In connected car news this week were Tesla, Mentor, Continental, Adient, Toyota, VivaVan, Shift, BYTON, Getaround, WayRay, AutoAlert, Porsche, LexisNexis, rFpro, OPTIS, Elektrobit, Siemens and Ainstein.
Tesla Loses & Gains
It has been reported that Tesla should be offering its dual motor Tesla 3 soon. Also coming maybe white interiors for the Tesla 3. Increased production of the Tesla 3 will have to come first. Volkswagen announced that Tesla’s Matthew Renna is joining the company as ‘Vice President of Volkswagen North American Region (NAR)-G4’.
Funding for DeepScale
DeepScale, a leader in efficient deep learning perception software for use in mass-produced automated vehicles, announced a $15 million Series A funding investment led by Point72 and next47.
DeepScale is using efficient deep neural networks (DNNs) on small, low-cost, automotive-grade sensors and processors to transform the accuracy of perception systems, which interpret and classify sensor data in real-time, for automated vehicles. In doing this, DeepScale is bringing driver-assistance and autonomous driving to mass-produced vehicles at all price-points.//
Mentor Intros Veloce StratoT
Mentor, a Siemens business, introduced the Veloce®StratoT, which expands the footprint choices and configuration options available from its Veloce Strato™ emulation platform family. The Veloce Strato platform is a third-generation, data-center friendly emulation platform, and the only emulation platform on the market with full scalability across both software and hardware. In addition, the Veloce Strato platform is the first emulation platform in the industry to establish a roadmap to 15 billion gate capacity.
The Veloce StratoT features a unique footprint that expands capacity options and demonstrates continuity in the capacity roadmap for the Veloce Strato platform. The Veloce StratoT supports designs from 40 million gates (MG) up to 1.25 billion gates (BG) depending on configuration, features power consumption of 17kW, and represents an ideal solution for data center applications. A fully loaded Veloce StratoT supports up to 32 independent users, and delivers the best power-per-gate on the market. With the expansion of the Veloce Strato platform, customers now have a secure roadmap for significantly increasing emulation capacity within the same hardware family, while protecting their initial investment and achieving best cost of ownership.
Continental & Osram Merger
The technology companies Continental and Osram have successfully concluded their negotiations on the Osram Continental GmbH joint venture. The joint venture, in which each of the partners has a 50 percent stake, aims to combine Continental and Osram’s respective expertise in lighting, light control and electronics and is scheduled to start in the second half of 2018, once all the necessary merger control approvals have been granted. CEO Dirk Linzmeier comes from Osram and CFO Harald Renner from Continental.
Adient Joins American Center for Mobility (ACM)
Adient the world’s largest automotive seating supplier, announced it has become a partner with the American Center for Mobility (ACM). The state-of-the-art proving ground is a nonprofit testing, education and product development facility for future mobility.
Adient conducts extensive market research to anticipate consumers’ mobility needs. Through this collaboration, Adient will continue its development of new innovations, technologies and seating configurations for future mobility vehicles.
Toyota & Park24 Partner
Toyota Motor Corporation and Park24 Co., Ltd. announce their decision to start a business tie-up for a trial car sharing service in parts of central Tokyo.
This current initiative is positioned as a trial that is also designed to strengthen cooperation between the two companies, with Toyota’s TransLog communication-based drive recorders and both companies’ car sharing devices installed in cars operated by Park24’s Times Car PLUS car sharing service. Park24’s car sharing service operation system will serve as the base, operated through Times Car PLUS, which operates more than 20,000 vehicles and serves 900,000 members. While this trial is expected to produce data to build and enhance the functions of MSPF, the trial will also allow Toyota and Park24 to verify proof of concept toward the realization of future mobility services, onboard terminals, and system development by utilizing the expertise of both companies. Toyota and Park24 anticipate that this trial will help lead to vehicle safety improvements, increased maintenance efficiency, and awareness of autonomous driving technology.
