Automotive Engineering - June 2024 - 12

TECHNOLOGY REPORT
traffic cones and plenty of backed-up
non-autonomous vehicles trying to get
to DriftX. TXAI's starts, stops and lane
mergers were smoother and more " human "
than other AVs I've ridden in,
showing promise that when the AV revolution
actually comes to the UAE, it's
likely to be a comfortable one.
Bayanat's four autonomous shuttles
can carry 10 people (8 with a safety driver)
each and have a range of 140 km (87
miles). DC fast charging allows the EVs
to fully charge in 90 minutes. The selfdriving
tech uses software written by
Bayanat and its partners and can be remote
controlled from the Integrated
Transport Centre (ITC) on Yas Island,
which also monitors local traffic. A
Bayanat representative told SAE Media
that further expansion will depend on
interest from the ITC, who will decide if
it is safe to put more of these AVs on the
road. These shuttles were manufactured
in China, with mapping and app development
done by Bayanat.
Remote control: Abu Dhabi,
Korea connected by AVs
Bayanat has more than 16 different
partners from 20 different countries.
South Korea's Autonomous A2Z displayed
its AV shuttle at DriftX and said
it has plans to mass-produce around
2,500 vehicles starting in 2025 for use
in South Korea, Abu Dhabi, Singapore
and some European countries. A2Z remotely
controlled a vehicle that was
moving 7,000 km (4,350 miles) away in
The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) hosted its inaugural event on the Yas Marina
Circuit in the days following DriftX 2024.
K-City, South Korea, from its booth at
DriftX. Hyunwoo (Martin) Kim, A2Z
project manager, told SAE Media that
this kind of teleoperation can help the
company fulfill the mission the Korean
government is specifically looking for.
" If you look at the provinces in Korea,
there are many rural areas where the
average age of drivers is around 56-58,
which means there are not many people
who want to be a bus driver, " Kim said.
" They're lacking the people. So the government
actually asked us to operate it
autonomously. "
A2Z believes it is important to have
remote drivers to handle edge cases and
is hoping that each remote operator will
be able to control between 10 and 20
shuttles. Kim said A2Z, which counts
many former Hyundai Motor Group engineers
among its staff, benefits from
Hyundai's AV work that has already
tapped Korean suppliers to work on autonomous
vehicle components.
DriftX was not limited to road-based
AVs. The event's theme was " Air Land
Sea, " and featured plenty of EVTOL and
water-based AVs. Passenger-carrying
flying AVs are not as advanced as
wheeled AVs, as was made clear when
one of the drones fell out of the sky and
into the bay during a demonstration
flight. No one was injured.
Throughout the conference, government
representatives repeatedly pointed
to the government's strong and ongoing
support for AVs across all three
domains, even when things don't always
work out right the first time. SAVI's
Shahin was quick to point out that the
crash should not be considered a failure.
" It's not a setback, " he said. " This is
an opportunity. Innovation is all about
iteration. It's about learning from the
errors and improving. I think this is a

Automotive Engineering - June 2024

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