NewControl will develop virtualized platforms for vehicular subsystems that are essential to highly automated driving (realizing functions such as perception, cognition and control), so as to enable mobility-as-a-service for next generation highly automated vehicles. Its overarching goal is to provide an industrially calibrated trajectory towards increased user-acceptance of automated control functions, through an approach that is centered on the premise of safety by design. Newcontrol will deliver: 1. Fail-operational platform for robust holistic perception through a combination of Lidar, Radar, and sensor fusion 2. Generalized virtual platform for stable and efficient control of propulsion systems 3. Cost- and power-efficient, high-performance embedded compute-platforms for in-vehicle perception, cognition, and control 4. Robust approaches for implementing, verifying, and certifying automated control for safety-critical applications Several (12) demonstrators will be built to showcase the project’s findings and their capability to facilitate perception, cognition and control of next generation highly automated vehicles. The developments in NewControl will facilitate significant cost reductions for essential modules necessary for future automated vehicles. Concomitantly, these developments will improve the safety and reliability of automated systems to levels necessary for mass-market deployment. These innovations will leverage the expertise of industrial (OEMs, Tier-1, Tier-2 and technology providers) and research partners along the complete semiconductor, automotive, and aviation value chains, providing Europe with a competitive edge in a growing market. Importantly, NewControl's innovations will improve the market penetration of safety-centric automation systems, contributing directly to the European goal of zero road fatalities by 2050.

Cynergy4MIE is a visionary project poised to revolutionize Europe's industrial landscape by bridging the gap between foundational technology layers, cross-sectional technologies, and key application areas. The project addresses the pressing need for efficient resource utilization and synergy creation across ecosystems. By actively managing requirements from various key application areas, Cynergy4MIE aims to steer developments in foundational technology layers and cross-sectional technologies, enabling unparalleled collaboration and resource optimization. This approach promises faster time-to-market, efficient resource utilization, and enhanced technological exchange between key application areas. Cynergy4MIE's strategy aligns with the EU's agenda and emphasizes urgency, resilience, technological partnerships, and cross-domain integration to champion European competitiveness. The project's long-term impact rests on embracing urgency, fostering competitive resilience, strengthening technological partnerships, harnessing ecosystem synergies, promoting cross-domain integration, advancing AI competence, prioritizing sustainability, enhancing productivity, and ensuring user-centric digitalization while forming strategic alliances. Cynergy4MIE envisions a future where emergent cyber-physical systems serve human-centric needs, drive domain convergence, and secure Europe's position as a global technology leader.

The automotive industry faces tremendous challenges in addressing decarbonization through electrification, developing future solutions for inclusive, safe and affordable mobility. Many of these changes require a radical re-thinking of existing development processes, with the share of software in modern mobility solutions continuously increasing. The rising importance of the software layer results in the so-called software-defined vehicle (SDV). Automotive software will be developed and adapted in continuous cycles. Therefore an abstraction from the underlying hardware needs to be implemented. As a result, the automotive industry is transitioning to an agile software development process. The dramatic increase of software and complexity, along with the advances of international competition in this domain, calls for an approach, in which non-differentiating software is developed jointly as open source. To address these challenges, the EU, together with industry, governments, and research institutions, have launched the European SDV Ecosystem. To turn this into reality, this proposal outlines the vision and activities for a Coordination and Support Action. FEDERATE (Software-Defined Vehicle Support and Coordination Project) aims to bring together all relevant stakeholders to accelerate the development of an SDV Ecosystem, to foster a vibrant European community and orchestrate the SDV R&D&I activities. The consortium of FEDERATE is formed by major European OEMs, automotive tiers, semiconductor companies, relevant industry associations and industrial SDV initiatives, including the Eclipse SDV WG, and supported by a scientific board. FEDERATE will work towards a common understanding on the vision of the SDV program and create an orchestrated advice for current and future projects in the SDV program. In addition, recommendations for future calls are prepared in alignment with a Roadmap and Joint Vision Document for accelerated SDV R&D&I, created as part of the CSA

Connected and Cooperative Automotive Mobility (CCAM) solutions have emerged thanks to novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) which can be trained with huge amounts of data to produce driving functions with better-than-human performance under certain conditions. The race on AI keeps on building HW/SW frameworks to manage and process even larger real and synthetic datasets to train increasingly accurate AI models. However, AI remains largely unexplored with respect to explainability (interpretability of model functioning), privacy preservation (exposure of sensitive data), ethics (bias and wanted/unwanted behaviour), and accountability (responsibilities of AI outputs). These features will establish the basis of trustworthy AI, as a novel paradigm to fully understand and trust AI in operation, while using it at its full capabilities for the benefit of society. AITHENA will contribute to build Explainable AI (XAI) in CCAM development and testing frameworks, researching three main AI pillars: data (real/synthetic data management), models (data fusion, hybrid AI approaches), and testing (physical/virtual XiL set-ups with scalable MLOps). A human-centric methodology will be created to derive trustworthy AI dimensions from user identified group needs in CCAM applications. AITHENA will innovate proposing a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) on XAI, and an analysis to explore trade-offs between these dimensions. Demonstrators will show the AITHENA methodology in four critical use cases: perception (what does the AI perceive, and why), situational awareness (what is the AI understanding about the current driving environment, including the driver state), decision (why a certain decision is taken), and traffic management (how transport-level applications interoperate with AI-enabled systems operating at vehicle-level). Created data and tools will be made available via European data sharing initiatives (OpenData and OpenTools) to foster research on trustworthy AI for CCAM.

The European Green Deal defines 4 key elements for a sustainable mobility and automotive industry, namely: climate neutrality, zero pollution Europe, sustainable transport, and the transition to a circular economy. Digital technologies are a significant enabler for attaining the sustainability goals in mobility and transportation. The EC is taking initiatives to ensure that digital technologies such as AI, 5G, IoT and cloud/edge computing can accelerate the transition of the automotive industry to electrical, autonomous, connected, and shared vehicles. The current COVID-19 situation accelerates this trend. The AI4CSM project will develop advanced electronic components and systems (ECS) and architectures for future mass-market ECAS vehicles. This fuels the digital transformation in the automotive sector to support the mobility trends and accelerate the transition towards a sustainable green and digital economy. Having assembled some of Europe’s best partners from industry, research and academia, AI4CSM will deliver key innovations in technical areas including: sensor fusion and perception platforms; efficient propulsion and energy modules; advanced connectivity for cooperative mobility applications; vehicle/edge/cloud computing integration concepts; new digital platforms for efficient and federated computing; and intelligent components based on trustworthy AI techniques and methods. ECAS vehicles enabled by embedded intelligence and functional integration for future mobility, becomes the pivotal factor for the automotive sector to address the Green Deal principles. AI4CSM consists of 8 collaborative R&D clusters, gathering 41 partners from 10 countries. AI4CSM will reinforce user acceptance and affordability by convenience and services for the major transition to a diverse mobility. AI4CSM addresses the increasing demand of mobility, supporting future traffic concepts and strengthen the European automotive manufacturing base as a global industry leader.