In connected car news this week were Tesla, UpStream, carGo, Autoliv, Apti, Arity, SiTime, Toshiba, Octo, NXP, Nexperia and Lear.
Best a’ Telsa
Tesla is cutting some chafe from its super charging network because they are too busy with a new fair use policy for vehicles bought after December 15. Tesla vehicles used for taxi, for ridesharing, commercial delivery or transportation, governmental purposes, or other commercial ventures won’t be permitted to use the free stations.
Two Million Cars-2go in NA
car2go, the largest, fastest-growing one-way carsharing service in the world, announced that its North American member base has eclipsed one million users.
Autoliv Spins Off
Autoliv, Inc.the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems, announced that its Board of Directors has concluded its strategic review and decided to prepare for a spin-off of its Electronics business segment, creating a new, independent publicly traded company during the third quarter of 2018.//
New Aptiv Autonomous TechCenter in Boston
Aptiv PLC announced that it has opened a new technology center in Boston’s Seaport district, expanding the Company’s U.S. engineering footprint and further establishing itself as a leader in the future of mobility.
The new Boston Seaport facility joins Aptiv’s technology centers in Pittsburgh, PA and Mountain View, CA focused on automated mobility-on-demand (AMoD) and data management development.
Arity Offers New Data Products
Arity, the technology company founded by The Allstate Corporation to make mobility safer, smarter, and more useful, introduced a suite of three new data products designed to help reduce the number of collisions and fatalities on the road.
Called Risk Data Stream, Drive Shield Routing and Drive Shield Alerts, these new offerings from Arity help enable automotive OEMs, telematics service providers (TSPs), insurance providers and other vendors to predict risk of accidents – and boost safety. Users can harness these prediction tools to help improve accuracy and safety within their solutions, whether navigation and telematics applications, semi-autonomous vehicles, active safety systems, or fleet management and infrastructure planning.
New SiTime Oscillators
SiTime Corporation, the market leader in MEMS timing, announced new oscillators for automotive networking in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). These solutions will propel the automotive industry forward in their development of driverless cars. For successful ADAS operation, supercomputers in these cars will need to process massive amounts of data reliably and with low latency. The SiT9386 and SiT9387 oscillators enable just that. They deliver stable and reliable timing signals for AI processors in automotive supercomputers, as well as for the interfaces that move data, such as PCI Express and 10G, 40G, and 100G Ethernet.
In addition, the SiT9386/7 differential MEMS oscillators offer:
- Any frequency between 1 MHz and 725 MHz, accurate to 6 decimal places
- 0.23 ps typical RMS phase jitter (random)
- Frequency stability as low as ±25 ppm
- The smallest package size (3.2 x 2.5 mm) for size-limited applications
- Also available in an industry-standard package (7.0 x 5.0 mm)
- LVPECL, LVDS, and HCSL output signaling types
New Toshiba IC with BLE for Automotive
Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. announced a new IC that is compliant with the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE)[1] core specification 4.2 – including support for a secure connection, LE privacy features and extended packet length. The new TC35679IFTG is designed for use in harsh automotive environments and extended temperature ranges. A mixed-signal device, the TC35679IFTG contains both analog RF and baseband digital parts. This enables it to provide a complete solution in a single, compact, low-profile (40-pin 6mm x 6mm x 1mm) QFN ‘wettable flank’ package with a pin pitch of 0.5mm.
The TC35679 provides Bluetooth Host Control Interface (HCI) functions alongside low energy GATT profile functions (as defined by Bluetooth specifications).
The highly integrated device is based on an ARM® Cortex®-M0 processor and includes a sizeable 384kB of on-board mask ROM to support the Bluetooth baseband process. An additional 192kB of on-board RAM provides support for Bluetooth application programs and data. The TC35679 also contains a 26MHz clock oscillator and a 32.768kHz sleep clock that can be driven by an external oscillator
Toshiba New Automotive UFS
-Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA), the U.S.-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation and the maker of the industry’s first Universal Flash Storage (UFS) devices[ announced that it has begun the sampling of new Automotive UFS (JEDEC ver. 2.1 HS-G3) embedded memory solutions. TMA’s Automotive UFS supports a wide temperature range (-40°C to +105°C), meets AEC-Q100 Grade2[2] requirements and offers enhanced reliability capabilities that increasingly complex automotive applications require. The lineup consists of a wide range of capacities: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB.