Additionally, Toyota Mobility Service Co., Ltd., a company that is set to begin operations in April, is also expected to play a role in promoting this initiative. For this trial, 60 Toyota C-HR units have been designated as the vehicles for use, and the trial is scheduled for a 10-month period from June 2018 to the end of March 2019.
ViaVan Shared Service In London
ViaVan, the joint venture between Via and Mercedes-Benz Vans, announced the launch of its shared ride service in London. Through the ViaVan app, passengers will be seamlessly matched in real time with other riders headed their way, sharing their trip in a professionally-chauffeured vehicle. Launching across zones 1 and 2, the service will provide Londoners a much needed alternative to Uber, offering the lowest fares, better treatment of drivers and riders, and a corporate ethos that puts safety first. To mark the launch, for a limited time all ViaVan rides to or from zone 1 will cost just £3.
Cox Partners with Shift
Cox Automotive and Shift Technologies have announced they are launching a national strategic partnership, enabling the online vehicle retailer to utilize Manheim facilities and services to support its digital business. The relationship will help Shift expand operations with reduced capital investment and drive efficient launches in markets where Manheim has a presence across the country.
To test drive the initial arrangement, Shift used Manheim San Diego for vehicle storage, reconditioning, imaging, inspections, detailing and more. As a result, Shift processed vehicles more quickly and established a strong foothold in the area.
Shift now maintains an inventory of about 300 vehicles at Manheim San Diego. The company continues to operate its facilities in San Francisco and Los Angeles as it considers expansion into markets with Manheim facilities.
New Execs at BYTON & LA Office
Following its launch at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, intelligent electric vehicle maker BYTON is expanding its global footprint with two key executive hires and the opening of a new Los Angeles facility, as well as broad exposure to the worldwide stage with the introduction of its Smart Intuitive Vehicle (SIV), the BYTON Concept, at the 2018 Beijing Motor Show.
BYTON added two new executives to its senior management team: Chad Harrison, who joins the company as its vice president of product-line management, and David Twohig, who is now BYTON’s chief automotive engineer. Harrison is a 22-year veteran of the automotive industry and formerly Honda R&D America’s chief automotive engineer. Twohig is a highly-respected engineer who most recently led the development of the Alpine A110 as Chief Engineer at Alpine and Head of Vehicle Engineering at Renault Sport.
The company’s new L.A. Future Lab will focus on developing the latest forward-thinking user experiences and advanced concepts to define the future of driving and ride-sharing. BYTON already boasts one of the most unique UI/UX designs in the automotive world, as the BYTON Concept includes state-of-the-art design such as its industry-first Shared Experience Display (SED), gesture controls, and a Driver Tablet installed in the steering wheel console. Located in a global hub for automotive design and innovation, BYTON’s newest facility is charged with ensuring that BYTON remains a leader in intelligent and intuitive UX design.
Getaround Expands into LA
Getaround, the platform that empowers users to instantly rent and drive great cars shared by people in their city, announced its expansion into Greater Los Angeles y. Now, car owners in LA can reduce the financial burden of car ownership and even make some fun money by listing their car on Getaround. Each car is equipped with Getaround Connect™, a proprietary technology that enables renters to locate and unlock the car using the Getaround app. People in Los Angeles can now instantly rent nearby cars all through the Getaround iOS or Android application—no need to meet in person to get the car keys.
WayRay Opens New Office is Shanghai
WayRay, a Swiss holographic AR technology company, announced the opening of its newest affiliate in the Jiading District of Shanghai, China. This is the company’s fifth location worldwide. Known for its world-class automotive cluster, Jiading has attracted SAIC, NIO, Formula 1 Circuit and other famous automotive-related companies. In addition, WayRay announced that Dennis Zhu has been appointed as the General Manager of the new WayRay China affiliate.
AutoAlert Partners with Conversica
AutoAlert, in keeping its promise of an open API to integrate all vendors in automotive, has announced a new partnership with the Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered sales assistant, Conversica.
