In connected car news this week were Ouster, Maxim, Pioneer, Jungo, Nissan Bidgely, VW, Volvo, AWS, ZF, Velodyne, Innoviz and DPL.
Ouster
Ouster, a leading provider of high-resolution lidar sensors used for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and mapping announced significant business momentum including a roster of over 400 customers and the addition of over $60 million in funding. The company also announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility currently producing hundreds of sensors per month and capable of producing thousands of lidar sensors per month, and the appointment of Susan Heystee to its board of directors.
Maxim MAX Power Management
With automotive camera modules becoming increasingly smaller, designers can now utilize the ultra-compact MAX20049 power management IC from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., which integrates four power supplies into a tiny footprint. In addition to being the most compact power management IC for vehicle camera modules, it delivers the highest efficiency on the market today. The MAX20049 offers many options to support various output voltages, while also providing fault mitigation by flagging faults and shifts in output voltages.
###Pioneer & Jungo Driver Monitoring
Pioneer Corporation and Jungo Connectivity announced their joint efforts to introduce camera-based driver monitoring solution by Pioneer with dual camera connected drive recorder into Japanese market in April 2019. This solution was developed using CoDriver, Jungo’s leading in-cabin vision AI software, providing safety and personalization features for drivers and fleets, including features such as driver drowsiness estimation and driver distraction detection.
Bidgely EV V2G Integration
Bidgely introduced an Electric Vehicle (EV) Solution for global utilities that applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to customer data for smart vehicle-to-grid (V2G) integration. With Bidgely’s industry-leading EV disaggregation patent serving as the foundation, the new EV Solution identifies territory-wide residential charging patterns and pinpoints homes with EVs for targeted product and service offerings that help utilities enhance customer engagement, manage the grid more effectively and generate new revenue.
Getaround in Atlanta
Getaround, the carsharing platform that empowers users to instantly rent and drive cars owned by people nearby, announced its expansion to Atlanta. Residents who live car-free, or who need the perfect car for a trip to Lake Lanier or a move across town, can now instantly rent cars nearby—by the hour or day—through the Getaround iOS or Android applications. Car owners in Atlanta looking to reduce the financial burden of car ownership and let people in their community take advantage of their vehicle can now earn money by listing and sharing their car on the Getaround marketplace.//
VW AWS
Volkswagen and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are to develop the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud together. Both companies Services announced a multi-year, global agreement to jointly develop this project. In future, the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud will combine the data of all machines, plants and systems from all 122 facilities of the Volkswagen Group. This will create new prospects for the optimization of processes in production and allows considerable productivity improvements at the plants. The Volkswagen Industrial Cloud thus creates the essential prerequisites for achieving the productivity goals in production. In the long term, the global supply chain of the Volkswagen Group with more than 30,000 locations of over 1,500 suppliers and partner companies could also be integrated. By leveraging Amazon Web Services technology and services, Volkswagen is creating its Industrial Cloud as an open industry platform which other partners from industry, logistics and sales may use in the future.
Aquantia ASIL B
Aquantia Corp., a leader in high-speed, Multi-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity solutions, announced that it has achieved ASIL B certification on its Automotive connectivity products according to ISO 26262-5 and as determined by the Certification Body for Functional Safety of the SGS-TÜV Saar. ASIL B compliance is a critical requirement for automotive OEMs, and their Tier 1 suppliers, when choosing technology partners to ensure a vehicle’s systems meet the necessary safety levels.
ZF Aquires WABCO
ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a leading global technology group and supplier of mobility systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WABCO (NYSE: WBC) for $136.50 per share. The planned acquisition has been approved by ZF’s Management Board and Supervisory Board and WABCO’s Board of Directors. Together, ZF and WABCO will form a leading global integrated mobility systems provider for commercial vehicles, creating added value for ZF’s commercial vehicle customers. The combined company will have sales of approximately €40 billion.