The addition of Automotive UFS expands TMA’s lineup of embedded NAND flash memory products for automotive applications – joining its Automotive e-MMC family. The storage requirements for automotive applications continue to increase as entertainment & information systems and ADAS[4] in cars become more sophisticated. UFS is well-suited to support the high-performance and density needs of these applications.
Several new functions have been added to Automotive UFS, such as Refresh, Thermal Control and Extended Diagnosis, which are well-suited to the requirements of automotive applications. The Refresh function can be used to refresh data stored in UFS and helps to extend the data’s lifespan. The Thermal Control function protects the device from overheating in high-temperature circumstances that can occur in automotive applications. Lastly, the Extended Diagnosis function helps users easily understand the device’s status.
Octo Telematics & Autonet to Offers Insurance at Car Dealers
Octo Telematics (Octo), the number one global provider of telematics for the auto insurance industry, announced that Autonet, the digitally-focused insurance broker specializing in bike, car and van insurance, will offer car buyers the option of telematics car insurance policies and Octo technology and analytics at the point of sale through its car dealership network partners.
Autonet will connect to Octo’s Next Generation Platform (NGP), an ecosystem that facilitates the growth of the connected car and insurance technology market by offering access to telematics data and analytics as well as the products and services of other platform members. The platform was designed to improve the Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) experience for both consumers and insurers.
Autonet is the first major insurance partner to be fully-connected to the NGP. The company works with more than 30 of the leading insurance companies, including Aviva, Ageas, Liverpool Victoria and AXA, and will provide competitive UBI policies to consumers opting for Octo’s telematics devices at dealerships.
NXP Works with Alibaba Cloud
NXP Semiconductors announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and business unit of Alibaba Group. The two companies are working together to enable development of secure smart devices for edge computing applications and have plans to further develop solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT).
As part of the partnership, AliOS Things, the Alibaba IoT operating system has been integrated onto NXP applications processors, microcontroller chips, and Layerscape multicore processors. Both NXP’s i.MX and Layerscape processors are currently the only embedded systems on the market using the Alibaba Cloud TEE OS platform. The new solution benefits various markets including automotive, smart retail and smart home. And it is currently being applied in applications such as automotive entertainment and infotainment systems, QR code payment scanning applications and smart home speakers.
Nexpeira New In-Vehicle Network IVN
Nexperia, the former Standard Products division of NXP, today announced a new generation of in-vehicle network (IVN) protection diodes that offer a higher surge current, greater ESD robustness and a significant improvement in ESD clamping performance. The new AEC-Q101 qualified PESDxIVN series of surface mount devices is optimized for the latest generation of CAN, LIN, and FlexRay transceivers.
The new parts are drop-in replacement for legacy devices, available in familiar SOT23, SOD323 and SOT323 packages. However the new parts deliver higher performance. For example, PESD2IVN24-T parts deliver a 30 kV ESD robustness (up from 23 kV on the legacy PESD1CAN), an improved surge current of 3.5 A and much better clamping of 42 V at 3.5 A (was 70 V at 3 A). Other parameters remain constant or slightly better. The PESD1IVN27-A offers the same improvement in ESD robustness with a lower (=better) clamping voltage compared to the legacy PESD1LIN.
DENSO Buys InfiniteKey
DENSO, one of the world’s largest automotive technology, systems and components suppliers, has acquired Holland, Mich.-based InfiniteKey, Inc., along with several key patents and R&D resources. The acquisition provides foundational pieces to developing phone-as-a-key technology and increases DENSO’s lead in developing and deploying smartphone-based automotive access, a critical component of the company’s strategy to create a future with frictionless mobility. This type of technology will become increasingly important for automakers, as ridesharing and driverless services progress beyond the need for keys.
UpStream Automotive CyberSecurity Gets More Funding
Upstream Security, pioneer of the cloud-based cybersecurity platform for connected cars and autonomous vehicles, today announced the closing of $9 million in Series A funding, led by CRV (Charles River Ventures). The round included expanded investments from Israeli-based Glilot Capital Partners and Maniv Mobility. Following a $2 million seed funding round in June, the company will use the latest investment to expand its R&D program and continue building out its world-class engineering and security research teams, and open marketing and sales offices in the United States and Europe.
Lear Buys EXO GPS
Lear Corporation a leading global supplier of automotive seating and electrical systems announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Israel-based EXO Technologies, a developer of GPS technology providing high-accuracy solutions for autonomous and connected vehicle applications. EXO Technologies has operations in San Mateo, California and Tel Aviv, Israel.
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