福特自动驾驶汽车有限责任公司（Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC）CEO Sherif Marakby表示，福特自动驾驶团队将像当年福特T车型颠覆世界一样颠覆自动驾驶行业。

1907年，芝加哥制袜有限公司在底特律的科克镇（Corktown）街区新建了一座分厂。(不到一年后，亨利·福特推出了划时代的T型车。) 今天，除了穿梭在前方人行横道上的Spin电动滑板车以外，这座位于密歇根大街上的三层砖房从外面看似乎一如往昔，但事实上，里面早已脱胎换骨，如今这里成了一片创新的热土。如果亨利·福特生活在21世纪，他一定会对这里一见倾心。

开放式格局，没有办公室，可移动的办公桌，几间狭小的会议室，随处可见的白板，嘈杂的环境，这就是福特为自动驾驶而专门新设的业务部门——福特自动驾驶汽车有限责任公司。2018年5月开业，这个被它的220名员工戏称为“The Factory（工厂）”的新部门计划于2021年推出福特的第一款插电式混动自动驾驶量产车型。同样驻扎在这里的还有福特的电动汽车先进研发团队——爱迪生团队。目前，爱迪生团队正和福特自动驾驶汽车公司一起在推进福特数百亿美元的网联多模式出行项目。鉴于城市生态系统将是电动汽车和自动驾驶首先应用最多的地方，福特的高管希望这两个团队能在市区办公，或者更理想的，能在市区生活。

对此，福特自动驾驶汽车公司的CEO Sherif Marakby表示赞同，他热情地说道，“把公司建在这里非常合理，我们需要靠近客户。当我拿到这个机会的时候，我几乎是毫不犹豫地说，‘我要去！我想待在这座城市里！’我在底特律已经生活了28年，但是几乎没在这里工作过。”

Marakby的公司肩负着推动技术商业化的重担，这也是他们的热情所在。Marakby告诉SAE《自动驾驶车辆工程》杂志：“我们希望推出自动驾驶共享汽车。”他的这句话其实也指明了福特对自动驾驶汽车客户的定位——目标客户将不再是驾驶员。Marakby表示，“福特将致力于提供定制化的自动驾驶客货运解决方案。我们的全方位自动驾驶汽车服务将会以app为载体。乘客通过app叫车后，车辆将自行前去载客，并让乘客知道这是他的车。”

除了推动这些变革以外，自动驾驶技术还有诸多细节亟待完善，比如确保车辆在所有环境下都能遵循路规、安全行驶。“这就是我们的团队在这个不同寻常的地方工作的主要原因，在这里我们能开启不同的思路，” Marakby说道。

对于自动驾驶变革所带来的技术挑战和经济压力，Marakby也有清醒的认识。面对收紧的全球汽车市场，福特和一家名为Argo AI的人工智能公司达成了一份5年10亿美元的合作协议，Argo AI 的算法和传感器融合技术已经成为了福特自动驾驶团队的核心资产。而就在《自动驾驶汽车工程》杂志付印之际，有消息称大众正在和Argo AI就共同成立一家合资企业的事宜进行洽谈，未来大众亦有可能注资Argo AI。为了进一步加强自动驾驶团队的研发能力，除Argo AI之外，福特还收购了其它一些科技初创企业，比如从事云计算软件开发的Autonomic和运输服务软件开发商TransLoc。

Marakby强调，“说到底，公司还是必须产生经济效益。我们有我们的利润表。我把技术规格、客户体验、生态系统定为我们的收益指标。我也在带领负责整车开发的项目团队。我们公司涵盖了从前沿自动驾驶技术到最终运营及商业化的全产业链。”

快速推进

来自埃及开罗的Marakby曾在马里兰大学攻读电气和电子工程学位，在此期间他学习了神经网络。“1990年的时候，神经网络还停留在理论层面，学界研究的是大脑是如何运作的、逻辑是如何传递的，以及不同的大脑区域是如何相互连接的。我记得当时上课的时候我在想，‘我理解——我知道如何设计神经回路！’但我不知道怎么应用。”在当时，神经网络的应用领域还是星星之火。Marakby原先计划毕业后搬到硅谷，但是后来他去了福特，担任车载娱乐、电动汽车和驾驶辅助项目的工程师。