This development brings together two former VinSolutions executives in Mike Dullea, former CEO of VinSolutions and current CEO of AutoAlert, and David Marod, former Sales Executive of VinSolutions, and current Automotive Industry General Manager at Conversica.
The partnership connects two companies that are both on the cutting edge when it comes to using big data as the engine in connecting dealers with their customers in an automated, yet highly personalized, way.
Porsche Digital Buys Stake in Anagog
Porsche Digital GmbH has acquired a minority stake in the Israeli start-up company Anagog, thereby strategically expanding its digital innovation portfolio. The Tel Aviv-based start-up, founded in 2010, currently employs around 30 people and specializes in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in a mobility context. The software programmed and patented by Anagog makes it possible to better understand and anticipate customer behavior in certain situations. This allows, for example, intelligent parking options to be offered. With the investment, Porsche is driving the digital transformation forward, enabling it to further develop and offer context-based and personalized services.
Anagog’s technology is integrated into smartphone applications and is currently used in more than 100 different apps worldwide. The data analysis is carried out directly on the mobile device and thus dispenses with the transfer of user data to the cloud or to external servers. This ensures that users retain full control over their data while still benefiting from contextual services. “Together with Porsche, we want to develop new and innovative ideas in order to be able to offer customers the best possible mobility solutions. Digital experiences are becoming ever more important and, above all, can be meaningfully used in the context of new mobility services, “says Anagog CEO Ofer Tziperman.
FordTransit LightningElectric Showcased
Lightning Systems, a global developer of zero-emissions solutions for commercial fleets, is taking its new Ford Transit LightningElectric model on the road, showcasing the recently released vehicle efficiency ratings of 61 MPGe on in-town routes and 66 MPGe on highway.
Tours will start at Lightning Systems’ headquarters in Loveland, Colorado. One will go westbound to California and throughout that state (Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno, San Diego, Los Angeles, Long Beach), while the other will travel eastbound through Detroit to New York (Kansas City, Detroit, Albany, New York City). The westbound tour will end at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Long Beach, California, while the eastbound tour culminates at the 30th Annual Equipment & Vehicle Show in Queens, New York. At the end of the eastbound and westbound tours, Lightning Systems will make deliveries of the LightningElectric to Halo Event Group, a FedEx Ground contractor in New York City, and to XPO Bus Sales in Los Angeles.
LexisNexis SDK for OEMS
Automotive OEMs looking to leverage connected car data to offer their customers usage-based insurance (UBI) options through participating insurers and create greater customer engagement through driving behavior feedback can now build new consumer services and take advantage of industry-leading telematics data filtering, normalization and analytics, with the launch of a LexisNexis Risk Solutions Software Development Kit (SDK).
The SDK enables automotive OEMs to build innovative customer applications across different regions and in different languages, all on the same platform or to improve existing and full-featured customer-facing apps without impacting experience. OEM access to the Global Telematics Platform will also enable customers to benefit through the use of their driving data to secure insurance products.
Using the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Software Development Kit, Automotive OEMs can:
- Extend connected car features to owners of non-connected vehicles through the same global telematics platform.
- Use the technical capacity of the global telematics platform to reduce the complexity and cost of building a consumer grade data normalization, filtering and telematics scoring infrastructure
- Take advantage of faster speed-to-market with supported and documented frameworks, APIs and best practices
- Power applications without the cost of duplicating infrastructure, building driving scoring knowledge internationally, opening more markets faster
- Integrate seamlessly into existing apps, allowing OEMs to maintain a consistent customer experience while connecting to LexisNexis Risk Solutions and insurers.
rFpro Autonomous Simulation
UK-based driving simulation company, rFpro, has launched the world’s first commercially available platform to train and develop autonomous vehicles in simulation. Using a digital environment to accurately represent the real world, the technology enables vehicle manufacturers to test their systems in every scenario imaginable.
