QNX has proven to be very popular with automakers. The company offers many software solutions for automakers. It recently launched news services including smartphone integration advanced safety, Augmented Reality features and audio/acoustic technology. QNX also offers software for autonomous driving features of the future. The company is very popular with our readers who voted for the company to win a Tech CARS Award.
Augmented Reality on Heads-Up-Display
QNX recently bought Itseez that produced an algorithm that detects road signs, including speed limit, stop and yield in real-time. It also finds the lane center and detects the lane departure moment. QNX showcased a system that shows symbols and warnings that appear on a HUD (Heads-Up-Display) on the road warning the driver of forward collisions, traffic sign recognition, and lane departures.
Luxoft road-model based computer vision algorithms track objects such as vehicles, pedestrians, building facades, and road signs to bring a road scene reconstruction engine to the QNX OS platform. The CVNAR solution by Luxoft runs computer vision and augmented reality algorithms to highlight points-of-interest, street names, destinations, pedestrian crossings, turn-by-turn navigation arrows, and forward collision detection. The system uses an NVIDIA Tegra K1-based automotive platform.
When warnings, places of interest and navigation are shown on the HUD it allows the instrument cluster to be used for standard features.
QNX Platform for ADAS Added More Safety Features V2V + V2X
QNX OS for Safety, an ISO 26262-certified OS supports all of the automotive safety integrity levels, from ASIL A to ASIL D, required by automated driving systems. The OS is built on a modular microkernel architecture that simplifies the integration of new sensor technologies and purpose-built ADAS processors, while providing the fault resilience needed for systems that require the highest level of reliability.
To give development teams a jumpstart on new projects, the QNX Platform for ADAS includes pre-integrated reference implementations for building multi-camera vision systems and V2X applications (vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications). The vision system implementation is based on the platform’s multi-camera framework, which simplifies system design by managing the complexities of camera control on behalf of applications.The V2X implementation uses the platform’s remote V2X interface, which handles V2X notifications from surrounding vehicles and infrastructure elements such as traffic signals.
SmartDeviceLink
Ford Motor Company ported its open source SmartDeviceLink (SDL) technology to the QNX CAR Platform for Infotainment. SDL is designed to bring an intuitive and fully integrated app experience to the car. It allows drivers to use voice commands, steering-wheel buttons, and other in-car controls to interact with smartphone apps that provide navigation, music, location sharing, and other services. Drivers can, as a result, stay connected to their apps while keeping their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.
SDL offers broad device and platform compatibility, enabling the automotive developer community to create apps that will work, unmodified, across multiple automotive brands and vehicle models. Moreover, it allows automakers to deliver a consistent app experience across vehicles, while retaining the flexibility to customize that experience for each specific brand or model.
Acoustics Car Sounds & Voices
The QNX Acoustics Management Platform (AMP) enhances the audio and acoustic experience for drivers and passengers. Modern vehicles contain multiple acoustic and audio signal-processing systems, all running simultaneously. QNX offers a system that deals with all types of sounds including making it easier for drivers to talk to the passengers without yelling, reduction of engine noise inside the vehicle and even engine sounds
The QNX Acoustics Management Platform integrates a comprehensive suite of acoustics modules. Modules scheduled for the initial release of the platform include:
- QNX In-Car Communication (ICC) – QNX ICC enhances thevoice of the driver and relays it to loudspeakers in the back of the vehicle. Instead of shouting or having to turn around to be heard, the driver can talk normally while keeping his or her eyes on the road.
- QNX Acoustics for Voice 3.1 – Provides a high-quality handsfree telephony experience, with support for narrow and wide-band Bluetooth audio and for next-generation smartphone telephony, concierge voice services, and cloud-based speech recognition at up to 32 kHz sample rates.Q
- QNX Acoustics for Active Noise Control (ANC) – Advanced technology for reducing low-frequency engine “boom” noise inside the cabin of a vehicle.
- QNX Acoustics for Engine Sound Enhancement (ESE) – A complete software solution to help automakers create or maintain signature engine sounds and enhance the appeal of their vehicles.
- Backwards-compatible interfaces and APIs – QNX AMP extends the audio infrastructure in the QNX Neutrino OS in a backwards-compatible way, allowing existing applications for telephony, speech recognition, navigation, and media playback to run without modifications.
- Tuning, diagnosis, and analysis – QNX AMP includes an entirely new tool that allows developers to perform realtime adjustments of all system parameters, to inject or stream signals at multiple tap-points in the system, and to view realtime spectrum and waveform displays.