In connected news this week were Tesla, Local Motors, BMW, Daimler, Airbiquity, Uptane, Molex, Renesas, Siemens, AT&T, BusPatrol, Mentor, NXP and Hitachi.
Tesla Keys & Cameras
CEO Elon Musk Tweeted that the latest update will enable Autopilot cameras to be used dashboard cameras to record problems outside the vehicle. The impetus was a photo from the Tesla 3 Club that should a frunk keyed with scratches.
Worst case of Tesla hate I’ve ever seen. Truly unbelievable. Picture via Canadian Tesla Model 3 Facebook group pic.twitter.com/0TEaHYgPGP
— TREV PAGE (@Model3Owners) September 17, 2018
Self-Driving Shuttle by Local Motors
Local Motors by LM Industries Group Inc., known for 3D-Printed mobility solutions, is attending the ITS World Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark where its self-driving shuttle will continue to be in the spotlight. The shuttle, known as Olli, will offer rides to attendees and dignitaries at the conference, a week after a groundbreaking showing at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago, where it provided the first-ever autonomous transportation for conference attendees.
BMW & Daimler Headquartered in Berlin
The BMW Group and Daimler AG plan to locate the headquarters of their proposed global mobility company in Berlin. The two partners are purposely seeking to establish this innovative mobility services provider outside of their respective Group structures in the dynamic environment of Germany’s capital city. At the same time, the globally positioned joint venture will maintain its international presence as a success factor.
Airbiquity OTA with Uptane Security
Airbiquity, a global leader in connected vehicle services, will sponsor and attend escar Asia in Tokyo, Japan on October 3-4. The two-day automotive industry event is an open forum that gathers automotive manufacturers, suppliers, analysts, researchers, and government transportation representatives to collaborate on connected vehicle cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities, risk mitigation, and countermeasures.
At the conference, Airbiquity will demonstrate its industry-leading OTAmatic over-the-air (OTA) software update and data management offering for connected vehicles featuring the compromise-resilient Uptane Security Framework. OTAmatic reliably and securely orchestrates and automates vehicle software updates and data management from the cloud, utilizing Uptane along with security signing management tools and processes to guarantee authenticity and integrity of software updates transmitted and installed in the vehicle.
Uptane’s open standard automotive software update security framework was developed with support from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, New York University (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), and leading automakers and suppliers. Uptane provides the foundation for Airbiquity OTAmatic’s defense-in-depth security approach for automotive OTA leveraging automotive grade standards-based certification, authentication, and encryption technologies and processes.
Molex New Connectors
Molex announces two FFC/FPC connectors designed to serve the growing information market needs of automakers and television display manufacturers, as well as designers requiring small-pitch, high-reliability connectors. The Easy-On FFC/FPC connectors are offered in 0.5mm pitch and 1.0mm pitch forms to provide a reliable connection while reducing space, weight and cost in this competitive market.
Both the 0.5mm and 1.0mm Easy-On FFC//FPC Connectors have a double-bottom contact terminal design that removes dust and contaminants from the connection better than single-bottom contact terminals. Both also offer a vacuum pick-and-place area on the top of the housing to allow for easier board assembly and cost savings, and a cable ear-tab locking terminal to ensure a secure connection.
Both connector sizes feature a heat-resistant resin housing and a range of 4 to 80 circuits, spread across multiple profile heights, to provide the greatest degree of design flexibility. In addition, the 0.5mm connector offers single and double contacts to ensure reliability and versatility in circuit size, height and cable styles.
Renesas’ Expands IP Portfolio
Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced it is expanding access to its extensive portfolio of intellectual property (IP) licenses that allow designers to meet a broad range of customized customer requirements in a rapidly changing industry. Renesas has incorporated a broad range of IP into its microcontrollers (MCUs) and system on chip (SoC) product spans, including central processing unit (CPU) IP, communication interface IP, timer IP, memory IP, and analog IP. Effective today, Renesas is offering customers access to the most highly sought assets from its IP portfolio. The first batch of offerings will consist of over 40 licenses, including CPU cores (RX, SH, etc.), timer IP for motor applications, USB cores, and SRAM. More licenses will be offered moving forward in response to demand.
Daimler Invests in Porterra
Proterra, a leading innovator in heavy duty electric transportation for the North American mass transit market, announced that it has closed a $155 million investment round co-led by Daimler, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. Tao Capital Partners co-led the round, joined by G2VP and other technology investors.
In conjunction with the investment, Proterra and Daimler have entered into an agreement to explore the electrification of select Daimler heavy-duty vehicles. The first of these efforts will be to explore potential synergies with Daimler’s Thomas Built Buses division by bringing Proterra’s proven battery and drivetrain technologies to the North American school bus market, the next frontier for zero-emission, commercial fleets. Similar to public transit vehicles, school buses provide mission-critical community infrastructure and offer an excellent use case for vehicle electrification, as most school buses travel a predictable distance per day that is well within the capability of Proterra’s EV technology. With this collaboration on an electric vehicle for the school bus market, Daimler and Proterra have the potential to provide reliable, affordable transportation options with environmentally sustainable, zero-emission EV technology.
Siemens Intros Simcenter Simulation
Siemens introduced a new Simcenter™ software solution for design-centric thermal simulation of Autonomous Electric Vehicles (AEVs) – the industry’s first comprehensive, easy-to-use solution engineered to address critical, thermal-driven challenges associated with AEV design, such as extending electric drive range, optimizing in-cabin comfort, designing sensors and ensuring the reliability of all autonomous drive (AD) systems.
