[TECH Weekly] K-Chassis Safety Armor Repels China’s EV Onslaught… The By-Wire Innovation Completed by HL Mando

Chinese EV and autonomous driving companies have recently been expanding their presence in domestic and overseas markets. However, the core elements of the chassis, the essence of a vehicle, are driving, steering, and braking, and this field has technological barriers that are difficult to overcome with in-cabin electronics or price competitiveness alone. That is because complete control of vehicle movement requires hardware safety standards and ultra-precise control mechanisms, and this area is directly tied to life and death.

In the chassis segment that requires such conditions, there is HL Mando, a leading domestic chassis parts company. HL Mando is playing a role in fending off the advance of Chinese mobility products at the front line of the global mobility value chain, and it holds a status of securing next-generation autonomous driving control authority. HL Mando is posting leading results in global markets by focusing on electrified chassis and electric steering and braking technologies.

HL Mando’s core technology is 'By-Wire.' 'By-Wire' consists of Steer-by-Wire (SbW) and Brake-by-Wire (EMB/IDB), and aims to completely replace conventional mechanical control methods.

In the automobile architecture of the past, the steering wheel, brake pedal, and wheels were physically connected. This physical connection was mediated by shafts and hydraulic lines, but HL Mando’s By-Wire solution completely eliminates such physical links and controls the vehicle’s direction and deceleration using only electrical signals.

Steer-by-Wire, an electronic steering system, makes a retractable steering wheel possible when shifting to autonomous driving. As a result, the steering wheel folds away and interior space is maximized, and SbW greatly enhances design flexibility for Purpose-Based Mobility (PBV).

The Brake-by-Wire system does not use hydraulic oil. Through the electronic brake (EMB), a brake structure that directly presses the brake pads with an electric motor, it has shortened response times to a split second and enables immediate execution of commands from the autonomous driving central computer.

This kind of immediate execution leads to a major reduction in emergency braking distance. The article describes this as a unique hardware mechanism.

For Level 3+ autonomous driving, redundancy design and SDV domain control are cited as essential requirements. Level 3 and above autonomous driving is characterized by minimal driver intervention. For this reason, a 1 ms calculation error or a power short circuit in the steering or braking circuit could directly lead to a major disaster.

Under such conditions, what is needed is top-tier functional safety redundancy. HL Mando shows a wide technological gap versus low-cost Chinese parts makers, and the decisive technology behind that gap is a dual-system Redundancy design that satisfies ISO 26262 ASIL-D.

By contrast, the mainstream approach among Chinese parts makers is Fault-Safe, which stops operation when an abnormality occurs. This approach has limitations because it restricts application to advanced autonomous driving.

HL Mando has completed a Fault-Tolerant, dual-drive mechanism. It has made the control unit (ECU), rotation angle and torque sensors, communication pipeline, power supply inverter, and motor internal Winding the targets of redundancy, and implemented a structure that fully separates each target element into two independent circuits.

By structuring the system so that the auxiliary channel operates when overcurrent or signal disconnection occurs in the main channel, the auxiliary channel is able to maintain 100% braking force and 100% steering torque without any physical delay. This corresponds to a core survival technology for moving an autonomous vehicle into a safety zone in response to system failure, and it signifies the advancement of that survival technology at the hardware level.

On top of that, it has applied 'MiCOSA (Mando Integrated Control Software Architecture).' MiCOSA is an integrated chassis control software module for responding to the transition to SDV, and through integration with chassis domain control unit (DCU) technology, it has enhanced the technical completeness of the MiCOSA-DCU combination.

Where the existing structure relied on independent calculations for each controller of the brake, steering, and suspension, HL Mando synchronized three-axis vehicle motion—longitudinal, lateral, and vertical—through a single integrated central algorithm. As a result, it can precisely control braking, steering, and suspension damping force at the same time during sudden cornering and abrupt changes in road friction, which has led to maximized driving performance and safety through OTA alone, as well as stronger HL Mando control over the software platform.

Although the Chinese EV camp is expanding into Korea, Europe, and North America, automakers are cautious about replacing chassis systems that are directly tied to safety. Behind this backdrop lies the fact that HL Mando has built a hardware lock-in effect.

Global top-tier automakers are choosing HL Mando’s electrified chassis platform over Chinese chassis parts. The basis for that choice is that HL Mando has accumulated real-world validation data from more than several million vehicles. HL Mando’s customers include Hyundai Motor, Kia, major North American EV makers, major European OEMs, NIO, and Zeekr. HL Mando has succeeded in a two-pronged strategy that secures not only Korea, North America, and Europe but also major Chinese EV brands, and these Chinese customers are brands seeking entry into the premium segment.

As the level of autonomous driving rises, the amount of high-margin By-Wire components installed per vehicle is also increasing significantly. Accordingly, HL Mando has moved beyond being a simple parts manufacturer and entered an inflection point in the earnings trajectory of a global mobility solutions company.

HL Mando does have challenges. As a world-leading chassis company, it needs to further strengthen its dominant position. Recently, global automakers have shown a temporary slowdown in investment in electrification and autonomous driving, and this has increased the need to maintain capital investment efficiency amid that slowdown.

At the same time, HL Mando is moving ahead with building global mass-production lines for next-generation electronic brake (EMB) and Steer-by-Wire (SbW). In this mass-production process, stabilizing high yield and overcoming pressure to reduce component costs are emerging as key tasks. It is also competing with traditional electronics giants for market share in the next-generation By-Wire market, and those traditional electronics giants have the strength of trust accumulated over decades.

Future challenges include expanding module-level cost reductions and increasing the share of proprietary control software licensing. In particular, the ability to raise both module cost reductions and the software licensing share at the same time is expected to be the key to a long-term revaluation of corporate value.

A specialist in the automotive systems sector said the market is being disrupted by the display and value-for-money push from Chinese EVs. However, they assessed that chassis control and By-Wire technology are the fields that determine driving safety, and that the barrier to entry lies in years of testing and verification. They also said that while global automakers are moving toward SDV, HL Mando must continue proving its mass-production capability for redundant By-Wire algorithms and electrified chassis platforms, and that those results will determine its future global market dominance.

Source: TECHWORLD · Kim Yong-su
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406571

References

• https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406571