This Week in Engineering explores the latest in engineering from academia, government, and industry.
Episode Summary:
Swedish technology company Einride has inked a deal with Haier owned GE Appliances to grid a network of SAE level for self-driving electric cargo carriers for intracompany use. The units include a box truck and a flatbed capable of carrying standard 20-foot shipping containers. Einride expects to hire 2000 as the firm expands from its New York-based to include technology centres in California and Texas and in the Southeast.
Two Taiwan based major manufacturers have teamed up to launch a new line of electric vehicles. Hon Hai Technology Group and Yulon Motor Group have launched three new EV’s under the Foxtron brand. The lineup includes a crossover SUV, a luxury sedan and an urban route bus. Technology was designed entirely in-house, and the Foxtron joint venture is itself teaming with Japanese electric motor maker Nidec to create a line of electric vehicle powertrain components as a Tier 1 supplier to the industry. Hon Hai is no stranger to mass production. In the West, it is better known as Foxconn, the maker of Apple iPhones.
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Transcript of this week’s show:
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Segment 1: Robo taxis and self-driving cars are everywhere in the news these days, but they’re not the only segments of the autonomous vehicle industry that are showing rapid advancement. The Swedish autonomous, electric truck maker Einride has announced a partnership with GE Appliances for large-scale implementation of self-driving electric trucks on US soil.
The pod like cargo units will operate in GE Appliance operations in Tennessee, Georgia and GE’s massive 750-acre Appliance Park campus in Louisville, Kentucky. In their first year of operation, GE Appliances expects to displace 970 tons of CO2. The program represents the first large-scale implementation of an automated, electric freight delivery system in the US. Einride expects to sell its SAE level IV systems at volume in the US market, and has announced a New York headquarters, with Austin, San Francisco and an unnamed Southeastern location as a regional headquarters.
Einride expects to hire 2000 employees, including some for a new type of job, remote pod operator. Operating like an air traffic control system, human oversight of multiple autonomous vehicles is expected to add a level of safety and may appeal to regulators wary of licensing autonomous goods carrying vehicles on public roads. Einride’s previously developed European pods will be replaced in America with a US specific model, including a flatbed designed to accommodate standard 20-foot shipping containers.
The company intends to offer a 5G enabled software suite that allows route planning and capacity management over wide networks. Einride estimates that approximate 40% of US trucking could be replaced with this or similar technologies at the same or lower costs than human driven, diesel trucks.
Segment 2: Well, another day another new electric car, or so it seems with the rapid pace of development in the EV space. The latest entrant into the market? Taiwan based Hon Hai Technology Group, who’ve announced three new electric vehicles developed entirely in-house. The initial lineup is an electric bus, a crossover SUV and a sedan. The three vehicles have rolled out less than a year after Hon Hai and Yulon Motor Group, one of Taiwan’s “Big Four” automakers, announced a joint venture for EV technology development.
The Model C is the first model built on Hon Hai’s electric vehicle open platform and is a seven- seater crossover that carries a very competitive 0.27 drag coefficient. The company states acceleration for 0 to 100 km/h, that’s 0 to 62 mph, in 3.8 seconds with extended range of 700 km or 420 miles. The Model E is a flagship luxury sedan designed in collaboration with Pininfarina and features rear seat space that transforms into a dedicated mobile office, including smart windows, extensive personal mobile device interfaces and doors that open by face recognition. Power output is 750 hp, and the large sedan accelerates from zero to one hundred kilometres an hour in a scant 2.8 seconds. Range is 750 km, or 450 miles.
The company’s electric offering that’s more likely to be widely experienced is the Model T urban bus. Performance specifications include a 120 KPH top speed, just over 70 mph, and range in typical use conditions is 400 km or 280 miles. Significantly, the bus meets US Federal Transit Administration regulations and standards. The vehicles will be marketed by joint venture company called Foxtron, who themselves have entered a joint venture arrangement with Japanese electric motor manufacturer Nidec to create a range of electric vehicle powertrain assemblies as a Tier 1 supplier to the industry. Can this latest EV maker succeed in a crowded market?
Well, the Foxtron name is not by accident. Hon Hai Technology Group is better known in Western markets as Foxconn, famous as the maker of Apple smart phones. With extensive consumer goods manufacturing experience, including semiconductors and critically, batteries, Hon Hai may be the non-automaker with the highest level of expertise necessary to succeed in the automotive market.
