Press Release

Electronics Research Laboratory, Volkswagen of America, Inc.

 

Dr. Carlo Rummel, Executive Director Electronics Research Laboratory

Dr. Arne Stoschek, Head of Displays, Sensors and Materials

 

The quest for the intelligent car of the future

 

The Volkswagen Group's Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) is helping to accelerate the development of the "intelligent" car of the future. Potential technologies are analysed, rapidly brought to production maturity and the customer thus enabled to benefit from them even more swiftly.

 

The ERL in Palo Alto, California (USA), is the main electronics research centre of the Volkswagen Group. Located at the heart of Silicon Valley, it enables the group to collaborate directly with many of the world's leading high-tech companies, budding hardware and software companies, and university research institutes. The close partnership between the ERL and these partners promotes the design and development of innovative equipment and applications, which are then installed in test vehicles of the group brands for further analysis and trials.

 

The ERL is active in many different areas of technology. The assembly of prototypes featuring various electronic and mechanical components takes place directly in the research laboratory, which operates with complete autonomy. The team of around 40 engineers and designers acts as a kind of think tank or trend scout for the group. Each electronic component in a vehicle - displays, instruments, switches, speech recognition, wireless communication and driver assistance systems - is considered for future extensions to specifications: new technologies that make Audi and other group models safer, more comfortable and altogether more appealing.

 

The research work produces new developments that help to differentiate the products from the competition; these are innovations that make the vehicles more efficient. The work of the ERL simultaneously boosts the technical expertise of the company. It is also emerging as a knowledge centre for electronics in North America, and this specialist knowledge is benefiting all markets and regions.

 

The ERL fulfils its tasks through internal expertise and external partnerships. Its team of engineers and managers tracks down new technologies, develops prototypes, defines suitable applications, coordinates special development activities and supplies the group with new ideas. As soon as an interesting development focus in a new technical area has been identified, the ERL uses its links with research groups in industry and at universities to gain access to the corresponding expertise. The ERL's location in Silicon Valley allows it to collaborate easily with North America's most innovative high-tech and start-up companies, as well as with leading US universities.

 

Closely intertwined with the Group

 

The ERL operates in close consort with the corresponding European development departments of the Volkswagen Group, and in particular with Audi's electronics development activities. The managers of group research activities and of the individual brands' electronics development operations sit on ERL's steering committee and determine the direction of the research and development activities in Palo Alto.

 

Via this direct link, the research topics are coordinated and the composition of the ERL project portfolio determined. This steering committee also constitutes the highest decision-making level of the American ERL and Volkswagen/Audi in Germany. The individual ERL project managers of course maintain intensive communication with the German "project clients" for each brand, thus regarding ERL as a service provider.

 

The clients here are the groups of the individual European research and development areas that call upon ERL applications in order to consider them as part of their product strategies and business areas. Conversely, the close ties with the head office in Germany provide ERL's engineers with a unique opportunity to put ideas into practice very directly and very rapidly.

 

In addition to day-to-day communication with the specialist departments, the ERL presents the latest status of its work in Wolfsburg and Ingolstadt at least every six months. The ERL furthermore takes part in in-house research congresses and regularly stages presentations on its current projects. These events enable Management Board members, management personnel, project clients, engineers and other actively interested parties to get to know the latest prototypes and results at first hand. These demonstrations generally apply to several vehicles with integrated applications and are combined with a range of interactive test setups.

 

Trend scout and research agency - tasks of the Electronics Research Laboratory

 

One of the main tasks of the ERL is to evaluate new technologies and accelerate their final implementation in volume production. The ERL, as the Volkswagen Group's primary technology research and development establishment in the United States, also performs other tasks: for example, the research laboratory acts as a kind of scout with the purpose of identifying and analysing new technological trends in North America, defining US-specific characteristics and participating in product development work for an array of research tasks within the group. Higher-level research activities of the ERL include the areas of technological early detection, research and advance development.

 

Technologies are rarely suited to the car industry in the early stages of their development, up to 10 years before a production application, because it is often not yet possible to guarantee the strict cost limits and standards of durability. Technical evolution is nevertheless progressing rapidly and unremittingly. In an increasingly technology-driven market, car manufacturers can therefore never afford to overlook a concept that could represent a competitive advantage.

 

This applies in particular measure to a brand such as Audi, with its pledge of "Vorsprung durch Technik".

 

The ERL projects in the area of technological early detection are consequently intended to investigate the suitability of new technologies for automotive use and evaluate the potential customer benefit. In order to achieve these goals, the ERL establishes contacts with suppliers and research institutes, evaluates samples or prototypes and establishes the link for implementing ideas directly in automotive applications.

