In connected car news this week were Green Car Journal, HARMAN, Sumitomo, MIPI, IEED, Airbiquity, Ford, Autonomic, GM, Magna, Hyundai, Horton Works, Honda, Velodyne, On Semi Conductor, Porsche, NXP, Strobe and Cadence Design Systems.
Green Car Nominees
Green Car Journal announced its five finalists for the magazine2018 Green Car of the Year award. Nominees are 2018 Model Year:
- Honda Accord
- Honda Clarity
- Hyundai Ioniq
- Nissan LEAF
- Toyota Camry.
The announcement of the winner will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Thursday, November 30, at 8:00 a.m. PST inside the Technology Pavilion, alongside other green transportation announcements.
HARMAN Joins WiSA
The Wireless Speaker and Audio (WiSA) Association, an industry group dedicated to bringing high resolution, wireless, multi-channel audio products to the home theater market, announces HARMAN International as its newest member.
New Thin Wafers from Sumitomo
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. has launched a high quality SiC epitaxial wafer, “EpiEra™”, which attains a more than 99% defect free area in a wafer. Power devices are semiconductor devices used in a wide range of applications such as power transmission, trains, automobiles, and electric appliances. They are increasingly required to offer higher efficiency at lower energy consumption.
SiC-based devices are expected to be a key component for energy-efficient solutions, and the demand is rapidly growing. Utilizing its multi-parameter and zone (MPZ™*1) control technology and 30-year experience in compound semiconductor development, Sumitomo Electric has succeeded in developing a high-quality SiC epitaxial wafer, “EpiEra™”, and entered mass production stage.
EpiEra™ has achieved an industry-leading 99% defect-free area (DFA*2), eliminating surface defects*3 and Basal Plane Dislocations (BPD*4). This improves its quality stability and reliability.
Automotive Birds from MIPI
The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, tannounced the formation of an Automotive Birds of a Feather (BoF) Group to solicit industry input from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their suppliers to enhance existing or develop new interface specifications for automotive applications. The group is open to both MIPI Alliance member and non-member companies to represent the broader automotive ecosystem.
MIPI I3C helps automotive systems designers minimize the complexity, cost and development time for products that use multiple sensors in a space-constrained form factor. Highly sensitive, mission-critical automotive applications also benefit from MIPI interfaces’ low electromagnetic interference (EMI), a capability that’s been proven in billions of mobile phones and other handheld devices.//
1Gb/s Automotive Ethernet Standard in Development
IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), announced the formation of a task force to develop IEEE P802.3ch—Standard for Ethernet Physical Layer Specifications and Management Parameters for Greater Than 1 Gb/s Automotive Ethernet. The new standards development project aims to meet the demand for higher speed Ethernet in the automotive environment to support ongoing technological developments, such as connected cars, advanced driver assisted systems and infotainment systems.
Airbiquite AUTOSTAR OTA 4 ECUs @ Vetor Congress NA
Airbiquity®, a global leader in connected vehicle services, and Vector, a leading manufacturer of automotive electronic systems, components, networking, and software tools, have collaborated to enable AUTOSAR (Automotive Open Systems Architecture) compliant over-the-air (OTA) software updates for vehicle electronic control units (ECUs). The innovative integration will be demonstrated at Vector Congress North America 2017 in Novi, Michigan on November 7-8.
Ford Invests in Autoomic
Ford reported in its investment report that it had made an investment in Palo Alto-based Autonomic Inc. to build a basis for future iterations of mobility services that will use Ford vehicles, such as its Chariot service that employs Transit vans, as part of the company’s plan to move people through cities in every way, according to CEO Jim Hackett.
GM Buys Strobe LiDAR
General Motors announced it acquired LIDAR technology company Strobe, Inc. As part of the deal, Strobe’s engineering talent joins GM’s Cruise Automation team to define and develop next-generation LIDAR solutions for self-driving vehicles. Strobe is based in Pasadena, California.
Magna Joins BMW, Intel & Mobileye
Magna Joins The BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye Platform as an integrator to bring autonomous driving technology to the market. Through this collaboration, the BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye plan to provide an autonomous vehicle platform that can be flexible and adoptable for integration by multiple automakers. Magna has been a supplier to the BMW Group on a global scale for many years and a contract vehicle manufacturer for them for more than 15 years.
Hyundai Assures Transparent Pricing
Hyundai announced Hyundai Assurance with transparent pricing, flexible test drives, streamlined purchasing and and 3-day money back guarantee upon inspection and fewer than 300 miles driven.
Hortonworks’ Data for Nissan
Hortonworks announced that Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP®) has been selected by Nissan Motor Company Ltd. to power its data lake.
HDP will power Nissan Motor’s data lake infrastructure and will enable the collection of all data across the business, including data related to driving and vehicle quality. Powered by Apache Hadoop and enabled by a robust ecosystem, HDP enables Nissan Motor to use big data applications that require cross-functional data analysis, such as analyzing the battery usage in electric vehicles and quality management of vehicles to ensure users have a smooth and seamless enhanced driving experience.