Successful AEV design requires automotive engineers to simultaneously address a range of interdependent requirements. AD functionality must execute safely including sensor fusion boxes and a broad array of sensors. The precise and correct thermal design of these sensors and other AD systems is vital to ensuring safe autonomous drive functionality. However, the thermal and power loads of the vehicle’s high-performance AD systems can reduce electric drive range as much as 35 percent. Similarly, in-cabin passenger comfort requirements and machine driving behavior can significantly impact the vehicle’s electric powertrain energy efficiency and drive range. Efficient, co-dependent thermal design of AD electronics — from ICs and vehicle integration, to electric powertrain and cabin design — is necessary to successfully develop AEVs.
Siemens’ new thermal simulation solution, delivered as part of the Simcenter portfolio, is the industry’s first solution specifically designed to help design engineers overcome these challenges. It unleashes the power of information-rich computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology for mainstream automotive engineers, generating highly accurate thermal digital twin simulations of the powertrain, processors, sensors and other key enabling technologies powering next-generation AEV designs.
Other new capabilities include co-simulation of component thermal and electric powertrain performance, connectivity between simulation of electric motor performance and system simulation for electrical and thermal management, and design space exploration using thermal digital twin models. This Simcenter solution also features seamless connectivity to electronic design automation tools and CAD design platforms, helping engineers to easily account for design co-dependencies across electronic, electrical and mechanical domains from the earliest stages of development.
AT&T Streams for Air Stream
AT&T has partnered with Airstream to bring 4G LTE connectivity to the iconic Airstream Silver Bullet. It’s an industry first and AT&T is the exclusive wireless provider.
The groundbreaking feature launches in 2019 model Airstream Classic travel trailers. AT&T data plans start at $25 per month for 5 gigabytes of monthly data.1 Or for $360 get 1 year of unlimited data.
With the connected Airstream Classic, you stay in touch with family and friends. Or take your office on your next camping trip.
Smart Control gives you:
- More control — Remotely monitor and control indoor temperature, propane tanks, battery power, water levels, lighting, awnings, ventilation and more through the mobile app.
- Connectivity — Connect to 10 smartphones, tablets and smart TVs to your Airstream’s Wi-Fi. Stream music, watch your favorite TV shows and stay connected to family and friends.
- Peace of mind — GPS locator guides owners back to their Airstream from an outdoor adventure.
BusPatrol Stops School Bus Stopping Violations
BusPatrol announced an agreement was reached with the Dissolution Committee for the Former Board of Dallas County Schools (DCS) on Aug. 10, 2018 that will allow BusPatrol’s stop arm camera technology to help protect students in Dallas County as they travel to and from school this fall.
BusPatrol’s technology is proven to reduce school bus stop arm violations by identifying vehicles that break the law by passing stopped school buses. It is used in communities across America to help keep children safe as they travel to and from school each day. The agreement with the Dissolution Committee will allow those independent school districts previously served by DCS to do the same by using the state-of-the-art technology on their buses.
BusPatrol owns the stop arm camera technology Intellectual Property that was previously owned by DCS and installed on buses across Dallas County. They are a new independently owned and operated company that is focused on highlighting and protecting student safety across the country. BusPatrol is not involved in the dissolution of DCS.
New Invests in WayRay
WayRay, a leader of holographic AR displays for cars, announced a new investment from Porsche, Hyundai Motor, Alibaba Group, China Merchants Capital, JVCKENWOOD, and Consortium of Sovereign Wealth Funds (JBIC and partners). The newly raised funds will bolster the company’s focus on R&D, industrialization and team expansion to become a supplier of holographic AR solutions for car manufacturers.
Mentor ISO Certs
Mentor, a Siemens business, announced that the Xpedition™ and PADS® Professional printed circuit board design (PCB) design flows, including the Valor™ NPI and HyperLynx family of products, have each achieved ISO 26262 functional safety compliance. Mentor has met the requirements for validation and confirmation measures, providing confidence that a sufficient and acceptable level of safety can be achieved using these Mentor PCB products. The Xpedition and PADS Professional flows and related documentation were evaluated by TÜV SÜD, an internationally accredited independent testing and conformity assessment company, and certified to achieve ISO 26262 Tool Confidence Level 1 for ASIL A through ASIL D.
ISO 26262 establishes a unifying, industry-specific standard for the functional safety and expected reliability of E/E systems in passenger vehicles. With the certification of these Mentor products, automotive design teams can now use either Mentor® PCB design flow for performance efficiency, predictability, and productivity for functional safety.
NPX & Hitachi V2X for Japan
NXP Semiconductors N and Hitachi Solutions, Ltd., a leader in V2X software platforms for the Japanese automotive market, have announced a partnership to develop a new V2X solution targeted at the Japanese market [J-ITS]. The solution will employ an NXP developed V2X modem and processor and a full Hitachi Solutions V2X software stack, providing automakers that target the Japanese market with a head start in the development of their own V2X solutions, whether they are on board units (OBUs) or full Telematics Modules. The solution’s ability to address 5.9GHz and 760MHz V2X implementations means that other markets, such as those in Europe and the United States, could be addressed with a single, reusable design, offering savings in automotive development costs.
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