ZF acquires stake in Ibeo to expand sensor portfolio

Take Our Kids to Work day critical for trucking exposure

Verizon-Fleetmatics Deal Makes Telematics Giant

Logos via Verizon and Fleetmatics.

Verizon will control about 25% of the telematics market following its planned acquisitions of Fleetmatics and Telogis in moves that indicate steady growth ahead for fleet telematics use, experts told AutomotiveFleet.com.

The deals will bring about 1.4 million units in service under Verizon's telematics unit and create a telematics provider with the potential to dominate the market, said Clem Driscoll, who produces an annual market study. The units would be shifted to operate on Verizon's cellular network.

"Fleetmatics is the largest fleet tracking company in the world, and this is the largest acquisition in the history of this industry," said Driscoll, who's been watching the industry for two decades. "It's the largest in terms of money and subscribers."

Verizon should be able to complete its acquisitions, even in a challenging regulatory environment. Anti-trust concerns should be allayed because there are still several hundred telematics vendors in the U.S., Driscoll said.

After the dust settles, Geotab and GPS Insight would be Verizon's largest competitors. In addition to software, Geotab offers its GO7 OBDII dongle. Omnitracs and PeopleNet would continue to be the primary telematics providers to over-the-road trucking fleets.

If Verizon successfully closes the acquisitions of Telogis and Fleetmatics, it may need to consolidate the three software-as-a-service platforms. All three companies provide hardware from a third-party vendor and would likely continue to do so, Driscoll said.

Verizon's acquisitions should create greater awareness about the value of telematics data to fleets and help fleet managers further combat misuse of company assets, said Dillon Blake, senior director of business development at Runzheimer, a reimbursement management firm.

"The issues most fleet companies face now is there are a lot of data, and what do you do with that data," Blake said. "Verizon has a good solution to provide some deep business intelligence in an easily digestible form."

Related: Verizon to Acquire Fleetmatics

Follow @HDTrucking on Twitter

Mack and Volvo renew contract with Decisiv

Tallman Group buys Tru-Nor Truck Centres

First Canadian wins Ryder Top Tech event

ZF Takes Stake in Autonomous Tech Firm

Per ZF, its Innovation Truck prototype was developed to “identify product ideas through technology transfer” from passenger cars to commercial vehicles. Photo: ZF

Friedrichshafen, Germany-based ZF has announced it has acquired a 40% minority stake in Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH. The Hamburg-based company is a market leader in lidar (light detection and ranging) technology.

ZF pointed out that lidar is a key technology for autonomous driving, object recognition and accident prevention systems. Ibeo develops 3-D “environmental recognition” software with a particular focus on applications for autonomous driving. Its customers include several major global vehicle manufacturers.

"Lidar gives us access to a core technology for environmental and object recognition," said ZF CEO Stefan Sommer. “Lidar expands our current sensor portfolio of radar and camera technologies, and moreover, Ibeo's fusion of these three sensor technologies provides outstanding results in environmental awareness and forms the basis for autonomous driving."

Lidar involves emitting a “light pulse” to determine a distance based on runtime and speed of light. An optical method for measuring distance and speed, lidar is similar to radar, except that laser pulses are used instead of radio waves.

ZF said the lidar generation developed by Ibeo in cooperation with ZF will reproduce a 3-D image of a vehicle's surroundings without the rotating mirrors used in current lidar systems. And by using solid state technology, lidar will become more compact and easier to integrate into the vehicle.

"Our central theme at ZF is ‘See– Think– Act'– a philosophy which highlights how we are equipping the vehicles of tomorrow with new senses and more intelligence,” said Sommer. “To achieve this, we are gradually filling in the remaining gaps in our technology portfolio.

He added that leveraging lidar technology and sensor fusion will “strengthen the eyes and brain of future generations of vehicles and thus move a step closer to realizing the vision of accident-free driving."

Founded in 2009, Ibeo dates back to 1998. Given the fast-growing market for sensor systems and environmental recognition, the company said it expects to increase its workforce from around 50 to 250 employees in the medium term and it will establish an Autonomous Driving Competence Center. The center will focus on volume production and marketing of solutions for highly automated and autonomous driving.

"We are very much looking forward to cooperating with ZF,” said Ibeo CEO Ulrich Lages. “We now have a very strong partner that is progressively shaping the megatrends of safety, efficiency and autonomous driving. With our comprehensive know-how, we can enable all drive-assistance applications up to highly automated driving with 3-D lidar technology."

Related: Wabco, ZF Unveil Advanced Braking and Steering Technology

Follow @HDTrucking on Twitter