“每次我想继续深造做些不同的事情的时候，福特都会给我机会，”Marakby说道。在之前SAE举办的“混动和电动汽车技术论坛”上，Marakby介绍了福特的电气化进程，令在场嘉宾印象深刻。他的团队在很短的时间内就在迪尔伯恩推出了一款电动车型和四款混动车型，这也为他之后暂离福特，加入快节奏的Uber奠定了基础。2016年，Marakby加入Uber，并在那里工作了将近一年时间。

“在Uber工作的时候，我必须保持开放的思维。Uber的工作环境非常轻松，但是节奏很快，项目都是迅速推进，而我也将这种风格带到了我的福特团队。你可能不相信，但是这里也有很多原先在Uber工作的专家，他们的思维方式和工作方式都很不同。”

在福特自动驾驶汽车公司的办公区，Marakby接受了《自动驾驶汽车工程》杂志的深入采访。在采访中，Marakby也介绍了团队在成立后的10个月内所取得的成果，其中的重点如下：

2021年福特将推出混动自动驾驶车型，而非电动：“虽然我们正在朝着纯电动自动驾驶汽车前进，但我们还没有成功。福特即将推出的自动驾驶汽车此前在迈阿密等城市完成了数千英里的路测，我们通过实地载人载货训练系统。对于自动驾驶而言，混动车型具有良好的燃油经济性、续航里程长、载重大，可以同时搭载自动驾驶汽车所需的电力或其它动力系统。此外，混动车的续航里程也不会因为温度变化而衰减。”

“对于交通服务而言，最重要的就是运行时间，这和卖私家车截然不同。如果不充电，即使是安装有超大容易电池的电动汽车也无法连续行驶15到20小时。你不能让一辆自动驾驶汽车下线8小时去充电，这对于运营商来说是不切实际的。”

自动驾驶汽车对标：“我们对标的是扎根于使用和客户体验的航空公司。航空公司深知‘把时间还给消费者’意味着什么，他们知道不同的消费者会有不同的体验。有的乘客会在飞机上工作，有的会睡觉，有的打游戏。这点和自动驾驶汽车很相似。有的乘客可能不想使用车辆上的屏幕，有人可能只想用最大的，其他人可能想用自己的设备。自动驾驶汽车的设计将不再围绕着驾驶员，内部空间会很灵活。”

福特是否会在2022年采用蜂窝V2X技术：“现在V2X (车对万物互联)已经吸引了大量企业，福特也是其中一员。我们正在研发一种‘重载计算’的行车电脑，它将融合所有车载传感器硬件，而V2X将大大减轻行车电脑的负担。V2X也会为非自动驾驶汽车带来诸多好处。我们认为和城市基础设施相连是一个很好的策略，而蜂窝通信将是信息传播的重要途径。”

新时代工程师：“新时代的工程师需要拥有不同的技能，而且愿意接受改变。我们的团队成员来自各式各样的背景，经验也各不相同，有的是刚毕业的学生，有的则是来自其它行业的汽车界新兵。我们正在尝试结合软件开发的敏捷性和汽车研发的鲁棒性，这一点非常重要。但究竟如何结合，我们必须审慎考量。我们不想让新人为了合群而收敛棱角，我们希望他们能带来独到的见解。”

“这也是我在这里学到的。如果你招揽了其它行业的人才，你必须确保他的身边有一名了解汽车行业的前辈，可以帮助新人适应新公司，助他获得成功，这样也能融合行业内外的专业知识。”

关于福特是否会建立自己的操作系统：“我们这里有一支软件工程师团队正在编写自动驾驶服务的，主要针对哦自动驾驶汽车服务提供更好条件、调度和路径规划。我们将这个操作系统命名为车队的“orchestration（管弦乐队）”，它对于自动驾驶汽车而言非常重要，特别是当遇到施工区域、绕路或封路的时候。其中包括了应用程序、调度寻径，甚至支付功能。我们也是业内首家在开发自动驾驶综合操作系统的公司。我们将融合整个生态系统，确保操作系统在任意一个城市的街道上都能安全运行，这样的能力非常重要。”

关于迈阿密测试的收获：“我们发现我们可以覆盖一个100平方英里的区域，在这个区域里可以做很多事。我们和Postmates、沃尔玛等企业合作的测试车准确地完成了取货，但搞错了把送货的地点！现在我们可以在地图上看到货物的位置。不过真正的自动驾驶物流服务要到数年后才能落地。迈阿密的测试还在继续，那里的地图和刚开始测试时已经截然不同。一开始地图只覆盖了‘市中心’。我们现在也意识到我们必须了解各家企业都在运输哪些物资。”

