In connected car news this week are Beepi, NIVIDIA, TomTom, HARMAN, Scania, Ford, GM, Chevy, Cadillac, Green Hills Software, Wineman, Renesas, SureSoft, VTS, Hella, Cinemo, Faurecia/Pazrrot, Covisint and Taillight digital bumpers.
Is it Fair for Fair to Absorb Beepi?
Beep-beep get out the way Beepi the mobile car buying and selling service for consumers is merging with Fair.com and shutting down on-profitable markets outside of California. Fair.com will be selling vehicles from car dealers. Fair.com is managed by Scott Painter formerly at TrueCar, Georg Bauer, formerly of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla and Fedor Artiles formerly of Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Volkswagen, and Tesla.
NIVIDIA Gets Self-Driver’s License from CA DMV
NIVIDIA has been approved by the California department of Motor Vehicles to test drive autonomous self-driving cars.
Tesla Recalls NEMA Chargers
Tesla Motors has recalled 7,000 EVSE adapters that are used for charging Tesla cars through the NEMA 14-30 dryer outlet in American homes or garages.
TomTom/Pitney Bowes Expand Partnership
TomTom and Pitney Bowes announced an expansion of their partnership. TomTom’s global location content is assisting Pitney Bowes to strengthen its position as the preferred single-source provider of enterprise-grade location intelligence solutions worldwide.
The sophisticated Location Intelligence Suite of software solutions from Pitney Bowes is enhanced with the accuracy and freshness of TomTom’s international map content and diverse layers of location-based data.
The mapping and location technologies from Pitney Bowes help businesses better communicate with their customers, create more targeted promotions and pursue new cross-selling opportunities.
HARMAN Will Market Navdy
HARMAN the premier connected technologies company for the automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, announced today that it will offer an aftermarket Augmented Reality (AR) Driving Device to automotive OEMs through a strategic partnership and investment in Silicon Valley innovator Navdy. As part of the agreement, HARMAN will have exclusive rights to distribute the new co-branded aftermarket Navdy with HARMAN device to automotive OEMs, specialty auto and audio channels as well as select mobile carriers globally.
Introduced last month, the new Navdy product is an aftermarket heads-up driving (HUD) device that projects both mobile application information and car data information directly over the road allowing drivers to Look Forward while Staying Connected. The aftermarket HUD solution leverages AR technology to project car, phone and music information directly in the driver’s line of sight, creating a new type of driving experience that is both safe and satisfying.
The initial offering will be a co-branded Navdy with HARMAN aftermarket device combining the innovative Navdy technology with the strength of the HARMAN brand. In January of 2017, the aftermarket device will be available direct to automotive OEM customers globally and to consumers in North America through well-known specialty auto/audio outlets. Product bundles with synergistic HARMAN products such as the JBL Trip will also be made available in select markets.
Scania Wirless Charging Bus
The Nordic region’s first bus service featuring wireless (inductive) bus stop charging is now starting. A newly developed electric hybrid bus from Scania will be operated in regular urban traffic in Södertälje, Sweden, as part of the efforts to identify new more sustainable solutions for public transport in urban environments.
Ford issued information about its patents:
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Ford approximately 1,500 U.S. patents to Ford employees so far this year – more than any other automaker, according to agency data. The number of U.S. patents awarded to Ford employees represents a 25 percent increase versus 2015; total Ford patents globally reach 3,200 this year
- Ford employees are driving innovation in every part of the business globally at record pace; more than 8,000 new inventions have been submitted by employees in 2016 – a 40 percent increase over last year and a more than 90 percent jump versus 2014
- Through early December, more than 5,500 Ford employees have submitted invention disclosures, with more than 2,200 of them first-time inventors; since the beginning of 2015, more than 4,000 first-time inventors have submitted ideas
Buick, Caddy & Chevy Back Seat Reminders
Rear Seat Reminder, an industry-first feature designed to remind drivers to check the back seat as they exit their vehicles under certain circumstances, will be offered across many Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles by the 2018 model year.
Green Hills Integrates with Vector
Green Hills Software is collaborating with Vector to make the INTEGRITY real-time operating system (RTOS) capable of native execution of MICROSAR, the AUTOSAR basic software from Vector. This development makes it possible to run MICROSAR on INTEGRITY-based ECUs and consolidate a range of vehicle services on just one microcontroller in order to simplify and cost-reduce the implementation of OEM-specific services.
Developers of high-performance INTEGRITY or INTEGRITY Multivisor-based ECUs for domain controllers, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), next-generation digital clusters and modern infotainment systems will now be able to benefit from enabling MICROSAR features for a full range of automotive requirements, including the ability to realize OEM-specific diagnostic services, time-sensitive applications for streaming media data – such as audio video bridging (AVB) – and applications using specific automotive protocols including SOME/IP.
New CANalaytics from Wineman
Wineman Technology, today announced its new CANalytics software. The new platform provides an interface to maximize the benefits of CAN bus hardware, particularly for automotive and aerospace applications where it provides a durable network that supports communication between multiple electronic control units (ECUs).
On CAN networks, devices are equipped with controller chips to allow them to see, filter, and prioritize messages. Traditional CAN analysis tools created to provide an interface and automate devices on the network are extremely extensive and subsequently expensive. Because much functionality often goes unused and the tool is needed during only a portion of development, the cost of an advanced platform is difficult to justify. The new CANalytics platform from Wineman Technology makes all the benefits of CAN accessible in one cohesive application with a CAN interface as a standalone executable.
