Hi
@cosors,
I know you have completely written off both ZF and Bosch, but personally I wouldn’t discount either one. Nor Continental. (Fun fact: Conti’s headquarters of the Division for Driver Assistance Systems (ADC Automotive Distance Control Systems GmbH) are in Lindau, less than 30 km from the ZF headquarters.)
In 2019, ZF had acquired a 35% stake in ASAP, but sold it last year, together with other shareholders, to a subsidiary of Indian company HCL Technologies, Inc. that now owns 100%.
Munich — ZF Friedrichshafen AG has sold its stake in ASAP Holding GmbH together with other shareholders to a subsidiary of the Indian company HCL Technologies, Inc. sold. ZF was advised on this transaction by Gütt Olk Feldhaus. ZF Friedrichshafen AG acquired a 35% stake in ASAP Holding GmbH in...
www.fyb.de
StradVision have an office in Friedrichshafen as well, so the number plate could be indicative of either them or ZF, but since I couldn’t find any immediate link between StradVision and ASAP, the (leftover?) ASAP gadget made me think this could still be a ZF-owned (or at least pre-loved one, leased or sold to StradVision) vehicle. But you are right, it would be weird of ZF to use their competitor’s radar… Mind you, they may want to try out their rival’s product!
(Although it seems to be a decade-old model, so not exactly cutting-edge).
StradVision’s second German office is in Meerbusch, so that’s maybe why you spotted the car somewhere in Cologne (I assume). StradVision’s guy there used to work for Conti in Korea, so could that possibly be an explanation for the StradVision car being equipped with a radar by a rival of one of the company’s strategic investors?
View attachment 60998
That’s only partially correct, though. While it is true that both ZF and Bosch abandoned the development of autonomous vehicle LiDAR sensors, they are of course still very much in the ADAS business and continue to develop other sensors for driver assistance systems, such as radar, ultrasound, camera…
Last year, ZF won the AutomotiveINNOVATIONS 2023 award for their 4D Imaging Radar. Earlier this year, they revealed they had developed a smart seat belt and recently rebranded their Passive Safety Systems Division to ZF LIFETEC. This carve-out sounds promising as to potential future implementation of our tech, when we recall the OnSemi collaboration on smart airbags, revealed during CES 2024.
https://press.zf.com/press/de/releases/release_58434.html (German only)
Rebranding is a key milestone in ongoing carve-out process Sales reached around €4.7 billion in 2023 Business supported by automotive industry trends and increasing safety regulations ZF Group exploring further options to develop ZF LIFETEC Friedrichshafen, Germany. ZF Group has announced...
press.zf.com
View attachment 60994
View attachment 60993
As for Bosch giving up their LiDAR R&D, my (admittedly amateurish) guess is they finally had to concede that their major competitors (Valeo & Luminar come to mind) were way too far ahead in that race, so they eventually decided to drop out and instead focus on areas where they’d stand a chance of leading the pack.
Bosch, the global leader among Tier 1 automotive suppliers, recently announced its exit from the development of high-end autonomous vehicle LiDAR sensors and that it is reallocating its resources toward mmWave radar and other sensing technologies.
www.digitimes.com
Not reading past the 2023 headlines about Bosch abandoning LiDAR R&D and turning to mmWave sensors instead, could give readers the impression that over time, the Bosch engineers had come to the conclusion that LiDAR is not as indispensable for the future of automated and autonomous driving as is widely believed in the industry. (With one prominent e
Xception, that is.)
However, once you read on, you will find that a company spokeswoman told the press at the time that Bosch still viewed LiDAR technology as important for automated driving from Level 3 upwards and would continue seeking to integrate LiDAR products into automated driving functions.
www.sueddeutsche.de
View attachment 60996
That statement signals to me that abandoning LiDAR R&D is indeed testament to admitting defeat rather than dismissing the technology as redundant for automated and autonomous vehicle applications like Elon Musk has done, ploughing a lone furrow.
Depending on the circumstances, it may actually be wise for a company to resist succumbing to the sunk cost fallacy, but instead pull the ripcord, reposition and restructure, although a lot of money has already gone down the drain (not to mention all the blood, sweat and tears!). Yet, undoubtedly immensely frustrating for everyone involved. And add to that losing face in the public eye and having to endure their rivals’ Schadenfreude (gloating). Well, not so much in this case, as none of the three German Tier 1 automotive suppliers ended up successfully developing competitive LiDAR sensors: In late 2023, Continental - the last one standing, so to say - informed their partner AEye that they intended to discontinue their joint LiDAR development program due to internal restructuring of their business model.
But why should abandoning LiDAR R&D preclude a company from being or becoming a BrainChip customer? There are so many other types of sensors around that BrainChip can potentially make smart, in the automotive sector and elsewhere…
By the way: Just a gentle reminder that another division of Bosch, Bosch Sensortec, partnered with MegaChips in 2015. So if they got or were to get access to our tech via MegaChips, we may never actually get to see a direct IP license from them. As mentioned so often, we’ll have to resort to watching the financials.
