In embedded chips and connected car news tips this week are Mobileye, Sierra Wireless, eyeSight, AGL, Intel, Hyundai Mobis, TomTom, Automatic, Innoviz, GPSdome, VOXX, SpotHero and GoodYear.
Sierra Wireless IoT Mods for VW
Sierra Wireless announced that Volkswagen has selected Sierra Wireless AirPrime AR Series modules and the Legato platform for its next generation of connected cars. Sierra Wireless’ integrated 4G technology will reach the market beginning in 2018 in several Volkswagen models worldwide.
Sierra Wireless automotive solutions will deliver high-speed cellular connectivity for the Volkswagen Car-Net platform, which provides a variety of in-vehicle internet-based services, including remote vehicle access, roadside assistance, diagnostics and maintenance, and the ability to set speed and boundary alerts. Owners can use their applications over the integrated 4G-LTE connection provided by the Sierra Wireless AirPrime module.
eyeSight HMI Debuts Driver Awarenewss & Gesture Control
eyeSight Technologies, a leader in Human Machine Interface (HMI) and user awareness embedded computer vision, announces its automotive solution focusing on in-cabin sensing technology. With the driver as the main focal point, eyeSight offers a complete solution that provides driver awareness, driver recognition and gesture control.
Driver awareness is enabled by a new level of learning and fine-tuned computer vision to ensure that once drowsiness or distraction is detected, eyeSight’s solution will inform car systems to provide an alert or take proactive action through the safety systems, such as increase distance from the car ahead with adaptive cruise control.
Driver recognition offers a new level of personalization and comfort between the car and driver, as it constantly improves the system and learns the driver. Merely sitting in the driver’s seat will prompt the car to adjust to the specific driver’s preferences such as seat position, temperature, volume level, music selection, favorite stations, and more.
Through the same sensor that provides driver awareness and recognition, eyeSight’s automotive solution also provides touch-free gesture control that enables an additional level of immediate interaction to minimize distraction for the driver. The simple gestures are natural and tightly coupled with the functions they control to minimize the cognitive load, alleviate the friction of in-car systems and save the driver from the distraction of locating and tapping touch screen buttons.
NEW AGL Memebers
Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), announced that six new members have joined Automotive Grade Linux and The Linux Foundation. DrimAES joins AGL at the Silver level while ARM, Elektrobit, RealVNC, Telenav and Tuxera join AGL at the Bronze level. The new members represent a wide group of skills and expertise, from location-based services to digital storage, which will be valuable as we continue to enhance our UCB infotainment platform and expand into other automotive applications like telematics and instrument cluster.
Hyundai Mobis Joins Auto-ISAC
Hyundai Mobis, South Korea’s largest automotive parts supplier, announced that it has become a regular member of the Automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Auto-ISAC).
Intel Cyclone 10
To serve the growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, Intel Corporation today announced the Intel Cyclone 10 family of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Designed to deliver fast and power-efficient processing, they have a variety of uses, including for automotive, industrial automation, pro audio visual and vision systems.
Cyclone 10 GX is unique among other low-cost FPGAs as it can support 10G transceivers and hard floating point DSP (digital signal processing). It offers 2-times the performance increase over the previous generation of Cyclone. The architectural innovation in the implementation of IEEE 754 single-precision hardened floating-point DSP blocks can enable processing rates up to 134 GFLOPs (giga floating-point operations per second). This is important for engineers needing higher performance using the FPGA for applications such as motion or motor control systems.
Markets for Intel Cyclone 10 GX include those where high I/O performance and core speed are key requirements. Uses include industrial machine vision and smart city applications that provide surveillance in parking lots , on roads and on bridges.
Cyclone 10 LP can also be used for automotive video processing used in rear-view cameras and in sensor fusion, where data gathered while the car is on the road is combined from multiple sensors in the car to provide a more complete view of what is happening.
The Cyclone 10 FPGA family will be available in the second half of 2017, along with evaluation kits and boards, and the latest version of Quartus, the Intel FPGA programming software.
Automatic for American Family Insurance
Automatic, announced a comprehensive partnership with American Family Insurance, using connected-car technology to help drivers stay safe and reduce their insurance costs.
Under the partnership, Automatic will provide its category-defining OBD-II adapters and mobile apps to new American Family Insurance policyholders who enroll in the company’s KnowYourDrive program. The program will start this month in Arizona and Indiana, and will be introduced in more states throughout the year.
Innoviz LiDAR Selected
Innoviz Technologies, an Israeli startup providing LiDAR remote sensing solutions for fully autonomous vehicles announced to that it has been selected from over 300 companies to join the upcoming cycle of the Startup Autobahn program. Innoviz’s selection comes following a meticulous screening process by representatives from Daimler, HPE, Plug and Play, University of Stuttgart and ARENA2036, intended to identify breakthrough technologies in the automotive space.
Driven by its proprietary HW & SW technologies, Innoviz offers a comprehensive market solution. Its flagship high definition solid state LiDAR, InnovizOne™, unveiled at CES2017, enables 3D remote sensing to produce highly accurate real-time images of the vehicle’s surroundings while meeting automotive standards and significantly reducing cost and size.
