Aftermarket December/January 2023

22 AFTERMARKET DECEMBER/JANUARY 2023 TECHNICAL/AFTERMARKET OF THE FUTURE www.aftermarketonline.net Level 5? VW concept claim goes largely unchallenged In late September, at the glamorous Chantilly Arts & Elegance event, near Paris, Volkswagen Group unveiled the Gen.Travel, an all-electric Level 5 concept vehicle, apparently. “The all-electric powered Innovation Experience Vehicle (IEV) is a real prototype that drives autonomously (Level 5) and gives a realistic outlook for the mobility of the coming decade,” said the VW blurb. Sounds amazing. Dr. Nikolai Ardey, Head of Volkswagen Group Innovation, said: “With Gen.Travel, we can already experience today what will be possible in the near future with innovative technology. Door- to-door travel at a new level. Emission-free and stress-free.” Are VW really claiming to have cracked Level 5? That’s certainly the impression given by some reports.“Volkswagen is presenting a new way of traveling in luxury and relaxation, with its new vehicle prototype featuring Level 5 autonomy that takes the wheel all the way from departure to arrival,” said Tech Times. A quick reminder, the SAE international standard describes Level 5 as: “Can drive everywhere in all conditions”. That’s quite an ask. For context, back in 2020, Kevin Vincent, Direcdifficult; I sometimes wonder if it will be possible, and whether people will even want it.” Not a problem, supposedly VW have sorted it! Autonomy’s London City Summit, at the Southbank Centre in October, featured a great line-up of speakers on subjects ranging from self-driving tech to last-mile logistics. The overriding theme was the UK as a showcase for the safe adoption of self-driving; How our world-class testing facilities and sensible standards make us a prime location for investment. The event was sponsored by Bosch, with a keynote by their head of autonomous transport solutions, Olaf Monz.“It’s not about selling a vehicle anymore, it’s about shaping an ecosystem,” he said, talking of the partnership with British software company, Five AI, which Bosch acquired earlier this year. He promised that Bosch’s approach would be “chip agnostic” and referred to “the magic moment when you can remove the driver”. There followed a short video of Bosch’s self- driving car navigating an 18km route around Stuttgart at speeds of up to 100km/h. Next up was a panel moderated by Professor Nick Reed, of Reed Mobility, and featuring Connor Champ, lawyer on the Automated Vehicles Project at the Law Commission of England and Wales, and Jakob Kammerer, Senior Product Manager at Bosch. Connor Champ detailed how the government had accepted virtually all of the Law Commission’s recommendations. Notably, encouraging “a no blame safety culture”, with a regulator similar to the Civil Aviation Authority. However, when it came to measuring safety, ”people disagreed with every suggested metric,” he said. Kammerer poetically referred to “the beauty in software” in Bosch’s pioneering work on verification and validation. “Our trials show that people are curious about self-driving,” he said. “Transparency always helps. We explain what we are doing and why – to make improved mobility for everyone. Once they see that a product is good, that it works and solves a problem, they will adopt it very quickly.” Other highlights from the day included Professor Bani Anvari, of University College London, outlining the impressive facilities at UCL’s new Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory (PEARL) in East London, where they create all manner of life-sized surroundings and examine how people interact with them. Economist Margarethe Theseira, Hhead of UK Consulting at Buro Happold, looked at the costs and benefits of self-driving – the likelihood that “the real benefits will come when everything is fully automated”, but also her worry that “it will be a rich person’s toy”. She noted that car ownership is already much lower among lower income groups, resulting in restricted access to mobility.The stat of the day was the Transport for London target that, by 2041, 80% of journeys in the capital should be either by public transport or active travel. London City Summit: Preparing the capital for safe self-driving 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