ZF Claims Smartest AV Supercomputer Yet

Greg Hyde

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10th January 2019

ZF is claiming to have developed “the most powerful AI-capable supercomputer” yet for the autonomous vehicle and mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) sectors.

The component maker collaborated with French transit major Transdev on the tech and is showcasing it at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. It says the ProAI RoboThink supercomputer’s sensors can analyze and react to almost any traffic situation in real time. ZF claims this will enable MaaS companies to operate “Level 4+” AVs.

The RoboThink is linked to ZF’s cloud and the company is using a robo-taxi to demonstrate it. The company claims it is capable of making 600 trillion real-time calculations per second from data taken from vehicle-to-everything (V2X) tech and its cloud. This will purportedly help AVs operate on public highways as opposed to restricted areas like college campuses.

ZF says Nvidia is using the RoboThink for the launch of its Drive AutoPilot system for “Level 2+” AVs. It describes the supercomputer as “open, flexible, modular, and scalable”, and as offering compatibility with multiple operating systems.

The component maker is also demonstrating its software stack aimed at MaaS operators at CES, along with the People Mover autonomous electric minibus it has developed with German start-up e.GO. The two companies are claiming Transdev’s MaaS unit as the first buyer of People Movers.

ZF says the vehicles have no pedals or steering wheels and are driven by a combination of “mechatronic actuators”, sensors, and safety and connectivity tech.