One of the greatest threats to autonomous cars is getting consumers to trust a robot car with their lives. This is a big step beyond trusting a car not to break down when going from point A to B. Trust is built over time, along with the autonomous systems that will deliver that trust.<\/P><\/p>\n
In the end, this may be no different from driving with your child who\u2019s learning to drive or just got their driver\u2019s license. They may not be able to elegantly handle an unforeseen emergency situation that wasn\u2019t part of their training, but they know that most of the time when all else fails, you can get out of trouble by just remembering to do this. Hopefully, it won\u2019t be too far in the future that autonomous technology will have a built-in \u201cdon\u2019t forget to just do this\u201d app when it seems all else will fail. Only then will trust be established between our robot drivers and us.<\/P><\/p>\n
In the final part of our conversation, we discussed how vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication and safety systems could accelerate the practical use of autonomous cars, and how Mentor will improve Siemens\u2019 ability to deliver solutions for the future auto industry.<\/P><\/p>\n
EDWARD BERNARDON: Many feel that incorporating vehicle to infrastructure [V2I] or vehicle to vehicle [V2V] communication \u2013 where an autonomous or human-driven car knows about cars they see, but also about unseen cars, traffic lights, and pedestrians \u2013 will improve safety. <\/STRONG><\/P> ANDREW MACLEOD: <\/STRONG>Let me answer that in two stages.<\/P> Another use-case could be two or three square miles of a defined downtown area only for autonomous vehicles, with a vehicle talking-to-vehicle infrastructure. Also, eventually, we could have driven from coast to coast \u2013 Tesla is planning to do that this year with their fully autonomous vehicles<\/A>.<\/P><\/p>\n However, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s going to be a digital switch. I don\u2019t think in Germany that anyone is going to give up their Mercedes Benz S Class on the Autobahn at 220 km an hour to go fully autonomous. I think there\u2019s always going to be a market for people that want to have a car that can take away some of the stress of city driving or take over on the highway, but people are always going to want to drive for the foreseeable future. A couple of generations from now, who knows? I think there\u2019s going to be staged implementation of autonomous driving<\/A>.<\/P><\/p>\n Into the part of V-to-X [vehicle to everything]. V-to-V and V-to-I, it should be considered another sensor input in the car. There\u2019s more mapping data coming in with radar, LIDAR, camera, and there are many sensory inputs the vehicle can have, and I think V-to-X and V-to-I are hugely important. If you have some accident occurring two or three square miles down the road, and all the cars are pinging each other, alerting each other and diverting each other, that\u2019s fantastic technology that will exist.<\/P><\/p>\n Then, eventually, we probably won\u2019t even need traffic lights. Cars will just be talking to each other and stopping \u2013 assuming they are fully autonomous systems, and assuming it\u2019s in that defined downtown area, where there\u2019s no crazy human driver that can step in there and upset the whole system.<\/P><\/p>\n I consider that another set of input, and I think it\u2019s going to be a major part of autonomous driving in the context of new mobility, like the robo-taxis I mentioned earlier. <\/P><\/p>\n EDWARD BERNARDON: It was impressive when Otto did the autonomous delivery<\/A> of a tractor-trailer full of Budweiser beer. So that\u2019s probably where it\u2019ll start, delivering packages.<\/STRONG><\/P> ANDREW MACLEOD: <\/STRONG>Yes! I\u2019m really excited about the opportunity of putting the two companies together and looking at what Siemens has in terms of automotive. It\u2019s mindboggling to see the capability when you put it all together.<\/P> When I was working in China, I think it was Siemens Industrial at that time, we were very active in providing electric motors<\/A> to a whole bunch of carmakers – very ahead of the game. Then look at all the digital factory capabilities<\/A> and all of the new manufacturing techniques that are going to be required in data continuity and digital twin<\/A>.<\/P><\/p>\n Coming down the pyramid, with Mentor providing platform capabilities, and a physical, centralized processing unit for complete autonomous drive or connected car, and also providing all of the vehicle architecture tools that go with it, it\u2019s difficult to think of any other company globally with the scale, reach, sales capability, customer relationships and leading technology for automotive. Who else has all of that capability?<\/P><\/p>\n It\u2019s all leading edge; it\u2019s all forward-looking. What I\u2019ve noticed when talking to people in Siemens is that they are very enlightened concerning automotive. Great ideas are coming in the next 10 to 15 years, and the portfolio reflects that. I think it\u2019s a good culture fit. And Mentor people think the same way; we are all looking far into the future and seeing where the opportunities lie.<\/P><\/p>\n Importantly, I don\u2019t think that either company feels the need to be excellent at absolutely everything. We want to choose the areas where we can be unique, differentiated and provide number one market position solutions. <\/P><\/p>\n However, even considering that the capability of the two companies is, I think, fantastic, and it\u2019s very exciting to think about the future.<\/P><\/p>\n Final thoughts<\/STRONG> This concludes my interview series with Andrew Macleod \u2013 special thanks to Andrew for taking the time to speak with me.<\/EM><\/P><\/p>\n About the author<\/STRONG> Automotive companies are working to figure out how software and hardware will best work together in autonomous cars, and they\u2019re turning toward companies with electronic design automation experience …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45480,"featured_media":940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,25],"industry":[120],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-autonomous-vehicles","tag-cars-of-the-future","industry-automotive-transportation"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2019\/09\/Autonomous-Systems_V2I-Communication-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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How important do you think that incorporation of vehicle to infrastructure communication is to accelerating the practical uses of autonomous cars by making them safer sooner? <\/STRONG><\/P><\/p>\n
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The first stage would be when the autonomous vehicles become prevalent on the road. We would tend to think of this in digital terms, as binary, going from 0 to 1. So, we are going from having no autonomous cars, to having everything autonomous on the road, which is very unlikely. We\u2019ll probably see autonomous trucks used in defined areas, mostly highway driving, as a practical use case. Moreover, we already see a substantial development<\/A> of this in Europe and North America.<\/P><\/p>\n![\"Autonomous](\"http:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2019\/09\/Autonomous-Systems_V2I-Communication-1.png\" "\\"Autonomous")
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Now that Mentor Graphics is part of Siemens, how do you think this is going to improve the ability of Siemens overall to deliver solutions for the future of the automotive industry?
<\/STRONG><\/P><\/p>\n
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With the whole V-to-X capability that exists somewhere in the company \u2013 I\u2019m still trying to get my head around the scale of this company, it\u2019s huge.<\/P><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve touched on many things related to the development and safety of autonomous cars. Most important is the distinction between the autonomous systems we\u2019re starting to see on the roads, and the robot car that will be a trusted companion for travel.<\/P>
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The acquisition of Mentor will help Siemens provide the engineering tools needed for autonomous car systems development. However, as Macleod pointed out, it\u2019s more critical for companies to focus on their strengths and develop the partnerships needed to succeed in this new, evolving market.<\/P><\/p>\n
Edward Bernardon<\/STRONG> is vice president of strategic automotive initiatives for the Specialized Engineering Software business segment of Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division. Bernardon joined the company when Siemens acquired Vistagy, Inc. in December, 2011. During his 17 year tenure with Vistagy, Bernardon assumed the roles of vice president of sales, and later business development for all specialized engineering software products. Prior to Vistagy, Bernardon directed the Automation and Design Technology Group at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, formerly the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed new manufacturing processes, automated equipment and complementary design software tools. Bernardon received an engineering degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, and later received an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Butler University. He also holds numerous patents in the area of automated manufacturing systems, robotics and laser technologies.<\/EM><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"