Behind the scenes of autonomous driving research at TIER IV
Simon Thompson
TIER IV People shines a light on the people and teams whose unique experiences, backgrounds, and stories bring our mission to life. This installment features Simon Thompson, who joined TIER IV in 2019 to lead internal research, facilitate global research initiatives and support TIER IV engagement with global ecosystem partners. Before joining TIER IV, he worked on robot autonomy at the National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
— What is your current role?
I have a variety of roles. At TIER IV, I’m the leader of the research team, which manages projects with universities and companies both overseas and in Japan. We also do research within TIER IV. Another role is with the Autoware Foundation. I’m on the Steering Committee of the Autoware Center of Excellence, which is a global group of universities that promotes Autoware as a research platform. I’m also a member of MIH Consortium’s Autonomy Working Group. We’re working on an open platform for EVs, aiming to make it a global standard, similar to the Android platform for mobile phones.
— What initially brought you to Japan?
I did my PhD at the Australian National University, which had close ties to Japan in collaborative research projects, and through that I was fortunate enough to receive a research scholarship here. I formed good connections, so when the time came to start looking for a job after my PhD, the next natural step was to look here.
— What was your first impression of working in Japan?
It was very positive. I started out in a university research environment, so I wasn’t exposed to some of the negative stereotypes of Japanese work culture. In research, the output is always the focus, and in Japan I found the support and facilities to pursue my own research ideas. Then I joined a research-based startup like TIER IV. The founders were global-facing, with lots of experience collaborating with people from around the world.
— How did you end up at TIER IV?
I wanted to realize autonomous driving on public roads. I’ve been working in research for autonomous mobile robots for about twenty years in Japan. The work we did ranged from very small robots to very large trucks. Although it was enjoyable, the publishing cycle in academia meant that projects rarely get past the proof-of-concept stage, so working on autonomous driving at TIER IV was a chance to fully actualize and build a product and get it out into the real world.
I was once involved in a project with TIER IV founder Shinpei Kato and collaborated on what turned out to be the basis for Autoware, so he and I have had a great working relationship for a while. When I heard that TIER IV was going to set up a research division, I decided to make the move to join the team. TIER IV is different from companies whose sole goal is to make a profit. Its focus is open source and collaboration to democratize the benefits of autonomous driving technology.
— At the start of a research project, do all the parties work collaboratively or independently?
It’s a mix that requires a great sense of balance. TIER IV has deep knowledge of Autoware and autonomous vehicle deployments. We try to set the direction of research by posing questions such as “What is Autoware missing?” or “What are the immediate challenges for operating Autoware on public roads?” We try to share knowledge with universities and other companies for them to independently research those areas and feed the results back into Autoware. For closer, collaborative research, we need to find problems that are application-focused, with outstanding research questions, but also with a clear path for the output to feed into product development.
— What was TIER IV like when you joined? How has it changed?
It was much smaller. We were all working out of a cramped office, so it was a bit crowded. Overall, the scope of the business has changed a lot. At that time, it was proof-of-concept-focused, developing basic capabilities, and the market that we were trying to enter was domestically oriented within Japan. Since then, TIER IV products have matured considerably. We try to define and produce specific products for a range of operational design domains. Also, our focus has shifted from the domestic market to the global market, with offices opened in North America and China. Hopefully, they’re not quite as cramped as we were.
— What is an accomplishment that you’ve been proud of?
What stands out to me is that when the Autoware Foundation started, the software was only a research-level project. Coming out of university, it had a lot of code in it that was still only research-level and not well-tested. So the first major step of AWF was to convert that code base into a rigorously tested, professional code base for their first demonstration: an autonomous parking valet. Foundation members, as a group, worked on that project together, taking the code from research level to near production standard. They ran the parking demonstration live in North America and it was a huge success. Being part of that was pretty cool.
— What would you say is the hallmark of TIER IV?
