Intelligence

Billions of dollars of investment and development are paying off as major robotaxi companies plan to launch commercial ride-hailing services over the next three years.

Global automotive supplier and aluminum architectures specialist Dura is dipping its toes into BEVs by helping to design and assemble battery trays for some Mercedes EQ models, but it doesn’t plan to stop there.

General Motors has big BEV plans, aiming for 1 million sales globally by 2025. Tim Grewe is one of the execs leading the charge, and looking for ways to create stronger, lighter pack designs.

Zoox CFO Ilan Hart and Bruce Baumgartner, Vice President of Procurement & Strategic Partnerships, discuss their company, their technology and the future of personal transportation in urban areas.

Next-generation E/E architectures will create new business models for automakers and suppliers. But a Wards Intelligence survey shows few see themselves as pacesetters, and there’s some uncertainty about where the best monetization opportunities are. The massive change in operations, and the associated costs, will put constraints on the timeframe and depth of the changes in infrastructure and vehicle architectures that OEMs will be able to address.

Sean Harrington describes the Optimus Ride strategy of operating low-speed geofenced autonomous shuttles to reduce costs for communities, provide a shorter wait time than current public transportation and reduce vehicle miles traveled, pollution and traffic congestion.

“Cockpit of the future” stirs images of giant pillar-to-pillar screens and lavish immersive user experiences. Those are coming in ultra-premium luxury EVs as soon as this year, but in the world of high-volume personal vehicles and commercial trucks, there will be many different cockpits of the future, delineated by purpose, segments and price. Many won’t have screens at all; they will be BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

A top LG North American executive talks chemistries, materials, recalls and cost in a wide-ranging interview.

Ford, Argo AI and Lyft are working together to begin commercialization of autonomous Ford Escape Hybrids for ride hailing at scale through the Lyft network by the end of 2021.

The charging software and services provider owned by oil giant Shell sees more and faster charging in the future, as well as a healthy fleet business materializing.

Makers of autonomous vehicles are using development tools from leading providers such as Argo AI, Baidu, NVIDIA and Waymo as well as skateboard platforms from Canoo and Coast Autonomous to speed up production.

The U.S.’s second-largest fast-charging network after Tesla continues to grow, with a recently announced plan to double its charger count. Meanwhile, EA is finding the process to install infrastructure is getting easier and hoping the Biden infrastructure plan rewards its work.