In connected car news are Telsa, MIPI Alliance, Workhorse Group, Ford, TriEye, Maxim and Seeing Machines.
Tesla Nixes 7-Day Returns
Tesla reportedly cancelled its no questions asked seven-day full refund return policy. It may be an indicator of quality issues with Tesla vehicles. If a buyer wants to return a vehicle it s/he will have to contact customer service. Reporters have no ways to check facts because Tesla Motor cut its public relations department entirely. All that is left is Musk’s tweets.
IEEE and MIPI MOU
The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, today announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, to facilitate adoption of the MIPI A-PHY specification as an IEEE standard. MIPI A-PHY v1.0 is the first industry-standard, long-reach serializer-deserializer (SerDes) physical layer interface for automotive applications such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving systems (ADS) and other surround-sensor applications, including cameras and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) displays.
Workhorse Sellls Notes
Workhorse Group Inc. , an American technology company focused on providing sustainable and cost-effective drone-integrated electric vehicles to the last-mile delivery sector, has entered into a note purchase agreement (the “NPA“) under which it will sell $200 million aggregate principal amount of its 4.0% Senior Secured Convertible Notes due 2024 (the “Notes“) to two institutional lenders. The proceeds of the offering before expenses are expected to be approximately $194.5 million and will be used to increase and accelerate production volume, advance new products to market, replace previous higher cost financings, and support current working capital and other general corporate purposes. In addition, Workhorse has entered into an exchange agreement (the “Exchange Agreement“) with the holder of its existing 4.5% convertible notes (the “Existing Notes“) to exchange the full $70.0 million outstanding principal amount of those notes for shares of the Company’s common stock. After the closing and release of the proceeds, the Company will have over
Ford Partners with Sustainable Copper Mark
Ford has become the first corporate partner to The Copper Mark, the only comprehensive social and environmental assurance program for the copper industry. The partnership, finalized earlier this year, aligns with Ford’s sustainability goal to responsibly source all raw materials used globally in its vehicles.
Copper producers affiliated with The Copper Mark meet the qualifications of responsible production practices as outlined in the risk readiness assessment of the Responsible Minerals Initiative. The Copper Mark supports the copper industry’s contribution to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, which are recognized by 193 countries and make up a universally adopted framework for sustainable development.
Copper is used throughout the automotive industry, including by Ford, for circuitry, printed circuit boards and radiators. Ford uses significant quantities of copper in instrument panel wiring, engine wiring, cables and converters.
“Transparency in our supply chain is key to ensuring the companies we work with align to our sustainability standards and principles,” said Bob Holycross, Ford vice president and chief sustainability and safety officer. “Our commitment to responsibly sourced copper is another way we’re working to put actions behind our words and show that what’s good for the planet is good for business.”
TriEye Uses Cadence Spectre X Simulator
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. announced that TriEye used the Cadence® Spectre® X Simulator to accelerate the design of a next-generation CMOS-based Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) image sensor by several months. Using the Spectre X Simulator, TriEye observed at least a 2X performance gain over previous simulators while achieving the required accuracy to meet ISO requirements for critical automotive applications.
TriEye is a fabless semiconductor company with the world’s first CMOS-based SWIR sensing solution. TriEye’s challenge was to put together accurate simulations of arrays that contain over a million transistors. This level of accuracy requires a SPICE-based simulator, but most SPICE simulators have limited performance and capacity to tackle the complexity of these designs. Using the Spectre X Simulator, TriEye was able to significantly speed up their design cycle.
TriEye also leveraged the Cadence Virtuoso® ADE Assembler and Virtuoso ADE Verifier to easily set up hundreds of tests under various power, voltage and temperature (PVT) conditions and run exhaustive verification plans. The combination of simulation performance, easy analysis of pass/fail data and detailed specification tracking reduced their overall time to market by weeks.
Super Fast Charging
Designers of automotive chargers now have the industry’s smallest and lowest-cost solution with the MAX25430 100W USB Power Delivery (PD) buck-boost controller and protector from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. . As the industry’s most integrated solution, the MAX25430 can reduce design size up to 40 percent compared to competitive solutions and offer the industry’s lowest cost for increasing the number of USB PD ports in vehicles.
Seeing Machines, the advanced computer vision technology company that designs AI-powered operator monitoring systems to improve transport safety, has announced it is formally expanding its leading automotive driver monitoring system (DMS) into an overall vehicle interior/Occupant Monitoring System (OMS). The expanded offering will be available for automotive production programs starting as early as 2023.
Seeing Machines Offers OMS
Seeing Machines estimates that its entry into OMS opens an incremental market opportunity, worth up to a total of A$1.5 billion through to 2030, with an estimated revenue opportunity for the Company exceeding A$350 million.
This expansion is consistent with Seeing Machines’s “safety first” focus and leverages important breakthroughs in achieving uncompromised head, eye, and face tracking for driver monitoring with a Wide Field of View (WFOV) camera system. It will extend the Company’s highly effective attention, distraction, impairment, identification, and other human state measures from the vehicle driver to vehicle passenger(s) concurrently.