The supplier ZF and the US Navy business Beep want to launch a thousand autonomous shuttles in the United States.
In cooperation with the US offshoot of the French Navya The Upper Swabian supplier wants the company IF are flooding the US market for autonomous shuttles. This was announced by a ZF spokesman at the CES in Las Vegas.
beep regards himself as one MaaScompany and will implement the ZF shuttles. According to the manufacturer, these reach level 4, which is also presented at the CES. At level 4, one can already speak of autonomous driving, since the computer can handle most traffic scenarios. The shuttle will work together with the startup Oxbotica built. In this way, the software should be able to cope well with urban environments.
The last generation of ZF shuttles could only operate in defined lanes. Together with its own subsidiary 2getthere, the vehicles are used in Rotterdam and Masdar City. In total, ZF claims to have covered 62 million autonomous kilometers and transported 14 million people in the process.
The shuttle will also have the ZF ProConnect V2X network, the ZF ProAI chip and infotainment features. ZF’s Pro AI computing unit combines several systems-on-a-chip (SoC) from different suppliers in one hardware unit. It should be more efficient and take up less space. The computing power should increase by 50 percent.
The ZF shuttle will be able to transport 22 people with 15 seats. The vehicle is wheelchair accessible as required by US law and has a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. Later the speed should double.
Together with Beep, ZF intends to deliver a thousand shuttles over the next few years. Production is scheduled to really take off in 2025. It is still unclear where the turnkey shuttles will be used.