Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2021 - 6

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS

without the system activated, executing
" far more energy-efficient speed controls, " the company said.
" In our analysis of Traxen's real-world
field-trial data, we observed fuel efficiency (FE) improvements in the range
of 2% to 20% in various segments over a
6,100-mile cross-country drive, " said
Mike Roeth, executive director of NACFE.
The average FE improvement was 7%.
Roeth acknowledged that many variables are at play with real-world FE
testing, including wind speed and direction, elevation, payload changes and
driver variations. " The best practice is
to combine all forms of analysis and
testing to understand how a technology
will perform for fleets, " he said.
Traxen engineers recognize that autonomous-vehicle operation will not happen all at once, driving the company's
strategy to progress in phases, beginning with speed control. Through proprietary hardware and software that's
been developed to " production-readiness level, " iQ-Cruise monitors road
conditions such as changes in elevation,
curvature, traffic patterns and weather
" for up to three miles ahead, " said chief
technology officer Dr. Syed Ali.
" Over the long-distance horizon [up
to 500 miles ahead], iQ-Cruise plans
the overall speeds for each road segment, " Ali explained. " If a driver has
remaining hours of service, and the arrival depot is backed up, the system can
utilize the additional available time by
slowing down the vehicle to minimize
Traxen's market strategy and product
timeline foresees a " freeway driverless "
version of the iQ system in five years.

fuel consumption, thereby also reducing
idling once you arrive. This type of endto-end automated speed management
has never been done before. "
Traxen said that it continues to " retrain " and enhance its AI-based iQCruise performance. The company expects FE gains to approach 20% by
2023, based on " systemic learnings "
from 700 million miles of data obtained
from customer drives. " The systems
learn from each other on how to drive
different segments better, " said Ali.
" This 'crowd learning' makes the systems get smarter over time. "
" We agree that full autonomy is ultimately achievable and certainly is our
eventual end game, " said Mary
Petrovich, chairman of Traxen's board
of directors. " However, we believe that

full autonomy is years away given social
and other issues. Instead, near term, we
choose to take a practical path, " noting
the initial focus on full-speed ACC and
the aftermarket.
Engineers focused on developing an
easily retrofittable product. " That's
why we designed our own hardware
that includes the entire telematic AI
domain solution and vision processing
all in one unit, " said Ali. It's an aircooled, passive system that does not
require fan- or liquid-cooling. The installation kit consists of radars, a driver
display and the domain controller, and
overall installation time should take
less than an hour, he said.
The hardware was designed to be
scalable. When functionality is added
for the iQ-Vision +Urban Assist system
by 2023 - meaning additional vision
and perception sensors, and possibly
an additional domain controller - customers " will not have to rip and replace the existing solution, " Ali explained, adding that the software also
is over-the-air upgradeable.
Traxen already is partnering with key
OEMs interested in the technology. The
company has supply chain and sourcing
agreements established, and its manufacturing plans are in place. It has filed
eight patents to protect its intellectual
property, Maleki said.
Ryan Gehm

6 February 2021

TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING

BOTH IMAGES: TRAXEN

Phased approach to full autonomy

Traxen's hardware is
scalable and includes
the telematic AI
domain solution and
vision processing in
one unit.

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2021

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