Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2021 - 26

Automated Driving Systems
can keep up with them and follow the developments
very closely. "
The sensors package contains cameras, radars, lidars
and GPS systems that provide overlapping 360-degree
coverage up to 500 meters (1,640 ft) in any direction. The
compute system has been " ruggedized " and is powerful
enough to run the Embark Driver software on the edge.
" We are running some very high-performance
The Embark Gateway is an automotive-grade controller that enables API
communication with OEM drive-by-wire systems.
shaped Embark's approach to technology development "
and underscores the need for coordination
among companies to standardize interfaces.
The EUI's universality consists of a standardized
components package - sensors and compute system
- that have been determined through thousands of
hours of design, testing and analysis. The second facet
is a set of physical, electrical, and software interfaces
that enable the components to connect and communicate
with any OEM platform's steering, braking,
throttle, telematics, power, chassis and HVAC. The
Embark Gateway, an automotive-grade electronic
control unit that enables application programming
interface (API) communication with OEM drive-bywire
systems, is at the heart of the interface package.
" Embark doesn't aspire to build the lower-level
vehicle platform, the chassis, the powertrain, the
brakes - companies have been doing this for nearly
a century and are doing a great job at it, " Moak said.
" Companies like ZF are continuing to move the ball
forward on building drive-by-wire platforms that we
can plug into. That's where we want to be operating,
at that integration layer. "
The main challenge that Embark faces on this
front is that OEMs and Tier 1s continue to iterate
the design of their drive-by-wire platforms. " This is
a bit of a moving target, " he said, " so strategically we
built our system to be flexible in such a way that we
AI algorithms on that. Nobody has ever put this
much compute in a truck before, so we're pushing
the bleeding edge there, " Moak said. " And we have
a fallback safety architecture to make sure that there
isn't a single point of failure in our technology stack. "
To ensure that the different types of steering,
braking and throttle systems were within specification
for the Embark Driver system, developers spent " a lot
of time at the test track performing extreme maneuvers,
modeling the profiles of different systems, " said Moak.
" Ultimately, we get to a point where we can be compatible
with actuators that come from multiple suppliers. "
Moak anticipates that OEMs will start shipping
their first production trucks with redundant driveby-wire
systems in the near future. " We're in an active
dialogue with the OEs as they plan sensor and compute
options to offer to different carriers for these drive-bywire
systems, " he said. The EUI program will generate
" novel learnings " around standardized sensor placement,
vehicle communication protocols, telematics
standardization, power management and other areas
that will inform Embark partnership and integration
decisions with each OEM.
Further in the future, Embark expects truck OEMs
to offer multiple AV options to carriers. " They'll have
multiple non-exclusive integrations when this industry
ultimately matures, " Moak said. " I think carriers, the
ones who actually move the trucks, make the ultimate
decision on which AV system and hardware they want
beneath that. We want to position ourselves to be ready. "
A carrier's take on the universal interface
program? " Embark's investment to integrate its autonomous
driving system with the major OEMs will allow
us to test and deploy autonomous trucking capabilities
without introducing a new OEM into our fleet for that
sole purpose, " said Trevor Fridfinnson, chief operating
officer at Bison Transport. ■
26 July 2021
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Embark
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2021

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