Simulation will play a central role in enabling the use of electric and autonomous vehicles, refined with connectivity and AI/ML. By Marco Lanfrit
Electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous vehicles (AVs), increasing use of electronics, and AI/ML are the automotive industry’s future—that’s a given. But the path between now and the future is full of questions about how and when OEMs will achieve widespread use of these innovations, their safety, and their effectiveness in helping consumers travel.
The jury is still out on answers. And in some cases, trust is low; recent research from Startline Motor Insurance found that just23% of people would travel in an AV, for instance. So, if automakers want to deliver exciting new products, they need to leverage next-generation technologies to remove uncertainties, innovate at speed and scale, and verify safety, all whilst being cost-effective. To achieve this, they can turn to simulation. But how exactly can the tech help to bring the future into the present?
Going green with EVs
First up: EVs. Their benefits have already caught consumers’ attention, but enabling a widespread transition to electric does not come without its challenges. Improving efficiency is tricky for automakers. Adding one or more battery modules significantly increases a car’s weight, which then requires the size of the electric motor to be adjusted, and additional cooling brought in. Suddenly, the vehicle is far heavier, and more of the battery’s energy is being consumed.
Engineers can use simulation to push the boundaries of a vehicle’s designs to find greater efficiencies before a physical car is even built. Simulation can be used to test and optimise a design in minutes, which allows OEMs to decrease their overall time to market, and evolve their electrification strategies faster, at scale, and more cost-effectively.
Enabling a driverless future with AVs
Despite a lack of consumer trust, progress in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and AVs is not slowing down. In fact, the UK government has announced up to £150m in funding for developing self-driving technologies. But if people are going to relinquish the steering wheel, manufacturers must be able to confidently demonstrate that an AV has been proven safe.
In fact, AV safety goes beyond a set of standards. It’s a long development arc that involves thousands of use cases—some of which are still unknown—to prove that the car is safer than a human driver. To help here, engineers can combine simulation at scale with statistics and scenario-based analysis; they can also use simulation for perception testing and sensor behaviour validation.
With simulation, automakers can demonstrate how an AV would react in any number of conditions, including poor weather and varying terrains. This helps validate a product, mitigate consumer concerns, and take driver-assistive and autonomous safety features to market faster.
Taking connectivity and AI to the next level
One impact of developing electrification and automation applications is the need for more electronics on a vehicle. This further increases when bringing connectivity applications like sensors, GPS, 5G connectivity, and automotive radar into the mix. Insights shared from data gathering via all these modalities will inform the ML that enables autonomous vehicle function. All of this data sharing is enabled by connectivity, requiring multiple antennas working simultaneously, in a limited space. The success of these exchanges is intrinsically tied to their function.
Simulation allows engineers to predict antenna operation, and ensure strategic placement to minimise any interference between them, therefore minimising malfunctions impacting the flow of information necessary to successful vehicle operations. Moreover, engineers can also leverage AI/ML to understand how antennas will perform in different scenarios, including the use of training data sets to predict radiation patterns.
Despite the challenges, one thing’s for sure: simulation will play a central role in the automotive industry’s future, and will help enable the widespread use of electric and autonomous vehicles, refined with connectivity and AI/ML.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.
Marco Lanfrit is Business Development Executive, Automotive, at Ansys
The AutomotiveWorld.com Comment column is open to automotive industry decision makers and influencers. If you would like to contribute a Comment article, please contact editorial@automotiveworld.com