The key to rFpro’s platform is the level of accuracy achieved replicating the real world in simulation. This enables the various sensors used for autonomous vehicles to react naturally and therefore test results are completely representative. The company has been producing a library of real roads created through highly-precise scanning technology, which forms the basis of the simulation. As it is a digital platform, users have control of all the variables, such as traffic, pedestrians, weather and location, enabling them to test every eventuality.
The technology has been developed over the last three years and has already been adopted by two major vehicle manufactures and three autonomous car developers. It is also being used by a driver-less motorsport series.
OPTIS & Elektrobit Partner for Virtual Testing of AR HUD
OPTIS, the leading global virtual prototyping company, and Elektrobit (EB), a visionary global supplier of embedded and connected software products for the automotive industry, announced a partnership for the virtual testing of augmented reality head-up display (AR HUD) systems in a dynamic driving experience. Together, the two will enable carmakers to streamline the development process, ultimately shortening the time to market.
OPTIS and EB will combine their expertise in automotive solutions to provide a unique, commercial off-the-shelf solution that can be used by carmakers to develop and assess sensor fusion and augmented reality content.
Siemens Intros Simcenter Autonomous Driving Simulator
At Siemens U.S. Innovation Day in Chicago, Siemens introduced a solution for the development of autonomous driving systems. The solution, part of the Simcenter portfolio, minimizes the need for extensive physical prototyping while dramatically reducing the number of logged test miles necessary to demonstrate the safety of autonomous vehicles.
Leveraging advanced, physics-based simulation and innovative sensor data processing technologies, the new Siemens solution is designed to help automakers and their suppliers address this industry challenge with the potential to shave years off the development, verification and validation of self-driving cars.
The new solution integrates autonomous driving technologies from recent Siemens acquisitions Mentor Graphics and TASS International. TASS’ PreScan simulation environment produces highly realistic, physics-based simulated raw sensor data for an unlimited number of potential driving scenarios, traffic situations and other parameters. The data from PreScan’s simulated LiDAR, radar and camera sensors is then fed into Mentor’s DRS360™ platform, where it is fused in real time to create a high-resolution model of the vehicle’s environment and driving conditions. Customers can then leverage the DRS360 platform’s superior perception resolution and high-performance processing to test and refine proprietary algorithms for critical tasks such as object recognition, driving policy and more.
To deliver the most comprehensive and accurate solution possible, Siemens PLM Software is working with many of the world’s leading manufacturers of LiDAR, radar and vision sensing products to develop physics-based, 3D simulated versions of specific sensor modules. Compatible with the new Siemens toolchain, the simulated sensors are attuned using detailed design information from sensor suppliers, and validated using real-world measurement data for optimal accuracy. One of the most important sensor partners is Cepton Technologies, an innovative Silicon Valley-based company notable for its long-range, small-footprint LiDAR sensors. Additional sensor partners will be announced later this year.
Ainstein Radar
Ainstein introduced new ADAS radar solutions.Automotive Safety Radar, the T-79. The T-79 is a next-generation short range, wideband, high resolution automotive radar sensor built with Ainstein’s cutting edge radar technologies.
Ainstein’s T-79 Short Range Radar is built on RF-CMOS IC technology, allowing for ultra low power consumption and unit cost. The highly integrated hardware design paired with Ainstein’s proprietary advanced radar signal processing algorithms makes it capable of high resolution 360° detection when multiple units are configured on the vehicle. This allows for semi-autonomous or fully autonomous driving.
Compared to existing automotive radars on the market, Ainstein’s T-79 short range Automotive Safety Radar offers one of the market’s highest range resolution, faster update rates, CAN-FD data link options, and is 30% smaller, making it a top solution for the implementation of sensor fusion for ADAS and self-driving applications.
Ainstein’s 79 GHz Automotive Radar is highly customizable for diverse applications. Ainstein can deliver custom solutions including custom radar specifications, data output options such as point cloud data or raw detection data, and custom data formats to allow for low level sensor fusion with complementary sensors.
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