The collaboration and ecosystem that we’re creating with our different partners. We recognize that we can’t solve all the challenges alone. We need to partner with other organizations that can provide different parts of the solution. That’s exactly what bigger companies are finding as well. For a single company to develop an autonomous vehicle, a lot of investment is needed. Companies are now deciding they can’t continue making that investment without a return. The benefit of reducing the barrier to entry and working with many different companies reduces the risks for everyone involved. It provides the opportunity for many different ideas to come together and hopefully find a solution.
— What is MIH and what is the connection to TIER IV and AWF?
MIH stands for Mobility in Harmony, which is a consortium formed by Foxconn that counts over 2,000 companies as members. The goal is to make the MIH Open EV Kit the de facto standard for EV manufacturing. TIER IV views Autoware as an open-source solution for the initiative. What we expect to see is the potential market for Autoware to expand dramatically if we can keep the software platform consistent with the open standards. Being involved with those standards makes it easier to guide and fit the definitions when we work with potential customers.
The MIH Open EV Kit is kind of a new concept. The first area of focus is the establishment of working groups composed of different members from all the allied organizations. TIER IV North America President Christian John is the leader of the MIH Autonomy Working Group, and there are other working groups, such as CockPit, Information, Telematics, Electronic and Electronic Architecture, that cover other areas of the vehicle.
For example, I personally lead a sub-group called the Sensor API working group. We try to define all the interfaces that are necessary to take data from different sensors mounted on the car and to feed that information into AD systems or advanced driver assistance systems. Basically, my whole job is to facilitate the collaboration between members to define an open standard for sensors.
— What are the next steps in this collaboration?
The work toward the Open EV standard will continue. We’ve proposed the first standard for drive by wire, which is how steering commands and acceleration commands are passed to the EV base. Now we’re doing the sensor API and we will continue doing different parts until we get a complete picture. At the same time, we are looking to partner with MIH on other projects, such as Project X, which will be their first electric vehicle on the market. It’s designed to be modular and expandable. We’re currently exploring different ways to package the MIH vehicle with Autoware and bring TIER IV and other MIH partners into the marketplace.
— What are some of the challenges you’ve faced?
Since this is such a large consortium with many different partners, there are also many language and cultural differences. When everyone is working to define a single standard with a variety of solutions, it’s important to listen and collect all the different viewpoints and go step-by-step to gain a consensus to define what is most important. For instance, for a particular autonomous function, how do we address it through an open standard while trying to balance the interests of all the different members who are promoting the benefits of their own particular solution? That’s been one of the main challenges with this scale of collaboration.
— What would you say to people who feel uneasy about the idea of autonomous cars?
I was one of those people! The idea of cars driving autonomously on the road and replacing passenger vehicles is kind of far out. What the industry is learning is that there are these intermediate steps that can be taken to introduce the technology step-by-step, thus building the range of deployment over time. While doing that, it’s a chance to build confidence in autonomous vehicles. So it won’t be this big switch from nothing to everything autonomously running around. There will be an incremental advancement – deliveries might be transported within a set distance with an autonomous robot, then moving to large-scale vehicles. There was even an announcement recently that Japan is thinking of making an autonomous truck lane between Nagoya and Tokyo for some portions of the highway. So that’s the start of a step-by-step build-up that can start helping the public gain confidence.
— What qualities do you look for when hiring?
Coming from the research side, someone who is naturally inquisitive. Being able to apply themselves to achieve expertise in a given domain is what I tend to look for. Since we are also in an industry that’s constantly evolving, someone who can argue their case. Being confident in their point of view, but also mature enough to argue it constructively. It’s a really fine balance, especially in a company such as ours, where you may have to get your point across in different languages and cultures. This technical and intellectual curiosity, crossed with a maturity to work collaboratively with a global workforce, is what I think is really important.
— Do you have a message for prospective candidates?
TIER IV has enormous potential to deliver products that make a meaningful, positive impact on society. We’re transitioning from a startup to a profitable company in a highly challenging technological field, which means there are both significant challenges and exciting opportunities for every team member. If you have the motivation and drive to make a real difference, TIER IV is the place to make it happen.
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TIER IV is always on the lookout for passionate individuals to join our journey. If you share our vision of making autonomous driving accessible to all, get in touch.
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