Autonomous driving technology and related applications continue their heat at NEPCON and AUTOMOTIVE WORLD 2020 with the event host inviting leading industry professionals from DENSO, BOSCH, and Continental to talk about “Evolution of Mobility.” The keynote speech attracted more than 3000 people and was the most popular conference this year.

Yoshifumi Kato, Senior Executive Officer at Engineering Research & Development Center of DENSO, opened up the section by pointing out the background of mobility technology development and its future direction. Kato addressed that new human-machine interface would be built jointly with solutions of connectivity, low power consumption and safety improvement. Interior sensing technology in the car is also critical for monitoring drivers. To meet the growing demands for such applications, DENSO introduced Driver Monitoring System, DMS, incorporating sensors, cameras, face recognition system, AI and big data analysis to instantly control physical and psychological status of drivers to ensure safety of car users and pedestrians.

BOSCH’s President & Representative Director, Klaus Meder, came next and talked about the great business potential created by the combination of AI and mobility. Autonomous driving technology is expected to achieve Level 4 by 2025 and considered self-driving public transport to be the major growing momentum. A public bus, for example, would apply up to 80 sensors at Level 4, while a private car use around 30 sensors at Level 2 to 3.

In addition, Meder indicated two innovative applications with Connected Mobility. First one is the integration of car keys and smartphones. By doing so, people who process the non-physical key can unlock the car autonomously when approaching the vehicle. One can also send the key to specific person in the scenario of car sharing services or package delivery. Another new application is to integrate big data and connected mobility to achieve self-parking services for saving time and reduce energy consumption as well as pollution.

Finally, Bert Wolfram of Continental shared new applications brought by sensing technologies. Continental has realized Comprehensive Environment Perception with its sensing technology and released 77GHz short range radar for turning assistant system in 2019. The company also planned to debut 3D Flash LiDAR in 2020 for both passenger cars and professional vehicles. For instance, agriculture vehicles adopting self-driving technology can solve the issue of aging society with fewer and fewer working force in the agriculture industry.

Continental sees a bright future for unmanned buses and taxies as well. Currently the company is working with its partners to pilot driverless buses deploying several Continental sensors in Yokohama. They even received an official license plate with for the autonomous bus.