Bernd Spies, Member of the Executive Board of Knorr-Bremse AG and responsible for the Commercial Vehicle Systems Division: “Highly automated driving in the commercial vehicle sector is gaining momentum worldwide—albeit at different paces in different regions. Robust, fail-active vehicle architectures are crucial for the next step. This is precisely where we bring our systems expertise to bear in our partnerships with vehicle manufacturers: We develop redundancy solutions for braking and steering functions and implement them in specific applications together with vehicle manufacturers. The impending series production readiness of our redundant braking system is an important milestone in making Level 4 architectures scalable and economically viable.”
Fleet operators expect more efficient and cost-effective transportation solutions—especially given the driver shortage, increasing safety requirements, and growing cost pressures. Vehicle manufacturers are responding to these demands and actively driving the development of highly automated commercial vehicles. With regard to the first concrete areas of application, North America in particular is emerging as the leading market.
A key prerequisite for the reliable operation of highly automated commercial vehicles is a fail-active system architecture. With automation, responsibility for driving dynamics and safety shifts from the driver to the vehicle—and thus to the technology itself. Redundant actuators thus become the technological foundation for the safe operation of highly automated commercial vehicles. Knorr-Bremse’s fail-active, redundant systems for braking and steering ensure that individual system failures are detected and compensated for, and that vehicle control is maintained at all times. At the same time, redundant braking systems increase vehicle availability by enabling defined operating strategies in the event of a failure—ranging from minimum-risk maneuvers to continued operation with reduced functionality. This can have an immediate positive impact on total cost of ownership (TCO).
