Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TrueSbW (Fail-operational safety – making autonomous vehicles a reality)
Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2024-04-30
The automotive sector has been undergoing a rapid transformation since the early part of the decade with electrification taking hold.
Highly automated and fully autonomous vehicles have the potential to revolutionise the way people and goods are moved across the world. Reducing or even removing the human driver from the driving task will lead to wide- and far-reaching benefits for society. Accessible, convenient, and low-cost transportation will eliminate some social divides giving new opportunities to those on the edges of society. The elimination of the human driver will reduce road traffic accidents by 90% and enable significantly increased vehicle utilisation when compared to conventional vehicles; meaning fewer vehicles will be needed to provide the same service. Fewer vehicles mean reduced congestion and optimised transport - increasing productivity for all sectors.
Chassis Autonomy is developing a key technology that is part of the critical ecosystem required to enable the safe development and ultimate deployment of highly automated and fully autonomous vehicles. Our ground-up designed steer-by-wire (SbW) system ensures steering functionality even in the event of a vehicle or system fault. Single point failure modes (that exist in offerings from established steering system suppliers), which would otherwise take out the steering function are entirely eliminated in our patented system, ensuring the continued operation and safety of the vehicle, its passengers and other road users.
To date, the oligopoly of global steering system manufacturers has failed to bring steer-by-wire systems to market. Their sprawling business units and outdated business practices are setup to intentionally stifle innovation and maintain a slow pace of improvement to protect their market share. It is only when disruptive innovators, such as Chassis Autonomy come to the market that real progress within the sector can happen.
Our technology has been designed from the ground-up, without the constraints of expensive global production facilities that are designed for the mass manufacture of legacy steering systems. Change for the oligopoly means throwing out billions of dollars of investment in obsolete technology, whilst at the same time making major investments across their businesses. Their corporate board structures are simply not setup for such a transformation.
As a start-up Chassis Autonomy has no such legacy constraints; therefore, we have designed the perfect steering system for the demands of the highly automated and fully autonomous market. Legacy concepts such as the rack-and-pinion and parallel axis-belt driven power pack are eliminated and replaced with an elegant solution of concentric direct-drive. This eliminates all single point failure modes that would otherwise lead to a catastrophic vehicle incident in the event of a system failure. Furthermore, our design is significantly more robust, delivering up to three times the life of conventional systems, ensuring autonomous vehicles which are designed to operate for up to a million kilometres (can continue to operate reliability and safety.
The project aims to accelerate the development of our technology and bring it closer to series production. Wider technology development through design, testing and validation is coupled with work packages that aim to challenge wider misconceptions in the market, build strong partnerships with suppliers, legislators and customers and to scale the business to be able to meet market demand.
The culmination of the project will see our SbW project reach a level of maturity where it has been demonstrated in customer vehicles, design validated and in the process of production validation and scaling for serial manufacture.
Highly automated and fully autonomous vehicles have the potential to revolutionise the way people and goods are moved across the world. Reducing or even removing the human driver from the driving task will lead to wide- and far-reaching benefits for society. Accessible, convenient, and low-cost transportation will eliminate some social divides giving new opportunities to those on the edges of society. The elimination of the human driver will reduce road traffic accidents by 90% and enable significantly increased vehicle utilisation when compared to conventional vehicles; meaning fewer vehicles will be needed to provide the same service. Fewer vehicles mean reduced congestion and optimised transport - increasing productivity for all sectors.
Chassis Autonomy is developing a key technology that is part of the critical ecosystem required to enable the safe development and ultimate deployment of highly automated and fully autonomous vehicles. Our ground-up designed steer-by-wire (SbW) system ensures steering functionality even in the event of a vehicle or system fault. Single point failure modes (that exist in offerings from established steering system suppliers), which would otherwise take out the steering function are entirely eliminated in our patented system, ensuring the continued operation and safety of the vehicle, its passengers and other road users.
To date, the oligopoly of global steering system manufacturers has failed to bring steer-by-wire systems to market. Their sprawling business units and outdated business practices are setup to intentionally stifle innovation and maintain a slow pace of improvement to protect their market share. It is only when disruptive innovators, such as Chassis Autonomy come to the market that real progress within the sector can happen.
Our technology has been designed from the ground-up, without the constraints of expensive global production facilities that are designed for the mass manufacture of legacy steering systems. Change for the oligopoly means throwing out billions of dollars of investment in obsolete technology, whilst at the same time making major investments across their businesses. Their corporate board structures are simply not setup for such a transformation.