GPSdome Protects Against Jamming
GPSdome Ltd., a cyber company, announced today successful results of tests of its commercially available product GPSdome 1.0, which protects GPS systems against jamming and spoofing.
The new product was developed and is aimed to address the requirements of autonomous cars, which are being developed by nearly every car company, as well as drones and UAVs that are being developed for a wide range of applications. Both autonomous cars and drones are heavily dependent on GPS in order to function, therefore need protection from GPS disruptions.
The new anti-jammer was developed to address also the prevalence of small and low-cost GPS jammers that can easily be purchased online at a price of $30. Although the primary use of these jammers is by drivers who do not want their position to be known, the impact radius of these cheap jammers is hundreds of meters, and can also unintentionally disrupt critical systems such as airports and harbors, financial institutions such as banks and stock exchanges, as well as other infrastructures such as telecommunications and energy.
VOXX Remote Keyless efob
VOXXHirschmann, launched its new efob or Phone-as-a-Key technology, the latest evolution in its full line of remote start and keyless entry products. With efob, consumers no longer have to carry their car keys and can now access, drive and share their vehicle seamlessly through the use of their smartphone and an efob-enabled, Bluetooth mobile application and infrastructure.
Combining the capabilities of a secure smartphone application designed for Apple and Android devices, this new patented efob solution leverages Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) technology, a network of sensors and unique micro-proximity detection application software, secure cloud, and other intellectual property. Consumers can now seamlessly enable control over all functions of traditional factory keyless entry/exit key fobs now available on most push button start-equipped cars and trucks simply by approaching their vehicle with their smartphone, provided vehicles are equipped with smart sensors. As an added safety feature, neither the vehicle nor the smartphone need a cellular or internet connection to unlock/start the car once paired and since the app works in the background, no action on the smartphone or by the consumer is required.
Available as a stand-alone app or fully integrated with an OEM’s consumer smartphone application offering, efob delivers the convenience of highly accurate proximity-based detection with advanced capabilities for full control of automated user preference vehicle settings. With efob, vehicle owners gain access to powerful new functionality thanks to its cloud-based digital key management system, allowing them to control functions and features such as sharing vehicle access, geo-fencing, user profiles and anti-theft.
TomTom Telematics Reaches 700K Subscribers
TomTom Telematics today announced that it has surpassed 700,000 subscriptions to its connected car and fleet management solutions (FMS). With over 46,000 customers, this cements the company’s position as Europe’s leading FMS provider.
The company’s Software-as-a-Service solution WEBFLEET, allows fleet owners to manage vehicle fleet data effectively in their businesses. This is part of the broader ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified TomTom Telematics Service Platform,.
TomTom’s On-Street Parking service was announced as the winner of an Automotive Innovation Award at the AIA awards ceremony in The Hague. TomTom On-Street Parking, which is designed for drivers on the hunt for that hard-to-find parking spot, is available as a service to TomTom’s automotive and licensing customers, and complements the company’s existing Off-Street Parking service.
TomTom On-Street Parking service provides drivers with the probability of finding a parking spot on a street level, as well as the average search-time for a spot. To further enhance the parking experience, TomTom also publishes pricing and restriction information where available.
SpotHero Open to Developers
SpotHero announced the launch of the SpotHero Parking Developer Platform to provide parking reservation functionality to websites, apps and cars with connected or autonomous capabilities. SpotHero enables drivers to reserve affordable off-street parking nationwide via its website and mobile app. With the SpotHero Parking Developer Platform, partner businesses will be able to offer similar parking reservation functionality directly in their own applications so drivers can easily secure parking using their interface of choice.
Mobileye Collision Avoidance for Hire
Mobileye announced today the completed installation of collision avoidance technology across 4,500 for-hire vehicles in New York City.
Together with Atlas Financial Holdings Mobileye has equipped thousands of New York City-based rideshare vehicles, such as those available through popular apps including Uber and Lyft, with advanced collision avoidance systems that focus on accident prevention. Beginning this month, 4,500 for-hire vehicles in New York City will feature Mobileye’s cutting-edge technologies enabled by a high resolution vision sensor that analyzes potential dangerous scenarios in real time, alerting drivers to impending collisions and giving them enough time to react.
Connected Blimp Upgrades
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company revealed plans for major facilities upgrades at its Airship Operations base in Carson, renewing its commitment to the Goodyear Blimp’s presence in the Los Angeles area.
The improvements will include an inflatable hangar for the new Goodyear Blimp Wingfoot Two, which is scheduled to arrive in Southern California by the end of the year. The company has flown its iconic blimps for more than 90 years and has operated its base in Carson since 1968.
Since 2014, Goodyear has been transitioning from its 1970’s-era GZ model blimps to a new state-of-the-art fleet of blimps. The new blimps feature an entirely new design with capabilities including faster speeds, quieter engines, advanced on-board avionics and larger passenger capacity. Wingfoot One (christened in 2014) and Wingfoot Two (2016), currently operate in Florida and Ohio. Wingfoot Two will replace the Spirit of Innovation (2006), which is scheduled to retire in March.