One of the world-leaders in vehicle automation, UK-based Oxbotica, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with German automotive technology company ZF, to work jointly on self-driving vehicle system solutions, especially for urban and off-highway areas.
As a first milestone, Oxbotica has completed integration and demonstration of its autonomous vehicle software with ZF’s ProAI, artificial intelligence-capable (AI) automotive-grade computing platform and ZF’s Full-Range Radar sensor sets. Following comprehensive testing, the integrated system is running on Oxbotica’s test vehicles on public roads in and around the city of Oxford. The two companies share a joint vision on the future of mobility and how autonomy will transform all industries where people and goods move. As part of the collaboration agreement, both companies will work closer together on validation and verification of integrated self-driving vehicle systems.
Oxbotica was founded in 2014 as an Oxford University spin-out with a simple mission to develop autonomy software that will transform all industries where people and goods move. The company’s AV software is deployed across multiple industries worldwide, and has been developed to work with any vehicle, any time, and in any place, to meet the ambition of ‘Universal Autonomy’.
ZF and Oxbotica will combine their expertise to create self-driving systems that can be industrialised and deployed across different applications. Oxbotica’s industry-leading autonomous driving software has been deployed in many different environments including cities, mines, airports, quarries and ports, while ZF is a supplier to some of the largest automotive OEMs in the world.
“Working with ZF is a key milestone in our journey to bring our vision around Universal Autonomy to life,” explained Oxbotica’s CEO, Ozgur Tohumcu. “Our integrated autonomy stack is already running on vehicles on public roads in Oxford, UK. However, this concrete achievement is just the first step in a wider collaboration towards jointly developing and deploying world-class self-driving systems.”
Torsten Gollewski, EVP for autonomous mobility systems at ZF, commented, “We are delighted that Oxbotica has successfully demonstrated its autonomous driving software working with our ProAI hardware, since we both share the same vision around how autonomy will transform entire industries across the globe.”
