Klimator and ZF partner up to enable autonomous vehicles in all weather conditions.
Klimator entered an associate partnership with ZF in 2022 to support the innovation project InFusion with road weather data. During the project, Klimator provides predictive and detective solution, which ZF combines with additional information sources from the vehicle.
Introduction
By combining different data sources such as dynamic vehicle data, camera data, and other sensor data, it becomes possible to describe the overall condition of the road, which vehicles can share via smart cloud solutions. Klimator contributes with expertise in road climatology, as well as predictive and detective data solutions. In the project three trucks are equipped with Klimator’s technologies which collect data for a period of six months.
What also makes this project very exciting is the possibility, thanks to the fusion between multiple data points, to define the state of the road via standardization. Such standardization is a major step forward in creating a greater understanding of how road condition data can be applied to intelligent driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles.
ZF is a global technology company supplying systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology, enabling the next generation of mobility. ZF allows vehicles to see, think and act. In the four technology domains of Vehicle Motion Control, Integrated Safety, Automated Driving, and Electric Mobility, ZF offers comprehensive product and software solutions for established vehicle manufacturers and newly emerging transport and mobility service providers. ZF electrifies a wide range of vehicle types. With its products, the company contributes to reducing emissions, protecting the climate and enhancing safe mobility. With some 157,500 employees worldwide, ZF reported sales of €38.3 billion in fiscal 2021. The company operates 188 production locations in 31 countries. For further press information and photos, please visit: www.zf.com
ZF’s Commercial Vehicle Solutions (CVS) division is helping shape the future of commercial transportation ecosystems. CVS’s mission is to be the preferred global technology partner to the commercial vehicle industry. Powerfully combining ZF’s commercial vehicle systems expertise, extensive technology portfolio and global operations, the division serves the full commercial vehicle industry value chain. As the automotive industry progresses towards an increasingly autonomous, connected, and electrified (ACE) future, ZF’s CVS division innovates, integrates and supplies components and advanced control systems that help make commercial vehicles and fleets operate more safely and sustainably. CVS unites ZF’s former Commercial Vehicle Technology and Commercial Vehicle Control Systems divisions, the latter being formed following ZF’s acquisition of WABCO in Spring 2020.
About AHEAD
AHEAD is an embedded sensor technology that analyzes the road surface and friction ahead of a vehicle in motion, in real-time. The technology is the result of over ten years of research and development within road surface classification. AHEAD provides vehicle systems with information on prevailing road surface conditions, which increases the functionality, operability, and use of advanced driver support systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) technologies.
About Road Condition Data
Road Condition Data (RCD) is a cloud-based Data-as-a-Service platform providing actionable data on current and future road surfaces, for proactive mobility. The RCD platform uses a combination of ruled-based algorithms, machine learning, and immense amounts of real-life road and environment data to provide unparalleled data. The high-resolution information enables actors within the automotive industry to increase the functionality, operability, and safety of advanced driver support systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) technologies.