Honda’s Cabin Watch Winner for Popular Science
Popular Science recognized the 2018 Honda Odyssey’s CabinWatch™ with its “2017 Best of What’s New” award. CabinWatch uses a ceiling-mounted camera to give parents a birds-eye view of children in the second- and third-row seats, including those in rear-facing child seats, with the image displayed on the front-mounted 8-inch Display Audio touchscreen. With infrared capability, the system works day and night, allowing a parent, for example, to monitor a sleeping child without turning on a light; and with simple smartphone-like gestures, the parents can easily zoom in and out or pan for a better view.
Velodyine 4X Production
Velodyne LiDAR Inc., the world leader in 3D vision systems for autonomous vehicles announce that it has more than quadrupled production for its high-performance LiDAR sensors to meet strong global demand. As a result, Velodyne LiDAR’s sensors are immediately available via distribution partners in Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America, with industry standard lead-times for direct contracts.
ON Semi’s SoC 1MP CMOS
ON Semiconductor announced two new highly integrated 1.0 Megapixel (Mp) CMOS image sensing products. The new parts provide a complete solution with the image sensor and processing functionality integrated within a low power system-on-chip (SoC) that simplifies and speeds adoption in applications such as rear and surround view cameras. PCB real estate savings of greater than 30% can be achieved compared to conventional solutions comprised of discrete sensor and processor components. This helps designers to implement camera solutions without impacting vehicle styling or aesthetics.
The AS0140 and AS0142 are both 1/4-inch format devices capable of supporting 45 fps throughput at full resolution or 60 fps at 720p. Key features include distortion correction, multi-color overlays and both analog (NTSC) and digital (Ethernet) interfaces. Both SoC devices achieve enhanced image quality by making use of the adaptive local tone mapping (ALTM) in order to eliminate artifacts that impinge on the acquisition process. Dynamic range of 93 decibels (dB) allows new devices to operate effectively in both high and low light applications. The AS0140 and AS0142 provide multi-camera synchronization support which increases their value to automotive design engineers as the number of cameras installed on vehicles continues to rise.
Porsche Passport tfor $2,000 -$3,000 a Month
Porsche Cars North America, Inc. introduced Porsche Passport, a new sports car and SUV subscription program, which provides members flexible access to Porsche vehicles via a mobile app.
This month-to-month subscription program offers frequent vehicle exchanges, unrestricted mileage, and on-demand access for up to 22 different Porsche models. In a new relationship with Clutch Technologies, LLC, Porsche Passport will conduct its pilot program in metro Atlanta, which is home to both companies.
Porsche Passport provides white-glove vehicle delivery in metro Atlanta through two membership plans – “Launch” and “Accelerate.”
- “Launch”: Includes on-demand access to eight model variants such as the 718 Boxster and Cayman S, as well as the Macan S and Cayenne, for a monthly fee of $2,000.
- “Accelerate”: Includes on-demand access to 22 model variants such as the Porsche 911 Carrera S, the Panamera 4S sports sedan, the Macan GTS and Cayenne S E-Hybrid SUVs, in addition to the vehicles offered in the “Launch” package, for a monthly fee of $3,000.
To sign up, Atlantans can download the Porsche Passport app available on Apple and Android devices to apply for membership. Both plans require a one-time activation fee of $500, and membership approval is dependent on a background and credit check. Once approved, the vehicle will be delivered to the member’s requested location in metro Atlanta beginning November 2017. Users can schedule same day or future vehicle exchanges through the Porsche Passport app.
NXP Arm-based uCPE
NXP Semiconductors and Telco Systems, the leading provider of innovative SDN/NFV, CE 2.0, MPLS and IP solutions, together announced the industry’s first Arm®-based uCPE solution available in the market. In close collaboration with Arm, the solution combines a rich uCPE feature set on a multicore communications platform in the LS2088A that enables a performance, power and cost point not available in the market with existing architectures.
By using NFVTime as the common uCPE NFVi OS software for Arm-based and other popular white box devices, service providers are now able to introduce this Arm uCPE without complicating the operation processes or compromising functionality and service capabilities at the MANO integration layer.
The advanced uCPE white box offering is based on the Layerscape LS2088A processor with eight 64-bit Arm Cortex-A72 Cores.
Cadence Tool Certification
Cadence Design Systems, today announced that it has achieved the industry’s first comprehensive “Fit for Purpose – Tool Confidence Level 1 (TCL1)” certification from TÜV SÜD, enabling automotive semiconductor manufacturers, OEMs and component suppliers to meet stringent ISO 26262 automotive safety requirements. To achieve certification, Cadence provided its tool and flow documentation to TÜV SÜD for evaluation, and TÜV SÜD confirmed the Cadence® flows are fit for use with ASIL A through ASIL D automotive design projects. The functional safety documentation kits cover analog and mixed-signal, digital front-end and verification, digital implementation and signoff, and PCB flows comprised of nearly 40 tools, offering the broadest EDA-certified tool and flow documentation to support the automotive industry.
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