As a start-up Chassis Autonomy has no such legacy constraints; therefore, we have designed the perfect steering system for the demands of the highly automated and fully autonomous market. Legacy concepts such as the rack-and-pinion and parallel axis-belt driven power pack are eliminated and replaced with an elegant solution of concentric direct-drive. This eliminates all single point failure modes that would otherwise lead to a catastrophic vehicle incident in the event of a system failure. Furthermore, our design is significantly more robust, delivering up to three times the life of conventional systems, ensuring autonomous vehicles which are designed to operate for up to a million kilometres (can continue to operate reliability and safety.
The project aims to accelerate the development of our technology and bring it closer to series production. Wider technology development through design, testing and validation is coupled with work packages that aim to challenge wider misconceptions in the market, build strong partnerships with suppliers, legislators and customers and to scale the business to be able to meet market demand.
The culmination of the project will see our SbW project reach a level of maturity where it has been demonstrated in customer vehicles, design validated and in the process of production validation and scaling for serial manufacture.
The major activities performed since the start of the project have been around developing our SbW actuator technology with regards to mechanical design, our ability and capability to test and validate prototypes.
Significant design work has been performed to ensure system and sub-system durability across two design release phases, so far. The A-sample was design released in September 2023 with the subsequent B-sample release in May 2024. Iterative design improvements have been made across the design in areas including electric motor design, ball-screw optimisation, anti-rotation robustness and assembly.
There were two design releases for the control electronics, the first being an initial electronics release at A-sample and the second being a more serial intent release at B-sample, with sufficient maturity, safety and diagnostics to enable vehicle use by customers (in H2 2024).
The A-sample has passed design validation testing with results feeding into the design of the B-sample. A number of deliveries of A-sample actuators have been made to our customer projects for use on their test rigs in H1 2024.
On the testing and development side, we have added significant capacity to test and validate our SbW systems. We have a new actuator characterisation rig that became operational in October 2023 and are currently in final commissioning of an electrical motor dyno rig.
We have procured test equipment to build two hardware-in-the-loop dynamic test rigs and will incorporate one into a full driver-in-the-loop simulator during H2 2024.
Significant design work has been performed to ensure system and sub-system durability across two design release phases, so far. The A-sample was design released in September 2023 with the subsequent B-sample release in May 2024. Iterative design improvements have been made across the design in areas including electric motor design, ball-screw optimisation, anti-rotation robustness and assembly.
There were two design releases for the control electronics, the first being an initial electronics release at A-sample and the second being a more serial intent release at B-sample, with sufficient maturity, safety and diagnostics to enable vehicle use by customers (in H2 2024).
The A-sample has passed design validation testing with results feeding into the design of the B-sample. A number of deliveries of A-sample actuators have been made to our customer projects for use on their test rigs in H1 2024.
On the testing and development side, we have added significant capacity to test and validate our SbW systems. We have a new actuator characterisation rig that became operational in October 2023 and are currently in final commissioning of an electrical motor dyno rig.
We have procured test equipment to build two hardware-in-the-loop dynamic test rigs and will incorporate one into a full driver-in-the-loop simulator during H2 2024.
At the project start eight patents had already been filed around our technology. Since May 2023, we have filed a further 18 patents, 10 in Sweden and eight for WO. To date a total of four have been granted in Sweden. We have a strong patent strategy and are executing that with our first investors and IP advisors Immetric.
As we continue to develop our technology and build our brand, we are engaging more of the customer bases in the autonomous sector and the conventional passenger vehicle markets. As part of this engagement, we are building a wider knowledge base of customer requirements and this feeds into our subsequent technology development.
The key to success with our technology is rapidly scaling it to maturity for use in autonomous vehicles, before slightly later deployment in conventional passenger vehicles. Access to financing may be required at a later stage as we contract our first serial customers and may need additional financing (debt or equity) for investments in production facilities based upon serial contracts.
We are currently focusing on the European markets, with the US second. Expansion into other areas, notably SE Asia and China may present a large opportunity, but also challenges from operating in a wider global locality.
As we continue to develop our technology and build our brand, we are engaging more of the customer bases in the autonomous sector and the conventional passenger vehicle markets. As part of this engagement, we are building a wider knowledge base of customer requirements and this feeds into our subsequent technology development.
The key to success with our technology is rapidly scaling it to maturity for use in autonomous vehicles, before slightly later deployment in conventional passenger vehicles. Access to financing may be required at a later stage as we contract our first serial customers and may need additional financing (debt or equity) for investments in production facilities based upon serial contracts.
We are currently focusing on the European markets, with the US second. Expansion into other areas, notably SE Asia and China may present a large opportunity, but also challenges from operating in a wider global locality.