The integrated workflow connects Foretellix’s Foretify platform with the Vires Virtual Test Drive simulation software.

Foretify was developed to produce a Measurable Scenario Description Language to describe scenarios and coverage goals, automate generating scenarios, aggregate coverage data from all testing platforms, and analyze data.

Vires’s software is a simulation suite to test ADAS and automated driving systems. It can create 3D environments and scenarios to simulate complex traffic.

It connects with third party software and hardware to enable SiL, DiL, ViL and HiL testing with test rigs, training simulators or sensors.

Luca Castignani, chief automotive strategist at MSC Software, part of Vires’s parent company Hexagon, said, “Open data and continuous collaboration are absolutely paramount. We are happy to integrate our tools with emerging technologies such as Foretellix that can offer customers new ways to address these challenges.”

The deal means Ricardo will offer expanded engine and vehicle testing services in Metro Detroit and speed up direct North American research and development activities in the transportation sector.

Excel, based in Diagonal, Iowa, will gain a 2,800m2  test facility in Belleville, Michigan, and retain 30 of its employees.

The facility will let Excel test light-duty and heavy-duty engines and alternative fuels as well as battery and hybrid drive systems.

Excel will be the preferred testing source for Ricardo internal developments in the USA and handle testing for Ricardo.

Marques McCammon, president of Ricardo, said, “The Excel partnership enhances our ability to deliver that objective by strengthening our testing capabilities and maintaining continuity with customers.”

The so-called M=SLED Small Overlap tests chassis components that could penetrate the passenger compartment, and it works with the MESSRING HydroBrake to simulate small overlap crashes on the left side of a vehicle.

The chassis has rolling ground speed of up to 64km/h, while an additional load-cell wall is shaped like a wheel housing and runs on the sled to measure the forces and deflection of components in the wheel housing.

The sled can be adapted to different chassis mounts and different vehicles loads can be simulated.

The library screen sets up a simulation involving multiple vehicles running simultaneously, with each link made to a Run Control dataset specifying the properties of the vehicle and environment. Simulations must be run from external software such as Simulink or MATLAB/Simulink.

Two simulation instances of the vehicle model can run using a standard license, with more being added using the optional Parallel License feature, while up to 20 vehicles can run under Windows or Linux and on some real-time systems, the number of vehicles is limited by the target computer’s capabilities.

The AWD prototype is aiming for 1,100bhp and 10,500lb-ft wheel torque with electronic torque vectoring and front- and rear-mounted dual-electric motors.

The motors and a flat-floor 120kWh battery will give the prototype near 50/50 weight distribution and up to 400 miles of all-electric range.

Karma engineers have been conducting dynamic testing at California’s The Thermal Club race track.

Kevin Zhang, chief technology officer at Karma Automotive, said, “Physical prototype testing is an important landmark for Karma, and an exciting milestone for all involved. We aim to make sure the platform is capable of achieving leading standards in the supercar sector and is superior in every sense.”

Karma’s platform can be used for track and street cars, and it can be retrofitted to existing products or developed for new applications.

Regulatory and consumer testing is expanding rapidly, with the number of ADAS scenarios in the Euro NCAP assessment increasing from six in 2014 to 39 in 2020.

Driver safety systems that were once the preserve of luxury cars are common across the range and by 2022, many ADAS products will be mandatory for new cars.

AB’s testing services are split into three areas: consultancy, training and testing.

All products are designed and built in-house and AB works in close association with major consumer and regulatory testing groups.

AB’s equipment is used by all Euro NCAP laboratories and authorities who carry out tests for NHTSA and UNECE.

Wesley Hulshof, senior applications engineer, testing services at AB Dynamics, said the increasing complexity requires more resources than ever before.

He said, “This poses a significant challenge, whether you are a major vehicle manufacturer or test laboratory lacking the resource to carry out the required quantity of testing, or a startup that doesn’t have the test equipment or expertise. Our service is a scalable and flexible solution to meet the customers’ specific needs.”

AB’s Simpia toolchain software is used for all products so ADAS or AV test scenarios only need to be generated once and can be precisely replicated from virtual testing on the simulator to real life on the test track .

Opened in 1970 by General Motors as a testing and development facility for Bedford and Vauxhall, it has naturally flat and hilly sections.

Construction involved moving nearly 2,000,000m3  of earth and 100,0003 of aggregate, hardcore, sand and cement, and planting 200,000 trees.

In 1988, Millbrook started trading independently as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lotus and began working as a test service provider.

Millbrook expanded in 2015 with the acquisition of winter vehicle and tire testing facility Test World in Finland.

A total of £120m (US$148m) has been invested in test facilities since 2015, including acquiring EV test system provider Revolutionary Engineering in 2018 and opening the Millbrook Revolutionary Engineering site in California in 2019.

The original facilities have received significant investments including opening a propulsion system facility in 2019 and its Battery Test Facility.

Millbrook is also home to the UK’s first 5G network for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.

The focus for the future is to develop safety and integrity; customer service; be an employer of choice; business improvement; and investment, partnership and acquisitions.

The data being synchronized across all sensors allows customers employing sensor fusion to bring together data including multiple 8K HDR stereo cameras, LiDAR and radar sensors.

Matt Daley, rFpro managing director, said, “This approach from rFpro provides a digital, cost-effective way of creating the same data completely error-free and 10,000 times quicker compared to manual annotation, which takes around 30 minutes per frame with a 10% error rate. This step-change will enable deep learning to fulfil its potential because it significantly reduces the cost and time of generating useful training data.”

Data Farming is to be used by existing customers including DENSO ADAS Engineering Services.

It provides an immersive way to explore how technology such as AI, 5G, display, haptics, sensors and natural interfaces can be used to improve the driving experience.

The tool will be used by designers to think about the future of driving.

AutonoMIA is a collaboration of several partners including ART, which created user interfaces for automotive cockpits and provided its customizable infotainment platform.

The application layer was designed in cooperation with Siili_auto, an automotive software company from Finland.

ARAS provided seats and all the padded parts.

Silvio Pietro Angori, CEO of Pininfarina, said, “AutonoMIA shows how Pininfarina may combine experience design with creative technology, reinventing the onboard experience at a time when digitization, connectivity, data and artificial intelligence are substantially redefining mobility.”

The KiDAU Stationary K3880AS combines measurement technologies in a 19in rack carrier with plug-in modules.

It was developed for use in preparing and certifying dummies and component tests.

The base unit includes integrated interfaces with the external crash test infrastructure and existing onboard devices can be connected directly via four CL2 interfaces.

The case is cooled without a fan and can accommodate up to eight plug-in I/O modules.

A unit with 16 digital input channels to save data in a cycle of 1,800 seconds with a sampling rate of 100kHz is available.

The KiDAU K3880AS has eight-channel plug-in cards for analog inputs equipped with a programmable input amplifier, bridge excitation circuit, low-pass filter and a 16bit analog-to-digital converter.

It can be combined with a KiBAT battery system to guarantee data protection.

Kistler has developed the KiBAT K3885 intelligent onboard battery, which cuts in if the cabled power supply fails, buffering components via the CrashLink2 bus.

It produces 400W for a 10 minute period with five colored LEDs indicating the status and if the energy level is low, an acoustic signal is emitted.