ZF TRW Tech Center Targets Advanced Safety

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI – Driven by demand to meet rising consumer pleas for next-generation comfort and convenience features, as well as satisfy a global regulatory regime focused on reducing traffic fatalities, multinational parts supplier ZF TRW opens a $30 million technical center dedicated to the development of passive- and active-safety technology.

The 171,000-sq.-ft. (15,900 sq.-m) building here is a state-of-the-art, global electronics R&D facility designed not just to sustain ZF TRW’s leadership position in driver-assist items such as cameras, radars and electronic control units seen paving the way to automated vehicles, but also to foster creativity among the 600 engineers and support staff inside.

It also will help the supplier recruit the sharpest technical talent from nearby universities and around the world, says Mark Stewart, executive vice president-operations and chief operating officer for ZF TRW.

“It was a great opportunity for us to bring everything together,” Stewart tells WardsAuto during a briefing on the site. “We have great partnerships with the local universities (and) we are very happy with our recruitment efforts and talent.”

The ZF TRW Global Electronics Headquarters and Tech Center combines four Detroit-area R&D units into one building, Stewart adds, and heightens the company’s presence in the backyard of key customers such as General Motors, Toyota and FCA, among others.

Stewart says 60 positions are open at the facility and once the hiring wave is complete it will house 750 employees. The supplier has added 1,000 jobs to its global electronics division in recent years, a recruitment effort further underscoring its aggressive push into safety electronics, and the passive- and active-safety group is the largest unit based on sales.

Airy, leafy atrium of ZF TRW tech center outside Detroit.

ZF Group became a powerhouse in safety electronics with its $12.4 billion acquisition of TRW last year, a move that also catapulted the combined company to the No.3 global supplier behind Bosch and Denso.

Laboratories and vehicle-test areas inside the 4-story, leased building will be home to work on technologies such as ZF TRW’s S-Cam family of cameras, which includes single-lens versions and the new Tri-Cam 3-lens unit meant to support partial and fully automated driving and more stringent advanced safety-testing protocols.

ZF TRW products supported by the camera and radar technologies include adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, automatic emergency braking, emergency steering assist and crash-avoidance systems.

The supplier’s products are in big demand as consumers rapidly adopt advanced driver-assistance systems, which third-party forecasters expect to prevent as many 9,900 crashes in the U.S. annually and save $250 billion in societal costs. ADAS also serves as the backbone for autonomous driving, a technology expected to make driving more enjoyable as well as safer.

ZF TRW completed the move-in two weeks ago. Unique elements of the facility include low-power lighting to conserve electricity, electrostatic-discharge-protected floors to protect delicate electronics work, a 24-hour employee fitness center, a café on each floor and extra work areas to accommodate the upwards of 40 visitors to the unit from outsiders and other ZF TRW locations worldwide.

A centerpiece of the building is an airy, leafy atrium lobby where employees can relax and collaborate. In a testament to the casual work environment, a group of journalists taking a tour of the office stumble onto four employees passing a few minutes together over a ping-pong match.

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