will support Level 3 automated driving with a highway pilot, helping to ease highway driving over greater distances. It comprises the LiDAR and control unit as well as perception software developed by Ibeo that recognizes objects and helps enable safer driving in interaction with other systems.
Ibeo had already been in pre-development with Great Wall Motors for a year, but the official project started with the signing of a contract in July 2020.
“The LiDAR series contract with Great Wall Motor is one of the largest ever signed worldwide,” said Dr. Ulrich Lages, CEO of Ibeo. “We are the first supplier in China to use LiDAR sensors to enable Level 3 automated driving in a production vehicle there.”
Haoma Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Great Wall Motors, developed the L3 autonomous driving system. LiangDao Intelligent Automotive Technology is responsible for the testing and validation of the full set of LiDAR systems.
“With accumulating many years of technology in the field of autonomous driving, we are very determined to invest in the mass production of intelligent vehicles,” said Kai Zhang, Chairman of the board of Haomo Technology.
“…We hope through our efforts, we can open a new era together for highly automated driving in China,” said Dr. Xueming Ju, CEO of LiangDao.
While LiDAR is a new field for ZF, the company is the world’s leading automotive camera producer. In July, it launched its next-generation ADAS cameras. The new S-Cam 4.8 offers a significantly expanded field-of-view for enhanced AEB (automatic emergency braking), lane keeping, and semi-automated vehicle functions. With an initial launch in North America now underway for the Nissan Rogue, the camera combines EyeQ4 advanced object-recognition technology from Mobileye, and Intel company, with ZF’s longitudinal and lateral vehicle control expertise.
Among the first ever cameras to offer the capability of a 100-degree horizontal field-of-view, the S-Cam 4.8 is said by ZF to represent another important step forward in meeting future Euro NCAP 5-star safety ratings and IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) Top Safety Pick+ requirements as well as general safety regulations that require increasingly stringent test protocols for safety-critical systems.
“The S-Cam 4.8 will offer ZF customers the opportunity to further refine systems like Automatic Emergency Braking for pedestrians and cyclists while offering best-in-class lane-keeping-system performance,” said Christophe Marnat, Executive Vice President and General Manager of ZF’s Electronics and ADAS division. “It will also offer the prospect of more semi-automated driving convenience functions like highway driving and traffic jam assist, and ZF can provide these technologies across the full spectrum of light vehicles.”
ZF says its advanced camera systems, based on long-time partner Mobileye’s EyeQ4 processor for advanced object recognition technology, can be particularly effective in helping protect vulnerable road users.
The company incorporates the processor technology in the related, industry-first, premium, three-lens Tri-Cam4 to support advanced semi-automated driving functions, adding a telephoto lens for improved long-distance sensing capabilities and a fish-eye lens for improved short-range sensing with a wider field-of-view.
“Mobileye continues to lead the industry as it transitions towards wider FOV cameras which enhance the capacity of automatic emergency braking to address a wider range of scenarios where objects are crossing into the car’s path or where the car is turning,” said Tomer Baba, Mobileye Vice President for Sensing Algorithms. “The wider FOV also allows lane-keeping and lane-centering applications to better handle sharp curves.”
ZF supplies more than a dozen vehicle manufacturers globally with advanced ADAS sensor technologies including front-facing cameras, mid- and full-range radar, and LiDAR. For light passenger vehicles in the near term, the company is focusing on Level 2/2+ systems that use advanced camera technologies like the S-Cam 4.8 and Tri-Cam4. It will also launch its coAssist, which it claims is the most affordable Level2+ system—available at well under $1000—with a major Asian automaker later this year.
