INTERVIEW: CONTINENTAL Fort Worth-Phoenix could be the next freight route to go autonomous with Aurora Driver-equipped trucks “The scaling model with Aurora will follow a traditional automotive manufacturing process,” McClain explains. “As a Tier 1 we will bring the parts into our manufacturing facility, subassemble them into pods, qualify them at automotive grade, then ship them to the OEM. They will build the vehicle, homologate it and deliver it directly to the fleet customers. This is different from what a lot of the other autonomy players are doing: building prototype kits and installing them on trucks that have already been built and homologated.” McClain added that the Hardware as a Service business model is atypical of a conventional supplier-OEM relationship, with Continental maintaining ownership and responsibility for its hardware throughout the useful life of the truck and the system – expected to be five years or 1,000,000 miles (1,600,000km). Conti will take care of the system’s service, maintenance and warranty claims. “If there’s a problem with a pod, we replace it with a new one at a terminal/service center. We’ll triage it, replace the faulty part, requalify the pod and put it back into service.” UBER FREIGHT, SCHNEIDER AND HIRSCHBACH HAVE ALL SIGNED UP FOR AURORA’S COMMERCIAL DRIVERLESS SERVICE, WITH EXPECTED LAUNCH CAPACITY NOW FULLY CONTRACTED Conti’s L4 fallback system will be able to safely stop a truck in an emergency Aurora has contracts with Paccar (Peterbilt) and Volvo Trucks 2027 system anatomy Most of the system’s field-of-view is covered by three modalities of sensing to ensure redundancy and improve the accuracy of detection and classification of the vehicle’s surroundings. The 2027 trucks will feature near-range pods around the beltline as well as a set of high-mounted pods to take care of medium-and long-range sensing – looking forward, sideways and Aurora−Continental autonomous project timeline 2023 Blueprint and design; complete 2024-25 Build and test. First compute and sensor samples already delivered 2025-26 High-volume field data collection for fallback path and service business; ramp-up development truck fleet; first production-intent samples for design verification testing 2026-27 Finalization, start of production and integration 2027 AND BEYOND Deployment at scale 22 ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International April 2025
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