ZF’s UK R&D Facility paves the way for autonomous driving
A new £70m R&D hub in Solihull focuses on all aspects of future mobility, from motor design to connected and autonomous vehicles. Chris Pickering reports.
The West Midlands has long been a focal point of the UK automotive industry. Britain’s first production car rolled out of the gates of a former cotton mill in Coventry in 1896. By that point Joseph Lucas & Son had already been established in neighbouring Birmingham for more than 30 years, where it had made its name in the production of bicycle lamps.
As the newfound world of motoring grew in the early 1900s, Lucas switched its focus to automotive electrical items, with dynamos and magnetos, later followed by starter motors and electric headlamps. The company soon moved to Solihull, and in time, it would go on to become Lucas Varity and then TRW, pioneering the development of electric power steering and radar-guided adaptive cruise control along the way.
What began life as Joseph Lucas’s bicycle lamp company is now part of ZF, but it’s still in Solihull, and it remains a major centre for innovation in automotive electronics.
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