ZF will develop the group's first L3 autonomous driving system in the world, led by the Chinese team

ZF recently announced that it will work with Vietnamese self-owned automaker VinFast to develop advanced L2+ level autonomous driving and parking functions. In the coming years, the two companies will work together to develop L3 and above level of autonomous driving functions, including traffic congestion cruise (TJP), highway driving cruise (HDC) and automatic valet parking (AVP). It is reported that this is also ZF Group's first L3 level autonomous driving project in the world, which will be led by the Chinese R&D team and developed collaboratively by the German and American teams.

Image source: ZF

According to the plan, the two parties will realize the automatic driving function of L2+ through hardware embedding, and finally achieve reliable mass production of L3 function through shadow mode and cloud data closed-loop iteration. Among them, the L3 level autonomous driving electronic control unit and sensor will contain based on Nvidia's latest Orin X chip, providing a high computing unit of up to 500Tops - Cerestar ProAI P500L_U, 4D imaging high-resolution millimeter wave radar FR Gen21 with a reconnaissance distance of up to 350 meters, and solid-state lidar provided by IBEO, a subsidiary of ZF.

In 2023, the two sides will take the lead in mass production of traffic congestion cruise (TJP), and gradually iterate functions such as highway driving cruise (HWC) in the future, which will be launched simultaneously in the North American and European markets.

At present, some markets such as Europe and the United States are trying to "give the green light" to the policy supervision of automatic driving above L3 level. Previously, the Mercedes-Benz L3 autonomous driving system has been approved by the strict technical regulations of the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) and will be delivered to end users in Germany in the first half of 2022 along with the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan and subsequent EQS models.

BMW also said that it will provide L3 autonomous driving capabilities to end users through the 7 Series sedan as an optional package next year, and it is reported that the car is expected to start production as soon as Next July and be officially delivered at the end of the year. In addition, the relevant person in charge of BMW also revealed that the future 5 Series, X5, X7 and other models will also be equipped with L3 automatic driving, and BMW iX will be able to obtain L3 level automatic driving system through software updates.

This means that some end users in markets such as Europe and the United States can buy new cars with L3 autonomous driving functions as soon as next year. And in line with ZF's technical route, the early application scenarios of these L3 systems mainly focus on scenarios such as highways and urban expressways and low-speed congestion. However, in order to truly promote L3 in mass production vehicles, there are still multiple challenges, including the division of technology, accident liability and the lack of industry standards and norms.

According to Xing Xun, Vice President of Electronics and Driver Assistance Systems Engineering at ZF China, it is difficult to significantly improve the scale of L3 autonomous driving mass production before the end of 2023. However, with the passage of time, after everyone gradually has a deeper understanding of L3, L3 automatic driving is expected to enter an accelerated stage after 2026, that is, 2026 will be an important watershed for L3 mass production. At present, ZF's research and development in long-range radar, central domain controllers, etc., is preparing for this.

ZF's new generation of ZF "ProAI" is designed for "software-defined cars" and new electrical and electronic architecture requirements, suitable for any vehicle model, and supports all levels of autonomous or autonomous driving from L2 to L5, and will be in series production in 2024. The 4D millimeter-wave radar has also previously won orders from SAIC and will begin mass production in 2022.