In connected car news this week were Fisker, Geotab, ZF, Molex, Aperia, Silicon Labs and ON Semi.
Tesla X Competitor Fisker SUV?
Henrik Fisker announced that the company will make an “affordable, all-electric crossover/SUV” with all-wheel drive and 300-mile range to sell for under $40,000.
Geotab Connects GSA
Geotab a global leader in IoT and connected transportation, announced it has been awarded the largest single-source telematics contract to date by GSA Fleet, a division of GSA (General Services Administration), which provides centralized procurement for U.S. federal agencies. With one of the largest non-tactical fleets in America, GSA Fleet will equip its 217,000 vehicles with Geotab’s trusted fleet management technology.
Since 1954, GSA Fleet has been providing quality vehicles and efficient and economical fleet management services to over 75 participating federal agencies. Its end-to-end fleet management services include vehicle acquisition, leasing and disposal, as well as maintenance control, accident management and fuel and loss prevention services.
ZG Buys 2gethere
ZF Friedrichshafen AG has acquired a 60 percent share of 2getthere B.V. The company offers complete automated transport systems and is located in Utrecht/Netherlands, with offices in San Francisco, Dubai and Singapore. Applications range from driverless electric transport systems at airports, business and theme parks to dedicated urban transport infrastructures. With this strategic investment, ZF is executing its Next Generation Mobility strategy to strengthen its foothold in the Mobility as a Service and automated guided vehicle growth markets, and complements its existing activities.//
Molex Joins NAV
Molex has joined the Networking for Autonomous Vehicles (NAV) Alliance to collaborate with other industry leaders in the development and adoption of next-generation multi-gig Ethernet automotive networking. Founded by Aquantia, Bosch, Continental, NVIDIA, and the Volkswagen Group of America, the NAV Alliance is dedicated to defining procedures and specifications to insure the interoperability, security and reliability of the network architecture for autonomous vehicles.
Aperia Give Tires Halos
Aperia Technologies Inc., a leading supplier of tire management technologies that improve the safety and efficiency of commercial vehicle tractors and trailers, has announced the initial rollout of Halo Connect, a proprietary connectivity platform that leverages machine learning to enable fleets to virtually eliminate unplanned tire-related downtime.
Tested with dozens of fleets through rigorous pilot programs, Halo Connect leverages proprietary algorithms trained over more than half a decade and nearly a billion miles to deliver a next generation tire management experience. The platform categorizes tire-related issues by severity and provides maintenance recommendations, enabling fleets to prevent tire failure due to leaks and under-inflation by streamlining communication and tire maintenance.
Halo Connect is available for use on vehicles equipped with the company’s Halo Tire Inflator, a revolutionary automatic tire inflation system for trucks and trailers that bolts-on in minutes. Limited quantities of Halo Connect have begun shipping to select fleet clients, with full production quantities available in the fall.
Silicon Labs’ DSM
Silicon Labs has introduced a family of isolated analog amplifiers, voltage sensors and delta-sigma modulator (DSM) devices designed to provide accurate current and voltage measurement with very low drift across temperature. Based on Silicon Labs’ robust, third-generation isolation technology, the new Si89xx family provides flexible voltage, current, output and package options to help developers reduce BOM cost and shrink board space for a wide range of industrial and green-energy applications including electric vehicle (EV) battery management and charging systems, dc-dc converters, and motor, solar and wind turbine inverters.
Silicon Labs now offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of current and voltage sensors. The Si89xx family includes four product categories:
- Si892x isolated analog amplifiers optimized for shunt-current sensing
- Si8931/2 isolated analog amplifiers optimized for general-purpose voltage sensing
- Si8935/6/7 isolated DSM devices optimized for voltage sensing—an industry first
- Si8941/6/7 isolated DSM devices optimized for shunt-current sensing//
Autonomous Valet Parking at Lyon Airpot
VINCI Airports (VINCI Concessions) has just launched, on a large scale, a new robotic valet parking service at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, France’s second regional airport, thus taking forward its strategy of sustainable development aimed at enhancing the passenger experience. The robot is called Stan.
With four robotic parking valets operating simultaneously at the external P5+ car park, which will soon offer 500 spaces, this initiative is a world first. It notably makes it possible to reduce multi-line parking, and the surface area occupied, by parking vehicles more densely. The next stages will see this scheme being extended across the airport platform, i.e. ultimately concerning a total of 6,000 parking spaces, as well as an assessment of the relevance of such services at other airports in the VINCI Airports network.
ON Semi no SiC MOSFET
ON Semiconductor driving energy efficient innovations, has introduced two new silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET devices. The industrial grade NTHL080N120SC1 and AEC-Q101 automotive grade NVHL080N120SC1 bring the enabling, wide-ranging performance benefits of wide band gap technology to important high growth end application areas such as Automotive DCDC and onboard charger applications for electric vehicles as well as solar, and uninterruptible and server power supplies.
The announcement sees the strengthening of ON Semiconductor’s comprehensive and growing SiC ecosystem that features complementary devices including SiC diodes and SiC drivers, plus vital resources such as device simulation tools, SPICE models and application information to help design and systems engineers meet their high frequency circuit development challenges.
ON Semiconductor’s 1200 volt (V), 80 milliohm (mΩ), SiC MOSFETs are rugged and align with the needs of modern high frequency designs. They combine high power density with highly efficient operation that can significantly reduce operating costs and overall system size due to smaller device footprints. These characteristics also mean less thermal management is required, further reducing bill of materials (BoM) costs, size and weight.
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.