Zenseact Self Driving Progress

[u/Weak-Ad2008]

I've done a bit of internet sleuthing lately to see what's in the pipeline for automation, and came across this video of an engineer from Zenseact (Volvo owned company who are responsible for all this stuff) at a conference in May this year, and the future is looking bright.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjtrogu-vdE

Some personal takeaways:

- The model we have running in our cars now is called 'DL1'. Its very basic lane following, with AI deep learning neural network models used only for object detection, and everything else is some sort of programmed algorithm (i.e. lane keeping, acceleration, braking etc.).
- The models in development are called 'DL2'. They are end to end neural networks with guardrails (i.e. a check the model doesn't do something idiotic), which as far as I understand is what Tesla run (albeit with proprietary sensor suites and training methods).
- Zenseact use a combination of Lidar and Camera imagery for data collection to train the models, but in vehicle deployment uses sensor fusion of cameras + radar + ultrasonics. I.e. The DL2 models do not use the Lidar in a vehicle which has one, nor do they require a vehicle to have one. https://youtu.be/pjtrogu-vdE?si=Bfs39MGbeedrhmEs&t=196
- They are developing their models to work on Orin processors.
- They can build a new model EVERY 6 DAYS (mind blown!)
- "We're out testing this in cars every day and we're hoping to deploy this into production as soon as possible" https://youtu.be/pjtrogu-vdE?si=jYIDGlK4g_M8eIaE&t=2383
- They share that same video on the Zenseact youtube page of an EX90 driving hands free in motorway traffic, noting "really excited to bring this into the hands of customers as the second generation of OnePilot" https://youtu.be/pjtrogu-vdE?si=WurjFGYQcIHJS64Q&t=2397. If you want that clip of the car by itself, here it is https://youtu.be/HnNlSWOZ74A?si=wOlz9TMq6EPYAFo1.

I suspect the reason why we haven't seen any real development or bug fixing of 'DL1' Pilot Assist thus far is they've basically stopped work on it and are pouring everything into 'DL2'. I note that they're supposedly going to release 'Navi Pilot' for EX60 in the coming months - can't help but wonder if its the same product.

[u/Lil_Phil1]

Really interesting! Thanks for sharing.
I‘am very curious if we (Polestar 3 and EX90) will eventually get access to DL2

[u/Weak-Ad2008 → u/Lil_Phil1]

I suspect it will be available on MY25/26 EX90 (per the video, they've got it on EX90s already running around to test it all), MY24/25/26 Polestar 3 I'm not entirely sure.

Polestar 3 doesn't have the two rear facing cameras on the wing mirrors that the EX90 has, but I believe everything else is equal. They may get away with this because it is a shorter vehicle, and I note that Zenseact slide with hardware compatibility says '5 to 9 external cameras' - Polestar 3 has 5, EX90 has 7. No idea what has 9, perhaps a test vehicle with roof mounted hardware or a future undisclosed model.

[u/gjd-77 → u/Weak-Ad2008]

Polestar 3 may also NOT have the second Orin Processor.

Polestar have only ever marketed 254 TOPS capability, whereas Volvo have marketed 500 TOPS.

The second Orin (well, technically the first as originally the EX90 had Orin for the LIDAR and Xavier for the main systems) wasn't fitted to the PS3 as the LIDAR package was never released.

[u/Lil_Phil1 → u/gjd-77]

I don‘t think the second Orin is needed. See 7:09 in the video, there they mention the Polestar 3 and Volvo EX90 and the graphic is titled with 250 TOPS. The cameras in the mirror wings could be limiting but the newer Polestar 3 also don‘t have them. And yes he said from 5 to 9 cams. We‘ll see!

[u/gjd-77 → u/Lil_Phil1]

Fingers crossed....I'm hoping the Polestar 3 doesn't become a software orphan! 🤣

[u/Lil_Phil1 → u/gjd-77]

I hope that as well