ATZ live, part of the Springer Nature publishing group, run on June 23rd and 24th 2020 its 11th edition of the chassis.tech plus symposium - this time due to COVID-19 as a virtual conference with over 200 participants. The event was looking at the chassis development with the main challenges safety, vehicle dynamics and driving comfort. It is a field with ever increasing complexity also due to interaction with assistance systems, solutions for automated driving and changes in electric and electronic architectures.

chassis.tech plus 2020 - Main foyer of the virtual conference site (© Proske GmbH)

  For future vehicles the chassis and its subsystems steering, brakes, tires & wheels play a big role due to consumer wants: dynamic driving experience while steering the car, high level of safety in all driving & road conditions, and increasing comfort especially in automated and autonomous modes. For the industry earlier, faster and more precise virtual development tools, platform solutions and functional integration are important for fast and cost-effective development of the vehicles and their variants. Those topics were addressed by international speakers from OEMs, suppliers, universities and research institutes.

  As an exception this year’s conference was held in a virtual environment to simulate as much as possible a real face-to-face symposium. Participants could move through the building with an exhibition area and networking area (chat forum) on the ground floor. On the upper floor was the plenary for live experiences (welcome, keynote lectures, expert interviews) and the self-experience area for the technical presentations grouped into four sections: Chassis, Steering, Brake, Tire & Wheel.

Upper floor for live keynotes and interviews (right) and technical presentation videos (left) (© Proske GmbH)

  In previous symposiums the technical presentations were held in parallel strands. This time the presentations were pre-recorded videos of slide shows with the speaker’s voice. The benefit of it: high flexibility for the participants. Each one could watch any of the presentations at any time and as often as wanted, even with interruptions. Communication with presenters was somewhat limited. Questions to the moderators and speakers were possible through a chat function - answered verbally for the key notes and in writing at the chat forum for the technical presentations.

  This report summarizes some of the over 50 presentations held at the symposium.

  The 12th International Munich Chassis Symposium - chassis.tech plus 2021 - is now in the planning phase and should be held again at face-to-face on June 29th - 30th 2021. Books with the material of previous conferences are available at Springer.

Related reports:
BMW 320i Teardown: Suspension, steering, and braking system（May 2020）
CES 2020: Electrified vehicles and technologies（Feb. 2020）
CES 2020 Show Report: Renewed Expectations on ADAS vs. AV（Jan. 2020）
ELIV 2019 - International Congress for Automotive Electronics（Nov. 2019）
German OEM Electrification Strategies, Including EV Product Timelines（Oct. 2019）
Frankfurt Motor Show 2019: European OEMs（Sep. 2019）