Aftermarket September 2022

26 AFTERMARKET SEPTEMBER 2022 TECHNICAL/AFTERMARKET OF THE FUTURE www.aftermarketonline.net Self-driving setback as Westfield Autonomous Vehicles goes into administration In sad news for British motorsport and self-driving fans, on 9 June it emerged that Westfield Sports Cars, and its subsidiary Westfield Autonomous Vehicles, had both gone into administration. Founded in 1983 and based in Kingswinford, near Birmingham, Westfield Sports Cars specialised in Lotus Seven inspired kit cars and was often compared to Caterham. Its diversification into self-driving was initially considered an astute move and it gained many plaudits for its involvement in the landmark GATEway Project in London, Supported by Innovate UK, it went on to run a live commercial trial at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. The future seemed bright as recently as May when CEO Julian Turner was among those calling for the Government to announce primary legislation for automated vehicles (AVs). However, a slightly bizarre last hurrah – if indeed this is the end – came a few weeks ago when a Westfield Pod featured on Grace's Amazing Machines on children’s channel CBeebies. Presenter Grace Webb preferred it to the other two contenders; an electric bus and a ride-on lawnmower. Distressed business listing service, Business Sale, found that: “Westfield Autonomous Vehicles reported total assets of £1.4 million in its most recent accounts, but ended 2021 with net liabilities of close to £316,000. When Baidu, the company frequently referred to as China's Google, unveils a self- driving concept car ahead of a nearly-ready production model it deserves our attention, so here goes… Last year, Baidu announced plans to establish an electric vehicle company and formed a strategic partnership with Chinese VM, Geely. The result was JIDU and on 8 June the new start-up unveiled the ROBO-01 concept car, which supports “high-level autonomous driving.” JIDU’s CEO, Xia Yiping, commented: “The Intelligent Car 3.0 Era is the era of robocars. The transition to this new era is marked by the shift of driving power from humans to AI. The automotive industry will see a seismic shift from a revolution in energy to a revolution in product a ttributes. The ultima te goal is t o realize a fully driverless transporta tion experienc e.” The car’s futuris tic look in volves a robot-like body with butt erfly wing doors and an ad justable rear wing , while the int erior features a large integrated screen, swan-neck he adrests and a foldaway U-shaped s teering wheel. The self - driving capabilitie s are enabled b y the B aidu Apollo autonomous driving s ystem, Nvidia's dual Orin X chips and 31 e xternal sensors including two LiDAR, five millimeter-level wave radar, 12 ultrasonic r adar and 12 camer as. The aforementioned production model will be “90% similar” to the concept and will be launched in its home market first. Baidu’s JIDU unveils ROBO-01 self- driving concept car Neil Kennett looks at cutting-edge auto tech coming to a workshop near you soon AFTERMARKET OF THE FUTURE A commentator on the UK aftermarket since before Concorde was grounded, Neil is Editor of Carsofthefuture.co.uk, providing news and views about driverless vehicles, and Director of Communications at Self- drivingpr.com, experts in automotive/autonomous media and public relations