ON buys Quantenna
ON Semiconductor Corporation (nd Quantenna Communications, Inc. announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for ON Semiconductor to acquire Quantenna for $24.50 per share in an all cash transaction. The acquisition consideration represents equity value of approximately $1.07 billion and enterprise value of approximately $936 million, after accounting for Quantenna’s net cash of approximately $136 million at the end of fourth quarter of 2018. The acquisition significantly enhances ON Semiconductor’s connectivity portfolio with the addition of Quantenna’s industry leading Wi-Fi technology and software capabilities.
Velodyne Hits 30K
Velodyne has shipped a cumulative total of 30,000 lidar sensors with a total value of half a billion dollars. This achievement underscores Velodyne’s lidar market leadership and ability to deliver a broad portfolio of lidar sensor products at mass production levels.
Velodyne is the highest volume supplier of lidar sensors to the automotive industry with more than 250 customers globally. Lidar sensors are a central component of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Velodyne’s sensors are used in a myriad of new technologies and rapidly growing industries, including unmanned aerial vehicles, delivery services, mapping, industrial safety, robotics, security, marine uses, and more.
Volvo Intros CampX
The Volvo Group has a legacy of being at the forefront of developing and transforming the transport industry. The ambition is that the introduction of CampX by Volvo Group – a concept for innovation and collaboration, inaugurated today, will maintain and strengthen that position for the future.
“By establishing CampX by Volvo Group we will drive the transformation to new disruptive business models and technologies, with a focus on automation, electromobility and connectivity.
At CampX, we will explore and accelerate new ideas using an entrepreneurial mindset. CampX will serve as an enabler for a cultural change across the complete Volvo Group, where innovation will be even more at the center of what we do,” says Martin Lundstedt, Volvo Group President and CEO.
The world is currently facing many challenges where new technologies combined with new business models have shown potential to contribute to greater societal sustainability, less congestion and better accessibility. CampX will provide a perfect arena to exploit this potential and for Volvo Group to stay ahead as one of the most innovative companies in the transport industry.
“We have gathered 400 of our technical and business experts within automation, electromobility and connectivity in CampX. We will invite selected stakeholders from the partner eco system, like customers, companies, academia, authorities, and so on, to join us to co-create and test new ideas using laboratories and workshops at the CampX facility,” says Lars Stenqvist, CTO Volvo Group.
From the opening day CampX will be teamed up for exciting collaboration projects with suppliers, external partners and start-ups.
“We think of CampX as a place where the Volvo Group and its partners can benefit and learn from each other in a trusting and innovative environment. We are very excited and happy to open up the doors to our first CampX, inaugurated today in Gothenburg, Sweden, where we have converted an old factory building into a state-of-the-art inspirational and attractive innovation hub,” says Martin Lundstedt.
Innoviz Raises $132 M
Innoviz Technologies, a leading provider of high-performance, solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software, announced today that it has raised $132 million in Series C funding. The round is marked by the entrance of new major investors China Merchants Capital (SINO-BLR Industrial Investment Fund, L.P.), Shenzhen Capital Group and New Alliance Capital; and Israeli institutional investors Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services and Phoenix Insurance Company. Given demand from additional investors, the Series C round will remain open for a second closing to be announced in the coming months.
Volvo’s WirelessCar Sold to VW
Volvo Group has now completed the previously announced divestment of 75, 1 % of the shares in its wholly-owned subsidiary WirelessCar to the Volkswagen Group. The sales price amounted to SEK 1.2 billion.
Nissan Sells Battery Group to Envision
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. has completed the previously announced sale of its electric battery operations and production facilities to Envision Group, a world-leading digital energy company.
Marking the completion of the transaction, Nissan’s Chief Competitive Officer Yasuhiro Yamauchi said: “The new company has the opportunity to grow as a battery company with increased competitiveness under Envision. Nissan will continue to work with the new company as an important supplier as we concentrate our energy on developing and producing market-leading electric vehicles.”
The new battery company is scheduled to start operations on April 1, 2019.
DPL Intros AssestView Mini
DPL Telematics, a leading provider of advanced asset monitoring and telemetry technologies, announced the release of the AssetView Mini Tracking System. AssetView Mini is an advanced solution for wireless monitoring and remote tracking of any powered or unpowered asset to improve logistics, manage inventory and curb theft. The tiny, portable GPS unit is completely self-contained and may be hidden on any asset, installing in seconds.
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