 

The research area with a time horizon of 5-10 years plays an important role especially in a branch of industry in which the life-cycle of a product can be up to a decade. This is because key features and specifications are defined several years before market launch. It is evident from a glance at the timescale that for a concept earmarked for launch in 2010, it may be necessary to present and approve many of the details by as early as 2005. Within this process, the ERL engineers assume the task of integrating future cutting-edge technologies into functioning equipment specifications in order to demonstrate their features in vehicles. This is the only way that product planners have the opportunity to consider new technologies in terms of customer benefit and incorporate these ideas into future draft vehicle designs.

 

If new technologies have been refined and perfected in preparation for production, they can be comprehensively tested as part of advance development, within five years of market launch. In this domain, the ERL cooperates with the suppliers in order to develop production-ready components and systems that satisfy the specifications of a production development.

 

One topical example of the close partnership between the ERL and the Electronics Development department at Audi is the technological contributions towards the study vehicle Audi allroad quattro concept, unveiled at the 2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit: the Audi Road Vision System, nanocoated water-repellent glass and OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays in the MMI operating unit.

 

Here are some of the details:

Audi road vision, a sensor system that identifies the condition and properties of the road surface, represents a quantum leap in active driving safety. Its operating principle is as follows: the road surface ahead of the vehicle is scanned using a combination of laser and infrared spectroscopy. The frequency-optimised LEDs of the headlights act as the light source in the infrared range. The sensor technology located behind the windscreen picks up the rays of light that are reflected by the road and characteristically modulated. This puts the system in a position not merely to distinguish between wet and dry or icy surfaces, but also to identify road surfaces with a specific grip, such as concrete, various types of tarmac or gravel. The two separate units furthermore make it possible to identify differences between the surface conditions on the right and left sides. The system also supplies crucial supplementary parameters for the electronic stabilisation program ESP and the adaptive cruise control ranging system, enabling them to respond with even greater foresight.

 

OLED technology uses an organic polymer material that appreciably improves presentation and ease of reading. Compared with the conventional liquid crystal displays (LCD), an OLED monitor is substantially easier to read, above all with the sun shining on it and when viewed at an angle. The content displayed on the monitor can still be made out from an angle of 170 degrees. Other advantages of OLED are its shallow installation depth and very short response times, as well as a much lower energy consumption than LCD displays.

 

The ERL conducts research in nine different areas:

 

 

Interdisciplinary pioneer of technology - now well established in Silicon Valley

 

The research laboratory was set up in 1998 with an initial line-up of five employees. The ERL now has almost 40 members of staff and is currently involved in more than a dozen projects. Originally intended to scout for trends and technologies, the ERL now covers a range of tasks that covers virtually the entire electronics development process, from classic research to highly specialised advance development. Between 2002 and the present day, the personnel levels and infrastructure were expanded in order to handle all the new tasks. Electrical, mechanical and automotive engineers, programmers, materials specialists and social scientists were recruited to swell the ranks of the original personnel. It was at this time that ERL moved from its original base in Sunnyvale, California, to its present location in Palo Alto.

 

The ERL currently employs some 40 employees, around 75 percent of who are engineers and project managers. The management personnel are extremely well qualified and experienced in the automotive and high-tech industries. The directors coordinate several specialised groups of engineers and attach considerable importance to close cooperation with Wolfsburg and Ingolstadt. The core team, which devotes itself to handling specific tasks, is a culturally highly diverse group of mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, software engineers, social scientists and designers. These technical staff members, all with a degree or doctorate, are specialists in at least one of ERL's areas of research. The individual specialist departments are: Vehicle Integration; Displays, Materials and Sensor Technology; Data Transfer and Data Processing. The common intention of all groups is to rapidly develop innovative technologies. A typical ERL team comprises members of all groups. A comprehensive partnership programme with leading universities such as nearby Stanford University furthermore provides an excellent basis for the recruitment of innovative young people. The entire ERL team is committed to creating a productive, challenging working environment.

Audi Customers and electronics (Part 1)

Audi Electronics Centre as a process-chain building (Part 2)

Audi quality as the basis for success (Part 3)

Audi Electronics Venture GmbH (Part 4)

Audi Electronics Research Laboratory - Research in Silicon Valley (Part 5)

Audi Connectivity: integration and interfaces for multimedia (Part 6)

Audi transformation of the car into a mobile concert hall (Part 7)

Audi A8 Bang & Olufsen Advanced Sound System (Part 8)

Audi innovative solutions and future trends at the driver's workplace (Part 9)

Audi Driver Assistance (Part 10)