Aftermarket July/August 2022 Issue

JULY/AUGUST 2022 AFTERMARKET 21 www.aftermarketonline.net 130mph self-driving NASCAR crash test at Talladega Superspeedway Automotive test specialist AB Dynamics has released incredible footage of its recent work with NASCAR, developing a driverless solution for conducting a 130mph crash test. The on-track planned accident, featuring the Next Gen NASCAR race car, was conducted at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, with the aim of generating real-world crash test data to correlate with simulations. The test vehicle was driven at 130mph (209km/h) on a pre-programmed course into the wall, hitting a precise point in the Steel And Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier at an angle of 24 degrees. The hardware used included AB Dynamics’ SR60 driving robot for steering and CBAR600 for pedals, plus its Gearshift Robot – all off-the-shelf products. The inputs were provided by AB Dynamics’ path-following software. Craig Hoyt, Business Development Manager at AB Dynamics, said: “The challenge was trying to get this extremely complex machine to do a very precise test without a human driver piloting the car. “This is one of the highest speed crash tests we have ever conducted and the robots only suffered minor damage.” John Patalak, Managing Director of Safety Engineering at The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), added: “This is a truly innovative way to test the safety of vehicles in motorsport.” Following Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, and Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan, on day one of May’s FT Future of the Car Summit 2022, there was no doubting the biggest draw on day two: An hour-long ‘keynote conversation’ with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The part-live, part-digital session was hosted by The Financial Times’ Global Motor Industry Correspondent, Peter Campbell, from The Brewery in London. It started with JB Straubel, formerly Chief Technical Officer at Tesla, now Founder and CEO at renewable energy company Redwood Materials, joining Campbell on stage to discuss the origins of Tesla, with Musk contributing via video link. They covered the early work on a Lotus Elise chassis with the AC Propulsion drivetrain, which Musk described as: “An insane nightmare… almost everything about the first design of the Tesla Roadster was wrong. It was just an important thing that needed to happen to move to a sustainable technology future.” He continued: “There’s an incredibly big graveyard of car startups. You've only heard of a tiny number of them, the DeLoreans of the world, but there are hundreds of others.The car industry is hyper-competitive. Throughout the world, they have entrenched customers, dealers, service, factories, existing expertise.” At this point, Straubel exited, leaving Campbell attempting to elicit answers about the rumoured purchase of Twitter. “I think Twitter needs to be much more even handed,” said Musk. “I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was mistake because it is alienating a large part of the country.” Global media coverage assured, conversation returned to Tesla and the ambition to make 20 million cars a year by 2030. “There are approximately two billion cars and trucks in the world and for us to really make a dent in sustainable energy, in electrification, I think we need to replace at least 1% per year,” he said. With the hour flying by, they finally got to self- driving. “I'm confident we will get far in excess of the safety level of human,” he said. “Probably a factor of 10 safer than a human, as measured by the probability of injury.” It was Q&A time, so I asked: “Why don’t you change the name of the Full Self-Driving package? It is driver assistance not self-driving.” I didn’t get an answer. To be fair, he classily stayed on for a lengthy period of overtime, covering AI, super capacitors and hydrogen, “The most dumb thing I could possibly imagine for energy storage.” Like it or not, he is box office. Elon Musk talks Twitter and self-driving at FT Future of the Car Summit Follow us on Facebook: @aftermarketmagazine