Level 2+: Semi-automated Driving for Everyone

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Tags: AutonomousDriving, Safety, SeeThinkAct

Level 2+ semi-automated driving systems can help enhance safety and comfort in passenger cars. With its comprehensive portfolio of intelligent advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), ZF offers solutions scalable to cost and functions desired.

Kathrin Wildemann, January 28, 2020

Kathrin Wildemann has been a part of the permanent Copy Team at ZF since 2016. In her online and offline articles, she likes to cover electromobility and other topics that involve sustainability.

Would having a self-driving car parked at home in the garage represent the epitome of future mobility? Many end customers view this vision of the future skeptically.

According to a study by Deloitte, opinions on autonomous driving vary widely around the globe - while almost 60 percent of those surveyed in China and India rated the trend as positive, this figure was significantly lower in the USA and Germany at less than 40 and 25 percent respectively.

But all the countries surveyed have one thing in common: when it comes to intelligent assistance systems that help relieve the driving task on the highway or in city traffic, approval rises significantly. Almost 70 percent of the Chinese, around 65 percent of the Americans and over half of the more skeptical Germans rated vehicle-based assistance for parking, lane centering and adaptive cruise control, or emergency braking as desirable. These individual assistance functions, however, are even more effective when they are seamlessly integrated. Level 2+ describes the existing systems that ZF links together into an intelligent semi-automated solution with a central electronic control unit. With a wide-ranging portfolio for all requirements, the Group ensures that owners of more affordable vehicle models can also benefit from these developments.

ZF presented the ZF coASSIST system to journalists during the CES

A two-pronged approach to automated driving

The realization that driverless passenger cars are far from market readiness is becoming more palpable in the automotive industry. There are a number of reasons for this including that the legal and legislative prerequisites for self-driving cars on open roads are not yet established. Another important factor - the costs of delivering a Level 4/5 vehicle exceed the budget of most car buyers. “Despite the technical hurdles and challenging framework conditions, it will be worth putting every possible effort behind developing automated driving further. Because automating next generation mobility will deliver immense safety, environmental and convenience benefits for our society”, said ZF CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider.

ZF relies on a two-pronged approach to automated driving. For commercial vehicles and people movers, which in the near future will likely only travel on closed areas and defined lanes and thus only need to contend with a limited number of different traffic situations, the Group is developing fully automated solutions in accordance with Level 4 and higher. However, in the passenger car sector, ZF relies on semi-automated systems. “Level 2+ systems that meet advanced safety test protocols and help relieve the stress on the driving task will be the primary driver for personal passenger vehicles in the near future and provide a platform to help identify, and then test and validate for unusual global road scenarios,” said Christophe Marnat, executive vice president for the ZF Electronics and Advanced Driver Assist Systems division.

Christophe Marnat explains Level 2+

Relief for the driver

For drivers, Level 2+ can represent tangible comfort. Lane centering control, adaptive cruise control, and other features are intelligently connected with each other to allow drivers to briefly take their hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals in certain situations. Plus, semi-autonomous systems help drivers gain more confidence in automated vehicle control. Drivers have the chance to get used to the car temporarily assuming control of the steering wheel, while still being able to intervene and always remaining responsible for monitoring the surroundings.

In order to allow as many people as possible to profit from these benefits and not restrict added comfort only to owners of luxury vehicles, ZF has developed an intelligent and cost-effective solution called ZF coASSIST, the most affordable Level 2+ system industry-wide. The demand is high. By the end of 2020, ZF coASSIST will go into volume production as part of the volume models for a large Asian automotive manufacturer.

“With these systems, we offer the most comprehensive Level 2+ portfolio industry-wide. Our customers can select the exact level of automation they need and calibrate it to their requirements“

Christophe Marnat - Executive vice president for the ZF Electronics and ADAS division

Scalable solutions for intelligent driver assistance systems

ZF coASSIST is the first part of a three-part offer that bundles the Group‘s Level 2+ solutions:

“With these systems, we offer the most comprehensive Level 2+ portfolio industry-wide. Our customers can select the exact level of automation they need and calibrate it to their requirements,“ says Marnat. Following the market launch of ZF coASSIST in 2020, the other two system models are expected to reach the maturity phase over the next three years.

ZF coASSIST - the cost-effective Level 2+ solution that helps meet Euro NCAP performance requirements while delivering popular Level 2+ ADAS functions such as traffic jam and highway driving support with Mobileye EyeQ front camera technology and ZF control functions.

ZF coDRIVE - extends the functionality of traffic jam and highway driving support. 360° surround camera perception and the processing capability of Mobileye’s EyeQ technology enable feet-free and hands-free driving, including automated lane changes and automatic overtaking.

ZF coPILOT - is designed for maximum computing power and processing scalability from Level 2+ up to Level 4. It offers functions like feet-free and hands-free operation, automated lane change and overtaking, voice-controlled actuations, visualization of the surrounding sensing environment, automated garage parking and route learning and utilizes ZF’s ProAI controller.

Autonomous driving: an overview

What is the state of the art? How is testing carried out? What will the future bring? Everything there is to know about cars and other vehicles that operate on an automated or autonomous basis.