At the Consumer Electronics Show, ZF displayed its progress toward Next Generation Mobility and says it has developed smart technologies with advanced core intelligence that bring safe, automated and electrified vehicles to new levels. These developments offer critical improvements that benefit our global society and the environment, the company adds.
“At ZF, we are seeking to strike a critical balance of readying intelligent technologies now that help tackle the major mobility challenges we face, and bringing them to market in a measured cadence,” said Martin Fischer, ZF Board member and lead executive for the Americas region. “This lets consumers reap safety and environmental benefits today while allowing them to acclimate to new ADAS and AD interfaces and functions, while providing a bridge for infrastructure updates necessary for areas like electric charging or the installation of dedicated lanes for automated shuttles.”
Leveling Up
Recent successes in customer contracts and advancements in ZF’s capabilities are validating this strategy, the company says. For example, ZF’s previously announced suite of automated driving technologies, including coASSIST, have already launched with Dongfeng in China; coDRIVE, where we are seeing high customer interest for the next advancement in L2+ systems; and coPILOT, a system scalable up to Level 4, which will be launched in a partnership with Vietnam’s fast-growing electric vehicle maker VinFast.
“Our vehicle manufacturer customers are seeking advanced technology as well as the intelligence and functions that add value for consumers,” Fischer emphasized. “We have been successful in steadily expanding our ADAS and AD business through sensor and high-performance computing contracts that include providing the fusion of these sensor technologies, the systems expertise to deliver advanced functions and the computing power needed with our ProAI supercomputer.”
Shuttles, Commercial Vehicles and the Industrial Sector all Benefit
Another important frontier is in the Transportation as a Service, which will become increasingly crucial with the continuing rise of megacities, says ZF. Traffic congestion and space utilization will drive the need for alternative forms of mobility and ZF’s Automated Transport Systems team can now provide a virtual turn-key solution for planning, operating and implementing an automated shuttle system that will both assist inner cities and connect them to outlying rural areas. ZF is now bringing these solutions to the U.S.
ZF says the newly consolidated Commercial Vehicle Solutions team now fully combines the strengths of ZF and the former WABCO into a leading global supplier providing the necessary technologies to enable advanced safety and automated driving functions as well as advanced powertrain systems to a market with a strong business case for benefitting from these capabilities.
And ZF adds it goes beyond these more traditional mobility modes to provide advanced automation for agricultural equipment, mining, off-road equipment and automated fork-lifts, and helping the environment through ultra-efficient wind turbine transmissions.
Software solutions drive mobility and sustainability initiatives
ZF says it continues its transformation as a software and digitally based enterprise across all of its business processes. By leveraging Microsoft’s comprehensive set of cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and data technologies, ZF is becoming a cloud-native mobility services provider, delivering clean, safe, convenient, and affordable mobility solutions to its customers.
One example of this is the greater scalability and modularity ZF brings to e-drive inverter technology through its highly intelligent software and semiconductor expertise. This is a crucial step to increase the efficiency, range and affordability of e-motors for the electrified future and ZF is utilizing its considerable expertise to bring these advancements to market in shortened development cycles.
“ZF has a unique opportunity to shape Next Generation Mobility and to do it now,” said ZF CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider. “We cannot wait to tackle the major issues that our world faces as they are critical to our survival and the quality of life that we all deserve to enjoy. To enhance the lives of future generations we must all work together, from governments, to industry, to members of society all focused on the unified goal to deliver on the promises of tomorrow.”
