In connected car news this week were May Mobility, Toshiba, Mixel, Sirius, Pandora, Onfosys, Keysight, HARMAN, Iteris and Excelfore.
May Mobility Dashes to Grand Rapids
The Grand Rapids Autonomous Mobility Initiative will bring four May Mobility six-seat, electric shuttles to the streets of downtown Grand Rapids from March 2019 – March 2020. This first-of-its-kind coalition brings together enterprise and infrastructure to gather and analyze critical information to understand the usage of autonomous vehicles and their environments. The fleet will operate complementary to the City’s existing DASH transportation fleet. Shuttles will be free for riders.
The Grand Rapids Autonomous Mobility Initiative will operate on a 3.2-mile section of the City’s existing DASH West bus route, which provides access to both downtown Grand Rapids and the City’s West Side and Heartside business districts. The route includes 22 stops, 30 traffic lights and 12 turns, including three left turns. As a commuter-driven service, the DASH West provides connectivity to more than 10 City-owned parking lots and points of interest that include: David D. Hunting YMCA, Kendall College of Art & Design, Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, Van Andel Arena and Bridge Street Market.
New Toshiba Amplifier
Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has launched a new 4-channel power amplifier for car audio, “TCB503HQ” that delivers strong resistance to power surges. Sample shipments start today with mass production scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2019.
Building on Toshiba’s proven development capabilities in ICs for car audio, the new product achieves a higher reliability with an analog fine process resistant to power surges. It also supports 6V operations suitable for vehicles equipped with idling reduction systems, which have become popular in recent years. This feature suppresses popping sounds that occur when power voltage fluctuates.
Other features include a built-in filter to improve resistance to extraneous high-frequency noise, and to prevent generation of abnormal noise even when there is high-frequency noise from mobile phone radio waves and adjustment of door mirrors.
Using the clip detection signal to control the volume and tone control circuit, the sound quality of the set can be improved.
Geo Licenses Mixel IP
Mixel a leader in mixed-signal intellectual property (IP), announced that GEO Semiconductor, Inc. (“GEO”), the market leader in camera video processors (CVP) for automotive viewing cameras, has licensed the Mixel MIPI IP, incorporated it into the GW5 product family and achieved first-time silicon success.
Sirius Buys Pandora
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. and Pandora Media, Inc. announced a definitive agreement under which SiriusXM will acquire Pandora in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.5 billion. The combination creates the world’s largest audio entertainment company, with more than $7 billion in expected pro-forma revenue in 2018 and strong, long-term growth opportunities.
This strategic transaction builds on SiriusXM’s position as the leader in subscription radio and a critically-acclaimed curator of exclusive audio programming with the addition of the largest U.S. audio streaming platform. Pandora’s powerful music platform will enable SiriusXM to significantly expand its presence beyond vehicles into the home and other mobile areas. Following the completion of the transaction, there will be no immediate change in listener offerings.
Infosys Tech Hub in AZ
Infosys, a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that it will open its next Technology and Innovation Hub in the State of Arizona and hire 1,000 American workers in the state by 2023.
The Arizona Technology and Innovation Hub will help Infosys work even more closely with clients in the region to develop cross-functional solutions to pressing business challenges in such areas as machine learning, artificial intelligence, user experience and advanced digital technologies, including big data and cloud. This investment also enables Infosys to build on the strength of its existing Arizona network of highly skilled professionals. The Hub will facilitate greater collaboration and advancement in key Arizonan industries such as hi-tech, manufacturing and financial services.
New Sights from Keysight
Keysight Technologies, Inc. announced the new, enhanced Keysight E8740A Automotive Radar Signal Analysis and Generation solution. This new solution enables radar-based, advanced driver assistance systems to proactively detect and mitigate risks of collisions.
As advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles gain in popularity, they also raise concerns about safety and reliability. Autonomous vehicles are dependent on advanced sensor technology with highly integrated radar. According to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), autonomous vehicles require up to 24 of these radar sensors in each car. Interference between sensors can seriously impact automotive radar reliability. Even a slight error or unexpected misbehavior in the system could lead to a critical situation or accident.
The new version of the Keysight E8740A automotive radar signal analysis and emulation solution is based on industry-leading, high-performance physical layer instruments to ensure best in class radio frequency (RF) and mmWave performance verification for each radar design under test, as well as an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface to ensure maximum productivity. This comprehensive test solution also generates various real-world conditions to address any potential automotive radar interference issues.
The new Keysight E8740A automotive radar signal analysis and generation solution offers:
- Powerful automotive radar interference test sequence and physical layer test plan creation based on Keysight’s PathWave software platform.
- Wideband mmWave and flexible (frequency-modulated continuous wave, continuous wave, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, and coded modulation) signal generation.
- Pre-defined test set-up for automotive radar standards.
HARMAN New Experience Store Europe
HARMAN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, announced the opening of its first Experience Store in Europe. Located at Sendlinger Straße 46, in the heart of Munich’s popular central retail shopping district, the new location is designed to serve as a showcase for HARMAN’s award-winning audio solutions across all consumer and automotive categories. It highlights how the company’s heritage of craftsmanship merges with innovation and cutting edge technology in both the store design and the products on display.
Iteris Awarded $4.7 Million by FHWA
Iteris, Inc. the global leader in applied informatics for transportation and agriculture, announced that it has been awarded a $4.7 million task order under its indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to provide continued development, evolution and deployment support for the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) reference architecture program.
Molex and Hella Invest in Excelfore
Excelfore announces that is has received investments from Molex and HELLA, two major names in the automotive ecosystem.
This is the first time that HELLA, through its Venture Capital arm HELLA Ventures, has invested in Excelfore, following previously announced cooperation on bi-directional OTA software updating and data gathering for automotive components. Molex also invested in the Excelfore Series A round of funding, which was announced in January 2017.
Molex Acquires CVS
Molex Electronic Technologies, LLC, a leading global manufacturer of electronic solutions, announced that the company has agreed to acquire the Connected Vehicle Solutions (“CVS”) division of Laird Limited, owned by funds managed by Advent International.
Laird CVS specializes in the design, development and delivery of vehicle antenna systems, smart device integration and vehicle connectivity devices.
These solutions will enhance Molex’s capabilities and support the development of agile connected vehicle technology ecosystems featuring the innovative 10Gbps Ethernet backbone for automotive OEMs building next-generation, intelligent vehicles.
SUBSCRIBE
You are welcome to subscribe to receive email notification of publication of Connect Car news TIPS, you can also get weekly news summaries or daily emails.
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Excelfore is driving smart mobility with innovative middleware for in-vehicle and vehicle-to-cloud networks, which is embedded into leading products such as the Molex automotive network platform. Excelfore’s software enables automotive OEMs and manufacturers to build the next generation of connected cars.