Major tech and automotive industry players establish cross-industry partnership for automated driving

• Technology and automotive leaders are joining “The Autonomous” to develop state-of-the-art technology for autonomous vehicles
• The aim is to lay the basis for safety standardization and series production
• This form of collaboration will help to overcome major hurdles of prevailing competition in the industry and solve safety challenges
• This long-term partnership is a model for a new scalable ecosystem approach under the umbrella of The Autonomous
• The Autonomous, initiated by TTTech Auto, is the global community shaping the future of safe autonomous mobility
• Leading companies from the industry are invited to learn more about this cross-industry collaboration at The Autonomous Main Event on September 29, 2021

Vienna/Austria, June 24, 2022 – Major tech and automotive industry players officially partner to develop state-of-the-art technology for autonomous vehicles. The partners and leaders in their domain include Arm, Audi together with CARIAD – the automotive software company of VW group, BASELABS, CoreAVI, DENSO, Five, the German Fraunhofer IESE, NXP, the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology and TTTech Auto. Under the umbrella of “The Autonomous”, the members of this first Working Group are committed to working towards a safe system architecture for self-driving vehicles. The goal of this collaboration is to lay the basis for safety standardization and pave the way for mass autonomous vehicle production.

“This cross-industry collaboration marks the starting point for a change of mindset in the industry and for further partnerships that will help overcome major hurdles of the prevailing competition,” says Ricky Hudi, Chairman of The Autonomous. “The development of truly automated driving will be better mastered by joint forces of car manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers, tech and research companies. Therefore, a pre-competitive environment is necessary to develop safe technology beyond borders. By this, we create the basis for sustainable customer trust including best practices and cross-industry standards.”

Increasing complexity and research costs

According to PWC[1], car manufacturers’ R&D costs have increased significantly due to the rise of electric, connected and autonomous vehicle development. In the USA and Asia, R&D spending rose by one-third (to €13 bn and €28 bn respectively), while in Europe it increased by 75 percent to €42 bn during the last decade. But increasing costs are not the only challenge for companies within the automated driving sector.

Product liability, emerging technological best practices and increasing technical complexity all demand know-how in various fields to solve remaining safety problems. To overcome these challenges, The Autonomous proposes a collaborative approach, bringing all relevant industry players together to jointly develop recommendations, specifications and best practices.

A safe vehicle architecture for the industry

Following its kick-off in 2019 and multiple Chapter Events in 2020 with more than 1,500 participants, The Autonomous has now established a new level of long-term collaboration with the first Working Group entitled “Safety & Architecture”. The upcoming safe system architecture for self-driving vehicles will include subsystems that connect to sensors and actuators as well as fault-containment units to ensure the safe automated operation of the overall vehicle. The resulting vehicle architecture will represent a reference solution for all participating members as a first step and subsequently may become of use for other companies and regions.

Industry benefits and an invitation to participate

The Working Group’s consolidated output will be published in the form of a technical report. The report will support knowledge transfer and give concrete guidance to the automotive industry for the series production of safe autonomous vehicles. Liaison and alignment with standard bodies will ensure that the Working Group outcome complements safety-related industry standards. Contributors can initiate further Working Groups on The Autonomous platform in order to tackle key safety challenges of safe automated driving. The Autonomous community consists of participants from industry, government and academia as well as disruptors. A public announcement will follow at The Autonomous Main Event (www.the-autonomous.com) on September 29, the flagship event of the initiative.

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Media materials

• Visual: link
• Video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjpUDPQktQQ

About The Autonomous

The Autonomous is the global community shaping the future of safe autonomous mobility. Initiated by TTTech Auto, The Autonomous is an open platform bringing together the chief executives and experts of the autonomous mobility ecosystem to align on relevant safety subjects.

The goal of The Autonomous is to generate new knowledge and technological solutions in the field of autonomous mobility. To achieve this, The Autonomous has put in place two strategic streams:

1. Event Stream – facilitates discussions and networking for leading executives and experts from the autonomous mobility ecosystem
2. Innovation Stream – facilitates cooperation across the industry to work on global reference solutions for safety challenges. These reference solutions conform to relevant standards and will facilitate the adoption of safe autonomous mobility on a global scale. As part of the Innovation Stream, The Autonomous will launch and facilitate Working Groups in order to bring about the co-creation of recommended practices and concrete developments.

 

[1] https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/de/en/insights/2021/automotive-development.html#:~:text=To%20stay%20ahead%20in%20a,2019%2C%20to%20%E2%82%AC42%20billion