Smart Mobility Today Host Cindy Polakowski spoke with Ed Perosky, Senior VP for Product Development at Aisin Corporation. They met at the Detroit Auto Show at Huntington Place. Ranging from how Aisin is leading through change, to a discussion around technology and AI, here is their conversation:
Cindy Polakowski
Would you please introduce yourself to our listeners?
Ed Perosky
Sure. I’m Ed Perosky, Senior Vice President for powertrain engineering within the Aisin Group here in North America. My experience within the automotive field was 35 years with Chrysler / Stellantis. I retired from that and came on board here.
I’ve always been in propulsion — manual transmissions to begin with, automatic transmissions, and now into the hybrid systems.
Cindy Polakowski
Engineers never retire. They just change jobs.
Ed Perosky
That’s right. And they’re always changing. Technologies change. Therefore, we always change with the technology, which is great.
Cindy Polakowski
Do you come from an engineering/manufacturing background?
Ed Perosky
It is interesting, there was a neighbor two doors down who started my biggest interest. He was a Ford engineer who didn’t work in propulsion systems, but that’s what got me interested in engineering and I had a strong math background, enjoyed the sciences, and there was a very strong fit.
Cindy Polakowski
As Aisin is a tier one major manufacturer, what do you find that your focus is today?
Ed Perosky
So for me, I’m powertrain specific. So, we have, especially from the mobility side, we’ve been in Toyota products for quite a while and we’ve transitioned. Now, we do a lot of things with Stellantis both here and in South America. A lot of the electrified products we support are two motor hybrids – that’s very popular and has been in the Prius since 2004. We’ve got a little over 20 years of experience with that, and now it’s finding its way into many other product lines for other OEMs. It’s very popular as it gets you to a hybrid system within a conventional space, if you will. So, we take that conventional automatic transmission and you put a two-motor hybrid in that same space, especially for the front drive, and that’s what provides the propulsion.
Cindy Polakowski
I have the opportunity to drive a Toyota hybrid in Seattle and I found it really easy to drive and the hybrid option just saved us incredible amounts because it had the regenerative braking system. So, as you know, in Washington you’re always up and down, or you are up and then going down. So, it was it was a real plus and I loved it — great vehicle.
Ed Perosky
Saves on brakes as well.
Cindy Polakowski
There have been an incredible amount of changes recently with the push toward electric and then the back off from electric. What have you personally learned from all the tumultuous changes that have been going on?
Ed Perosky
Well, fortunately for Aisin, and part of our motto is we’re ready when you are. So in that “ready when you are,” you’ve got electrified products – the Prius has been a two-motor hybrid — we have electrified axles which would have been compatible with all the EV systems coming forward, so we’ve got a position for both. The hybrid system, we have a lot of experience, so far more than most Tier Ones do. So, there’s a big benefit for us. Toyota used the system. We’re now extending that into our customer base. It’s a strong driver for us. Also on the rear drive for the Tundra and Tacoma that are made here in the US, the products we produce out of Texas, those have a one-motor system in them. It is a conventional system, but you can also put a motor up front and make it a hybrid system. So you can buy a hybrid. They’re actually out of the floor today with a couple of hybrids. So you take a conventional base and you add a motor on it and you know you have a hybrid system.
Cindy Polakowski
Interesting, Interesting. Is that something that the team you’re involved with came up with?
Ed Perosky
Yes, the overall what they call P2 system, which is the one motor between the engine and the transmission — those technologies have been there. It is the application for what we do for trucks specifically. Ford introduced this a few years ago with their own system.
Cindy Polakowski
Taking in everything you do and all the emerging technology that is coming from all directions, what do you personally find most exciting in your job at Aisin, and what are you looking forward to?
Ed Perosky
At one point in time the question was “where are things going?” And I think that’s settling down quite a bit. Most OEMs are going to offer some type of full electric vehicle. They’ve already commissioned to that; they were already heading that direction. Then you had the pure ICE people and some of that interest is being regenerated again. You’ve got the Chrysler HEMI that came back. Some thought it would not come back, but now it is back. And now you have this hybrid space. And the hybrid space fills a lot of that gap to the customer and, with your experience in Washington, it’s invisible to you. There’s things you feel with the vehicle, but it’s not different than a conventional vehicle. It gives you a better fuel economy. It gives you a little bit better performance on the low end. So it’s going to be the modifications on those systems and the evolution. How do you get better power electronics? How do you get more efficiency out of the system? How do you drive better fuel economy and or range for the customer? This is really where they’re focused.
Cindy Polakowski
I personally find my comfort zone in the hybrid. Living in Michigan, I find that we’re constantly traveling. We’re traveling long distances: we drive to Philadelphia, although we fly to Seattle. But just the fact that I don’t have to worry, the fact that even like when the gauge gets low, you know you still have the hybrid electric keeping you going, it’s a nice advantage.
Ed Perosky
It is. For the most part, that’s what people, even relatives that I have, they don’t hit the gas quite as often. So, there’s a benefit there. But the performance is a little bit better, but it’s transparent. It’s what they expect from a vehicle – you don’t even know it.
Cindy Polakowski
You don’t know it. No, you don’t know you’re driving anything different until you go to refill the tank. And then then you’re happy. So, lastly, can you talk a little bit about AI. How is it changing the ways that you work, or the overall vehicle experience?
Ed Perosky
From an AI perspective, it’s interesting because automated transmissions have had some form of AI for quite a while. It’s kind of hidden behind it. It learns driving habits a little bit for the driver. So, your torque converter, how it’s set up, how the transmission reacts, is already positioned a little bit. That’s going to be the biggest benefit. If it can learn how you drive, and then also the forward-looking portion of this with — whether it’s GPS systems and automatic transmissions and how you anticipate hills and climbs and descents – there is a lot of things that can happen there. And there is artificial intelligence feeding back into the system, so it’s not just what did I learn from Waymo going through an area now I’ve got feedback directly to the customer: When I did this, this happened. When I do that again tomorrow, I can anticipate what’s going to happen.
Cindy Polakowski
And your team utilizes that information?
Ed Perosky
We do. And actually we have an LDS category that does GPS and that type of thing. And there’s a lot of cross talk: how do you make the system overall, from a vehicle perspective, the best one for the consumer.
Cindy Polakowski
Do you utilize it in the actual development of products? Does using it make jobs shorter?
Ed Perosky
It will come along. But, especially for power training, there’s a lot of tried and true because physics don’t change.
Cindy Polakowski
You sure?
Ed Perosky
Some people try to change it, but that doesn’t work out so well sometimes. But that’s the base, and a lot of times we go back to lessons learned, and that’s what gets lost in the process. If I had a lesson learned ten years ago, but I’m not the engineer who was there and I’ve got brand new ????? So, this AI and how you take your development learnings and put it in for your own company and just say, I know what happens if we do this or here’s where I’ve been, there’s going to be some big benefits to that. And that’s how AI has worked and as better systems come along, its going to be more automated.
Cindy Polakowski
It’s like a dedicated librarian who knows what you need
Ed Perosky
Yes, yeah, clutches or whatever it happens to be. And what’s the experience? That will all be in the database.
Cindy Polakowski
OK, Thank you. I want to thank you for your time here today. Wonderful.
Ed Perosky
Thank you Cindy.
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