At CES 2024, ZF and Goodyear announced the integration of tire intelligence technologies with vehicle motion control software. Through research, virtual simulation, and real-world testing, the partners identified the potential of an integrated solution to improve vehicle performance and safety.

The collaboration delivers Goodyear’s SightLine, a suite of tire intelligence technologies, into the ZF cubiX ecosystem, a scalable vehicle motion control software that coordinates vehicle dynamics. The integration provides further tire and road data into the chassis system and enables an improved driving experience with better comfort, control, and efficiency. It was named a CES 2024 Innovation Award Honoree within the vehicle technology and advanced mobility category.

SightLine provides insight into the conditions of the tire, vehicle, and road. The technology communicates tire state, identification, road friction, and other tire characteristics. Goodyear says that this is key data to make fleets, vehicles, and in the future, autonomous driving systems safer and more efficient.

CubiX, ZF’s first pure software product, coordinates vehicle dynamics as a holistic system, controlling things like braking, steering, and damping with various actuators regardless of the manufacturer or the specific design. This gives OEMs the flexibility to implement different model series with one control platform without additional integration effort. Updates to its software can be carried out over-the-air.

“Goodyear SightLine will deepen our connection to the road and expand the scope and value of cubiX by supporting the era of software-defined vehicles,” said Martin Fischer, Member of the Board of Management responsible for the ZF Chassis Solution division. “By joining our ecosystems, our customers will unlock a range of possibilities to customize and optimize their solutions in both vehicle motion and tire intelligence.”

The SightLine solution is capable of detecting partial hydroplaning early and offers recommendations for optimal speed to enhance vehicle control. When heightened hydroplaning severity is detected, equipped with tire intelligence data, the cubiX software is designed to instruct the chassis actuators to apply corrective measures, stabilizing the vehicle. The synergies between SightLine and cubiX capabilities can provide enhanced vehicle responsiveness, more direct and linear steering, improved turn-in response, increased stability, reduced controller workload, and minimized intrusive interventions.

“Tires are the only part of the vehicle that touches the road, and by digitizing this connection and equipping vehicle control actuators with critical insights we can help optimize vehicle performance and safety,” said Chris Helsel, Senior Vice President, Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer, Goodyear. “This collaboration with ZF is a great way to demonstrate what tire intelligence, actionable insights, and elite software applications can do for mobility.”

Also at CES, ZF is showing an affordable and scalable parking ECU (electronic control unit) that enables a variety of automated parking functions to a wider range of vehicles. In September, the ECU went into production in China with Zeekr, with Europe and other regions expected to follow in 2024.

“Automated parking functions are among the most desired comfort and convenience features for vehicle buyers and are particularly valuable in large metropolitan areas where parking is at a premium,” said Fischer, also responsible for the ZF Advanced Driver Assist Systems and Electronics division. “Traditionally found only in premium vehicles, ZF’s new parking ECU helps make these functions safe, effective, and affordable for more drivers around the world.”

One of the highlights of the ECU is that it can sense the depth of a parking spot, allowing assistance in both parallel parking and standard parking. With functions such as automated and remote park assist, it manually draws a path using virtual slot parking to maneuver the car into the spot with minimal driver input.

Beyond basic parking functions, the ECU provides high-end options such as automatic memorized parking and automatic valet parking. These functions are particularly beneficial in urban areas, especially in parking garages as the ECU uses its cameras and sensors to build the map of a garage in real time to enable point-to-point parking.

The ECU eliminates the stress of one of the most frustrating aspects of driving with an SOC (system-on-chip) that enables computing power of up to 16 TOPS (tera operations per second). It fuses data from ultrasonic sensors and 360-degree surround cameras using vision technology from Calmcar, a ZF Chinese investment and ecosystem partner. It also offers connectivity options of Ethernet, CAN, LVDS, and DSI in a compact housing.

In using VSLAM (vision simultaneous localization and mapping), surround cameras extract information, such as parking spots, lanes, and markings, while vehicle sensors provide dynamic information, such as steering angle, wheel speed, and yaw rate. The ECU can also gather information from third-party maps to aid in mapping out public parking garages across multiple levels.