Intensifying demand for solutions that will make autonomous vehicles a reality has put suppliers such as ZF Friedrichshafen in an awkward position.

Instead of following the traditional auto business model of just providing components for future self-driving cars, suppliers are either building their own autonomous vehicles or providing the bulk of the components for self-driving solutions.



“It is not our aim to be a people mover manufacturer,” ZF CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider said. “We just need the speed right now to get the whole value chain on the road.”



ZF’s joint venture for full-electric, connected and automated shuttles starts production of the e.Go Mover this year. Output of the e.Go Mover is targeted to reach a five-digit figure in two to three years, with an unspecified number of people movers set to go to Transdev, a mobility provider in France. Transdev is the first customer for e.Go Moove, the JV made up of ZF and German startup electric vehicle maker e.Go Mobile. The vehicles will be produced by e.GO Mobility in Aachen, Germany.



Scheider said that ZF is much more involved in the e-Go Mover than a typical project with automaker customers such as BMW or Jaguar because executives such as e-Go Mobile founder and CEO Günther Schuh want results immediately.



“Prof. Schuh said, ‘I need all these actuators. Where can I get them fast? I want this vehicle on the road.’ He doesn’t discuss, he just says, ‘Give me the solution’,” Scheider told journalists during a roundtable discussion at CES in Las Vegas this month.



“You lose speed if you have endless rounds of discussions. Therefore, we have built up a partner chain where we don’t just discuss. We take action,” Scheider added. “If we need the solution then we say, ‘How can we get together as fast as possible’ and go for it.”

ZF said last September that it plans to invest 12 billion euros ($13.6 billion) over the next five years in electric and autonomous vehicle technology. When ZF made the announcement it also revealed plans to develop a battery-powered delivery van that can drive on its own. That project is different from the supplier’s JV for the e.Go Mover. At CES, ZF showcased its robotaxi concept, which has no steering wheel or pedals.



ZF, Continental and Robert Bosch all showcased shuttles at CES that transport travelers on "the first or last mile" of their trips. When asked whether he thought automakers would jump into the sector Scheider said, “I would expect that every [automaker’s] strategy department around the world is looking at that with a big magnifying glass.” He said the autonomous shuttles are an “attractive” market.



“It is a least worthwhile to check that segment,” he added, “because it is really a solution to the issues of mobility in large urban areas in the future.”



The speed with that these solutions have gone from the drawing board to the streets has been a big surprise to the CEO.



“If you asked me three years ago whether we would have a 600 tera-ops machine [capable of 600 trillion calculation operations per second] using artificial intelligence algorithms that can replace a lot of software that is present today, I wouldn’t have expected that,” Scheider said. “The tipping was the computing power. With ZF ProAI RoboThink [the company’s AI-capable supercomputer] we are now part of that [move to develop driverless vehicles].



While Scheider is bullish about autonomous shuttles, which will function in limited controlled spaces, he agrees with Aptiv Chief Technology Officer Glen De Vos that 2021 is too soon for Level 4 autonomy to be widely available in passenger cars. At Level 4 those cars would be able to drive themselves in any situation, but the cars would still have steering wheels and pedals so drivers could take control when needed.



“In 2021, we won’t see a Level 4 car on the road, if we mean on the road with no restrictions,” Scheider said. “In 2021, we will see a vehicle in a restricted or geofenced areas.”



When asked when Level 4 cars will be ready for the masses Scheider said: “I can’t give you a date because I can only be wrong.”