Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

General Motors of Canada Company (GM) and University of Waterloo (UW) will research two important aspects of vehicle design with respect to connected and automated vehicles (CAV): (i) the effects of connected and automated vehicles on real-world driving habits that in turn influences powertrain design, and (ii) investigation of CAV's impact on hybrid electric vehicle energy management strategies in regards to effects on the emissions and fuel/energy consumption. To support these research topics, UW will convert an existing, production GM vehicle into a hybrid electric vehicle with integrated CAV and powertrain functionalities. This will act as a fully customizable vehicle test bed providing students with unique hands-on-learning and exposure to industry grade tools and processes. Students will also have a unique opportunity to be involved in the race to develop the next generation of intelligent transportation systems and vehicle automation. The first research topic relates to the influence CAV can have on drive cycles and the powertrain selection. Traditionally OEMs use government provided drive cycles to design their vehicles. By collaborating with GM, the effects that CAV will have on real-world driving habits will be captured and examined. By understanding the CAV factors that can influence vehicle design, GM will be able to better design their vehicle's to meet consumer needs. The second research topic will aid GM in understanding how CAV can have an impact on hybrid vehicle emissions and fuel consumption. An area of interest will be the study of how the development of vehicle global mapping, localization, prediction and path planning system will influence powertrain energy management to minimize energy consumption. Additionally, this research will measure the resources needed to migrate the software and hardware of the developed system from a laboratory setting to a consumer ready vehicle. With this information, GM will be able to quantify the costs of migrating the concepts to on-road vehicles. The benefit to Canadians are vehicles designed to reduce emissions and fuel consumption, which are not only tailored to our unique landscape and driving patterns, but also to the intelligent transportation infrastructure of the future.