ZF’s Projection into the Future
The industrial giant ZF, mainly specialized in automatic transmissions, also develops innovative solutions for digital mobility future. At the CES-2018 in Las Vegas, the Germans presented several achievements in this area.
ZF showcased solutions for self-driving vehicle prototypes of the 4-th level (high automation level) named as “Dream car”. The main control unit of this system is a portable supercomputer ProAI developed in cooperation with Nvidia. ZF engineers are proud of its open scalable modular architecture with artificial intelligence, which allows flexible adaptation to different cars, data analysis programs, sets of sensors and different levels of autonomy. Moreover, this system is capable of “learning” even when it is not on the road by means of receiving necessary data. The “experience” can later be transmitted from car to car. ZF representatives claim that the control unit for autonomous driving ProAI is ready for full-scale production. The main objective of this undertaking is to prevent road accidents and reduce CO2 emissions.
The ProAI unit is also used for new valet parking system designed in cooperation with Baidu. This operation can be performed using a smartphone app and does not require driver’s participation. The computer processes signals received by the actuators (such as steering and braking systems) and a car autonomously drives to a parking space and back.
ZF also unveiled the built-in payment system called Car eWallet, which allows users to pay automatically for various services. The system uses Blockchain technology of IBM to ensure transaction security and protection from outside interference.
