CS1 Steer-by-Wire Pre-Industrialisation Demonstration Project

自动驾驶汽车即将到来--这只是一个何时的问题。在过去十年的失败承诺之后，实现安全自主移动所需的核心技术(自动驾驶软件、雷达、摄像头、激光雷达)已经显著成熟。然而，要让世界真正实现自动移动的好处，车辆需要能够不受限制地运行。虽然限速试验正在城市和城市环境中进行，但世界上任何地方都没有自动驾驶(AD)车辆在高速高速公路上行驶。除非AD车辆能够在高速路上的人口中心附近运行，否则无法实现方便、廉价、始终可用的人员和货物运输以及它们带来的广泛社会和环境效益的商业案例。这种不受限制的运营的主要障碍是缺乏专门为AD车辆设计的安全关键转向和制动驱动系统。传统的制动系统是基于故障安全概念设计的，在系统发生故障时，人类驾驶员提供后备激励力来制动并将车辆转向安全位置。在AD车辆中，故障安全系统根本不适合，因为单点故障将使系统完全无法操作，没有其他方法来控制车辆。与这类故障相关的车辆乘员和其他道路使用者面临的风险以指数级速度增加。故障操作系统是必须的--系统设计为即使在系统故障的情况下也能正常运行和发挥作用，确保车辆始终具有转向和刹车的能力。目前，汽车转向和制动供应商的寡头垄断无法进入AD市场。它们的遗留结构导致开发成本膨胀和交货期延长，根本无法满足AD软件和平台开发人员快速变化的需求。底盘自主是一家没有任何传统包袱的初创企业，我们的线控转向系统是一种全新的故障操作设计，在其第一代伪装下，已经实现了概念验证。我们的第二代系统将于2022年9月完成构建和组装，我们将利用这项快速启动拨款保持发展势头，并在专用功能测试台上向市场和我们的客户展示我们技术的独特技术能力。

Autonomous vehicles are coming - it is simply a question of when. After the failed promises of the last decade, the core technologies (autonomous driving software, radars, cameras, lidars) that are required to enable safe autonomous mobility have matured significantly. However, for the world to truly realise the benefits of autonomous mobility, vehicles need to be able to operate without restrictions. Whilst restricted speed trials are taking place in cities and urban environments, there are no autonomously driven (AD) vehicles operating across high-speed motorways anywhere in the world. Until AD vehicles are able to operate around population centres on high-speed roads, the business case for the convenient, cheap, always available transport of people and goods and wide societal and environmental benefits that they bring simply will not be achieved.The major barrier to this unrestricted operation is the lack of safety critical steering and braking actuation systems that are designed specifically for use in AD vehicles. Conventional actuation systems are designed upon a fail-safe concept, where in the event of a system failure, the human driver provides the back-up actuation force to brake and steer the vehicle to a safe position. In an AD vehicle, fail-safe systems are simply not suitable because a single point failure will render the system completely inoperable with no other means to control the vehicle. The risks to the vehicle occupants and other roads users associated with this type of failure increase exponentially at speed.Fail-operational systems are a must -- systems that are designed to operate and function normally even in the event of a system failure, ensuring that the vehicle always have the capacity to steer and brake the vehicle.The oligopoly of automotive steering and braking suppliers is unable to enter the AD market at this time. Their legacy structures lead to inflated development costs and extended lead-times, and they simply cannot meet the fast-moving requirements of AD software and platform developers. Chassis Autonomy is a start-up with none of the legacy baggage, our steer-by-wire system is a ground up fail-operational design that in its first-generation guise, already achieved proof of concept.Our second-generation system will complete build and assembly in September 2022 and we will use this fast start grant to maintain development momentum and demonstrate the unique technical capacity of our technology to the market and our customer pipeline on a dedicated functional test rig.