关于2019年的工作重心：“2019年是我们推动迈阿密路测中所展示的那些技术的量产和商业化的重要一年。此外我们还有大量关于生态系统、车辆寻径、整车开发、冗余设计的工作。我们已经制定了一个全年执行计划。2019年，我们将大力提高驾驶安全性，建立全生态系统，并和沃尔玛等企业合作。聚焦现在，展望未来。从‘我们知道怎么做’过渡到实际应用。今年将是我们量产计划的第一阶段。”

关于自动驾驶汽车的热潮：“我们知道大家在使用什么硬件，但其实硬件还待改善。自动驾驶技术还需要借助可靠的商业模型来提供服务，包括客服中心、应用软件、调度算法等等，这样才能确保自动驾驶车辆的安全性，例如遵循路规，实现安全泊车。但现在的自动驾驶车辆还做不到。”

Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC aims to do for AVs what the Model T did for just about everyone. CEO Sherif Marakby explains.

Henry Ford was not quite a year away from rolling out his world-changing Model T when, in 1907, the Chicago Hosiery Co. built a factory branch in Detroit’s Corktown district. Today the exterior of that same three-story brick building on Michigan Ave. appears unchanged from its sock-sewing past, aside from the Spin electric scooters on the front sidewalk. But inside, it’s abuzz with the innovative stuff that a 21st-century Henry would love.

Open floor plan. No offices. Rolling desks. A few tiny meeting rooms. White boards galore. And fairly high levels of ambient noise. Since opening in May 2018, “The Factory,” as its 220 employees call it, has been home to Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC—the dedicated business unit that aims to launch Ford’s first self-driving, hybrid-electric production AV in 2021. Also based there is Team Edison, Ford’s EV advanced-planning group. Together, they are the vanguard of Ford’s multi-billion-dollar thrust into connected, multi-modal mobility. Ford leadership wanted both teams to work—and ideally, live—within the urban ecosystem where their products initially will be used most.

Sherif Marakby agrees. “It makes so much sense for us to be here, close to the customer,” Marakby, the CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, enthused. “When this opportunity came up, it took me all of about a second to say, ‘I’ll go! I want to be in the city!’ I’ve lived in the area for 28 years but only spent a little bit of it working in Detroit.”

His organization’s role and passion is technology commercialization—”to make autonomy work for the masses,” Marakby told SAE’s Autonomous Vehicle Engineering. It involves defining who the customer is—and that’s not someone driving the car anymore. “With AVs, we tailor the vehicle experience to the passenger and to goods,” he explained. “Providing a full service with AVs involves the app, how you approach the vehicle as a rider and how the vehicle comes to you—and lets you know it’s your car.”

Such changes, along with little matters such as ensuring the vehicle obeys traffic laws and operates safely in all environments, “are a major reason that our teams are located in a different place—so we can think differently,” he said.

Marakby’s a realist about the technical challenges and financial burden that come with the changes. In a tightening global vehicle market, Ford is investing $1 billion over five years in Argo AI, whose algorithms and sensor-fusion expertise are vital assets for the Autonomous Vehicles team. (Talks with Volkswagen toward a potential joint venture on self-driving vehicles, including VW investment in Argo AI, were reportedly progressing when AVE went to press.) Acquisitions by Ford Mobility of other tech start-ups, including Autonomic (cloud computing software) and TransLoc (transit-services software) bolster the team’s toolset.

“At the end of the day, my organization has to be a viable business,” he asserted. “We have our own P&L. I set the specification, and the customer experience, and work on the ecosystem. I also direct the program team that directs the vehicle development. Everything that is needed for autonomy to eventually run a service and make money is in this organization.”

Moving fast

A native of Cairo, Egypt, Marakby studied neural networks at the University of Maryland, as part of his degrees in electrical and electronics engineering. “At the time, in 1990, neural nets were theoretical—how the brain works, how logic flows and how you can connect the parts. I remember taking classes thinking, ‘I can grasp this—I know how to design circuits!’ But I didn’t know how to apply it.” Few did then. He’d planned to move to Silicon Valley after graduation, but landed at Ford, building his engineering career in infotainment, electrified-vehicle and driver-assistance programs.