Renesas’ First split-gate metal-oxide nitride oxide silicon
Renesas Electronics Corporation announced its successful development of the world’s first split-gate metal-oxide nitride oxide silicon (SG-MONOS, Note 2) flash memory cells employing transistors with fin-shape for use in microcontrollers (MCUs) with on-chip flash memory having a circuit linewidth of 16 to 14 nanometer (nm) or finer. SG-MONOS technology is reliable for use in automotive applications and Renesas currently mass produces 40nm MCUs using this technology, and 28nm MCUs are under development. The successful development shows promising scalability of the SG-MONOS technology to 16/14nm process nodes and beyond.
Advances in automotive automation, such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and the smart society connected via the Internet of Things (IoT) have created demand for more advanced MCUs fabricated using finer process technology. To address this demand, Renesas has developed embedded flash memories based on the 16/14nm technology, which succeeds the latest 40/28nm. At the 16/14nm logic process, Fin Field Effect Transistors (FinFETs), transistors with a finned structure, are commonly employed to realize improved performance and reduced power consumption to overcome the scaling limit of conventional planar transistors.
SureSoft Opens Office in Seoul Korea
A newly-developed operation of Seoul, Korea, software automation testing tools company SureSoft Technologies, Inc., has opened offices in Novi, Mich., with a new division called V-cubed Solutions.
V-cubed Solutions provides North American automotive original equipment manufacturers with mobility software automation testing tools; the V-cubed Solutions name stems from “verification, validation and value” – the basics of the company’s software quality approach.V-cubed Solutions has production facilities and business offices in Korea and an engineering office in San Jose, California. The new office in Metro Detroit allows V-cubed Solutions to focus sales and marketing efforts on the entire automotive manufacturing “universe,” building on its success with Hyundai.
VTS Goes Global
Long Island-based fleet management company Vehicle Tracking Solutions (VTS) announced that it will now offer complete global coverage as part of a new strategic partnership with Globalstar, Inc.
Under the partnership, Globalstar will make available hardware and connectivity services for VTS to provide satellite GPS connectivity to regions currently not covered by cellular service as well as regions outside of the continental US.
HELLA’s Holographic Car Lights
HELLA and Covestro have worked together to create a unique rear lighting system is based on a lamp with three parts, each equipped with holographic technology. Designers at HELLA developed each hologram. Covestro then incorporated the designs into a transparent holographic film and laminated the film onto a 3 mm glass plate. In the future, production applications would use plastic instead of glass.
To create a 3D effect, the holographic film is illuminated from behind by LED light sources and reflectors. The outer elements of each lamp feature numerous holographic “flakes.” Integrated into the tailgate is a middle lamp on which the HELLA and Covestro logos appear to be floating.
Instead of a high mounted stop lamp, the rear stop lamp and center high mount stop lamp are combined into a unique single unit that sweeps across the entire rear of the vehicle.
The vehicle’s tail lights are visually combined with the direction indicators, or turn signals, using a diffuser film with diffractive optics developed by Covestro. The diffuser film forms and distributes uniform light beams with a minimal loss of light. Bi-colored LEDs generate rear turn signals and tail-light functions. Sequential turn signals are also possible with the vehicle’s LED light system.
Cinemo Works with Accordo with STMicroelectronics
Automotive video solutions provicer, Cinemo announced support for the new Accordo 5 family of automotive processors from STMicroelectronics.
Advanced chip integration of the Accordo 5 devices brings full-digital head-unit with features such as smartphone mirroring to entry- and mid-range vehicle markets, with high-performing multi-processor architecture ensuring superior graphics, audio, and video quality.
Faurecia and Parrot Automotive partnership to accelerate connectivity and infotainment solutions for the automotive industry
Faurecia announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations for a strategic partnership with Parrot Automotive, a leading supplier of infotainment and connectivity solutions for the automotive industry. The technological expertise of Parrot Automotive combined with Faurecia’s global strategic customer relationships would make a powerful combination for applications and platforms for connected vehicles.
The completion of this project could result in Faurecia progressively taking control of Parrot Automotive. The first step would be an initial 20% participation in Parrot Automotive through a reserved capital increase based on an enterprise value of 100M€ for 100% of Parrot Automotive. At the same time Faurecia would subscribe to a convertible bond issued by Parrot SA which would allow Faurecia to increase its shareholding in Parrot Automotive to 50.01% from 2019. By 2022, Faurecia would also be in a position to own all of the shares in Parrot Automotive.Covisint to Work with SAIC, SGM & NextEV.
Covisint Agrees with Major Chinese Automakers
Covisint Corporation announced that it has signed agreements with Chinese automotive OEMs, SAIC General Motors (SGM) and NextEV to launch supplier engagement platforms for each of their global enterprises.
Talelight Digitial LED Bumpers
Talelight, the world’s first electronic bumper sticker. Talelight is a 2” x 8” high-resolution color LCD display that mounts on the rear of your car with industrial-strength adhesive strips. It is powered through a USB connection inside the car and communicates via secure Bluetooth connectivity. Talelight goes dark when the car is parked. The Talelight is $179.99.