Continental and Aurora Innovation have announced a major milestone in their partnership to bring autonomous trucks to the commercial market. The companies have successfully completed the design and architecture of the future fallback system and hardware of the Aurora Driver – a Level 4 autonomous driving system. Continental plans to begin production of this system in 2027.
The development of new hardware for autonomous vehicles is a complex and time-consuming process. However, Aurora and Continental joined forces to create reliable, serviceable, and cost-efficient autonomous hardware kits for mass production. This partnership will enable Aurora to deploy autonomous trucks at scale following its initial launch of driverless vehicles in 2024.
To ensure the safety of these autonomous trucks, Aurora is working with Continental’s engineering team to develop an industrialized fallback system that will go into production in 2027. This system will provide backups in case of component or sensor failures, reducing the risk of single points of failure.
Continental and Aurora also shared their roadmap for the commercialization of thousands of autonomous trucks. The partnership includes several phases, such as blueprint and design, build and test, finalization and production integration, and deployment at scale. By 2027, thousands of trucks integrated with the Aurora Driver will be ready to autonomously transport freight across the United States.
Philipp von Hirschheydt, Executive Board Member for the Automotive Group Sector at Continental, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “Technologies for autonomous mobility present the biggest opportunity to transform driving behavior since the creation of the automobile.” He believes that achieving this milestone puts them on a credible path to deploy dependable and easy-to-service autonomous trucking systems.
Continental will showcase its latest technologies, including its collaboration with Aurora, at a structure exhibit during CES 2024 in Las Vegas. This collaboration highlights the ongoing advancements and potential of autonomous trucking technology and its impact on the future of transportation.
The source of the article is from the blog krama.net