“Every time I wanted to expand and do something different, Ford gave me the opportunity to do it,” Marakby noted. Attendees of SAE’s early Hybrid & EV Symposia will remember him presenting Ford’s electrification progress. Launching an EV and four hybrids within a short timeframe in Dearborn somewhat prepared him for the rapid work pace at Uber, where Markaby detoured for about a year in 2016.

“I had to open my mind when I was there,” he said. “It’s a very casual but super-fast environment. It moves fast to get the job done. And that wasn’t hard to translate into Ford, believe it or not. It’s [Uber] a group of people, like those who work in this building, who think and work differently.”

In a wide-ranging interview at The Factory, Marakby discussed progress his team has made in its first 10 months and challenges ahead. Some highlights:

On a hybrid AV, rather than electric in 2021: “We’re on a technology journey toward the battery-electric AV, but we’re not there yet. We modeled the upcoming AV on learnings from our thousands of miles of carrying people and goods in Miami and other cities. Hybrid propulsion offers great fuel economy, range, and the ability to carry the significant loads— electrical and otherwise—of an AV. Hybrids can work in all thermal conditions without losing range.

“In transport services, it’s all about uptime, which is very different than selling a vehicle. Even a huge battery in an EV will not be able to run 15 to 20 hours a day with a 50 percent loss due to loads without charging. You can’t take an AV offline for eight hours to charge it; that’s not practical for operators.”

On AV benchmarking: “We benchmarked the airline industry, which is built on utilization and customer experience. They know what giving time back to the consumer means, and that the experience is different between customers. It may be more time for working. For sleeping. For playing games. The customer may not want to use any of the screens in the vehicle; or only the big one; or they may want to use their own device. By not having everything designed around the driver, the interior space becomes flexible.”

On Ford adopting cellular V2X in 2022: “There is already critical mass around V2X (vehicle-to-everything connectivity) and we believe in it. We’re developing a ‘heavy compute’—all the sensor hardware on board—and V2X will lighten up that on-board compute tremendously. For non-AVs there are a lot of benefits to V2X as well. We feel that working with cities and infrastructure is a good path for us and through cellular communication is how we’ll be able to give information.”

New-age engineers: “You need a mix of skills and a willingness to change. It’s combining background and experience with new talent that tends to be right out of school or comes from a different industry. Mixing the two is really important—we’re trying to bring the agile-software and robust-automotive mindsets together. But you must be careful how you mix. You’re not asking people to blend in; you’re asking them to bring their thinking to work with other people.

“I learned that in this environment, when you bring in someone from outside the industry, make sure they have a buddy, someone from in the team that understands the industry so they can navigate their way around the company. Mix the internal and external knowledge while making the new folks successful.”

On Ford deciding to “own” the O/S: “We have a group of software engineers here who are creating the code for, lack of better terms, dispatch and routing of the AV service. The operating system. We call it ‘orchestration’ of the fleet and it’s important for AVs, particularly when they encounter construction zones, detours and closed roads. We do the app, the dispatch routing and even payments. Nobody’s done this before for AVs. Owning this capability is very important—integrating the whole ecosystem and making sure it works every time is inherent to working with AVs on the streets of any city.”

On learnings from the Miami testing: “We learned we can cover a 100-square-mile area and do a lot of work. Partnering with businesses such as Postmates and Walmart, we got the pick-ups pretty right…and the deliveries pretty wrong! But now we can map the streets showing where the deliveries are, years before we begin actual service. The map of Miami where we’re operating now is very different from where we started. It’s no longer ‘downtown only.’ Now, we have to understand each business, what they’re delivering.”

On 2019’s focus: “It’s a big year for industrializing and commercializing what we showed in Miami. A lot of activity around the ecosystem, routing the vehicle, vehicle development and engineering all the redundancies. We have execution plans throughout the year; 2019 gets ready, with safety drivers, to build the whole ecosystem, run the businesses with Walmart and other companies. Zoom in on where and how we’re going to operate. Take the step from ‘we know how to do it’ to actually doing it. The first phase of building it to scale is this year.”

On AV hype: “We know what everybody is using for hardware—and it’s just not ready. And all of this tech needs a viable business to provide the services—with call centers, apps, dispatch algorithms that make sure the vehicle obeys all traffic laws, parks itself safely, etc. AVs can’t do that yet.”

Author: Lindsay Brooke

Source: SAE Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Magazine