REE’s Software Defined Vehicle starts shipping
REE Automotive is starting to ramp production of its P7 electric truck in the US, with an innovative skateboard chassis based on a corner module made in the UK.
The corner contains the wheel, motor, brakes and steering with a software defined architecture where the performance of the vehicles can be modified with the learning from data captured by those corners. The technology is now of interest for autonomous vehicles.
Peter Dow, VP of Engineering at REE Automotive talks to Nick Flaherty about how the software defined vehicles (SDV) works with the REE corner module.
The heart of the development is a $100m centre outside Coventry in the UK. This now has 130 people in engineering and operations. “We have the engineering and protype teams here and the integration team as well as P7 corner production,” said Rowe.
The REEcorner platform has been in development for over a decade. “The value proposition is platform flexibility and the modular architecture is key to that, and that is one of the key elements to create a mechanical system with flexibility for SDV,” said Dow.
What the corner module allows REE to do is to focus a lot of the development and innovation into the drive, steering, braking etc and then the flexibility of the platform becomes much easier, If you can develop in modules, corners, module, cabin and put them together that gives you the flexibility.
“Our first application is the P7C box truck for a particular market, North America. What we have tried to do is be focussed with the corner modules with a level of software definition, that’s the starting point and we will expand from that with innovative ideas.”
“We have demo units in the US to do evaluations and we have started the ramp of production in the US. The corners are being manufactured in the integration centre in the UK and delivered to the contract assembler in the US, Rausch in Detroit, and over the next quarter we will ramp up production of the P7.”
“We feel we are very much into the ecosystem of SDV where we have modular systems with the ability to update key elements over the air to make things flexible which allows a well defined mechanical system that you can constantly update in software not just for the corner but also for the platform, eg with stability control and ABS. For me that’s a true level of software-defined.
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“Each corner has a REE controller where it is the master so it is zonal in that sense. You have some features that sit in the corner that need to react quickly, for example part of the ABS system but then at the application layer in the centre. The change will come though the centre module, while the corner units are an extension of the mechanical system. We also have a vehicle controller alongside the centre, for climate control, infotainment, that sort of thing.
The centre module has all of the code for the performance of the truck and all the safety elements while the vehicle controller is there to manage the way the body interacts. “The only differentiator is that we have steering, braking and accelerator linking to the centre. It allows levels of separation between the two. We are not operating the safety critical systems through vehicle controller.”
REE defined the E/E and did the software design, but the ECU is contract manufactured. “We have done all the development work, so we can be quick about changes,” said Dow. “Because we control the software the development can be so much quicker with the development of features. If your architecture is correct at the start you can expand around that and manage at the software level rather than the system level.
“We are at production with a team in Israel producing small volumes but not yet at production tooling housing and cases. We can do 40,000 corners a year, we are not at that volume yet.”
SDV and data collection
But the rollout is not just about the trucks but the data about how they operate.
“We collect a lot of data on our vehicles, and some of that is not readily available to people and we are looking at different models for how we commercialise that, that’s another revenue stream. It’s there for diagnostics and performance but it’s also there for usage. Our trucks are going out to people in the US and they buy trucks from a spec sheet. But we can offer more data on things like payload, range, mileage and speed profile. That means the SDV can change the throttle maps and pedal maps to make the truck more efficient.”
The company this week announced its collaboration with Geotab, the world’s largest commercial telematics operator. This will give customers of REE’s SDV trucks access to Geotab’s data-driven intelligence that gives fleet operators actionable insights on the condition and use of the vehicle to help optimize fleet performance.
The integration of REEai Cloud to the Geotab network enables fleets to monitor REE’s SDVs and other vehicles seamlessly, while significantly enhancing the cache of data quality and volume. IN the future this will also be used for preventative maintenance to identify problems before they occur so they can be addressed in routine maintenance. This is particularly important for maintaining the reliability of the corners.
Initially the updates to the corners will be a dealer update and the company is looking as moving to an OTA update but this needs to be done in steps for the user and the service teams and how they manage change.
“We’ve got another level of complexity as we also track the corner with its individual ID and we keep the history of that corner with it with the updates and you have to manage all of that history. This is a big change for people and we are working with them on this,” said Dow.
All of this is the learning from the initial roll out of the P7C.
“There’s a roadmap. We’ve learned a lot and we are looking at other families of corner for different weight classes. We are taking a lot of knowledge on how people received the product out there and what we need to do for the next generation with design efficiency and use cases,” he said.
“Autonomous systems have been talked about for years but we are starting to see targeted applications of our corners for autonomy.” The company showed an autonomous vehicle back called the Leopard in 2021 based on its platform.
The REE SDV architecture also allows for a more flexible supply chain. The corners are shipped from the UK, Microvast are shipping batteries to the US from China with assembly in Detroit, and the company is also looking at a second battery supplier to make sure there is a redundant supply chain.
“We can replicate the integration centre quickly in other regions if the volume requires it,” he said.
However that doesn’t yet include Europe for the trucks using the REE SDV. “The manufacturing strategy is to be flexible to move the assembly to wherever the demand is, but we haven’t defined anything for Europe, in the next few years.”
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