In connected car news are Diamond Landscapes, Maxim, Fujitsu Semi and Mobileum.
Trucks Recovered
Kentucky-based Diamond Landscapes recovered $500,000 worth of brand new trucks and trailers by tracking the equipment’s location through the Verizon Connect Reveal fleet management software platform. The Diamond Landscapes team passed along the vehicles’ location information from Reveal to law enforcement and the vehicles were recovered without further incident or downtime for Diamond or its customers.
“The money saved was only one part of the equation. The most important thing we saved was time,” said Chris Trower, owner of Diamond Landscapes. “Insurance would have protected us from the cost of the vehicles, but if we had to wait for an adjuster to come out, we would have been out of business almost immediately. Our business is essential for our customers, who would have had no choice but to find another landscaping provider. Deploying Verizon Connect Reveal in our fleet was essential in avoiding a disaster for our company.”
Diamond Landscapes has provided commercial landscaping maintenance to central Kentucky for the past 21 years. As the company expanded its fleet to over 60 vehicles, owner Chris Trower realized the need to implement a fleet management solution and began using Verizon Connect Reveal to better track assets and driver behavior.
“The capabilities and uses of Verizon Connect’s comprehensive fleet management technology are vast. It not only helps the functionality and efficiency of day-to-day operations, but it can also be an essential player in the event of catastrophes like this. When it comes to the potential of fleet management technology the return on investment is truly priceless,” said Kevin Aries, Verizon Connect’s global product success lead.
Maxim Intros 4-Channel MAX25512
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) introduces the four-channel, low-voltage MAX25512 automotive LED backlight driver with integrated boost converter. It is the only integrated solution that retains full, constant brightness of in-car displays even during extreme cold crank conditions down to 3V input voltage. The single chip LED driver eliminates an external MOSFET and current sense resistor and integrates I2C communication to lower bill of material cost and reduce board space by 30 percent. The highly integrated LED driver includes four 120mA channels with the industry’s highest efficiency at 2.2MHz operation.
Today’s automotive start-stop systems increase fuel economy, but they can challenge the power delivery system to maintain the same level of display brightness during re-start. For example, features like display illumination upon entry can be affected by cold crank situations, with the engine drawing down the car battery enough to cause the display to turn off and back on. Maxim Integrated’s MAX25512 LED backlight driver operates down to 3V after startup without the addition of a pre-boost converter, protecting the display from these power disruptions.
Key Advantages
- Lowest Cold Crank and Start-Stop Voltage: The MAX25512’s low, 3V input voltage and high, 91-percent efficiency at 2.2MHz operation drives full, constant brightness of in-car displays during the most demanding cold crank/start-stop conditions. Diagnostic functions such as SHORT to GND on each current sink alerts the microcontroller and individual channel pulse width modulation (PWM) settings through the I2C interface to ensure a safer and higher quality display.
- Highest Integration: The MAX25512 integrates a boost converter and current sense resistor and eliminates the external MOSFET typically required to drive automotive displays. Additional integration includes an I2C communication interface to display settings and diagnostics, as well as a hybrid dimming function to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) and improve the dimming ratio.
- Smallest Solution: Offered in a small 24-pin, 4mm x 4mm x 0.75mm quad flat no-lead (QFN) package, the MAX25512’s high integration shrinks solution size by 30 percent through elimination of external components.
Fujitsu Semi Intros 4Mbit FRAM MB85RS4MTY
Fujitsu Semiconductor Memory Solution Limited announced on July 6, the start of mass-production of 4Mbit FRAM MB85RS4MTY, which guarantees operation up to 125 degrees C.
FRAM is a non-volatile memory product with superior features of high read/write endurance, fast writing speed and low power consumption, and it has been mass-produced for over 20 years.
Since mass-production of FRAM products capable to operate up to 125 degrees C started in July 2017, its product lineup has been expanding. This time the 4Mbit FRAM MB85RS4MTY, which has the largest density in the 125 degrees C -operating FRAM product family, is added to mass-production this month.
The MB85RS4MTY meets high-reliability testing to satisfy AEC-Q100 Grade 1, a qualification requirement for products as “automotive grade,” therefore suitable for high-performance industrial robots and automotive applications such as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS’s) that require high reliability in high-temperature environments.
This FRAM with an SPI interface operates at a wide power supply voltage from 1.8V to 3.6V. In the temperature range from -40 to +125 degrees C, it guarantees 10 trillion read/write cycle times and low operating current such as a maximum write current of 4mA (operated at 50MHz). It is housed in an 8-pin DFN (Dual Flatpack No-leaded) package.
The FRAM products can solve issues arising from using EEPROM or SRAM for high-reliability applications and bring to customers benefits like reduced development burden, enhanced customer product performance, and lower costs.
Fujitsu Semiconductor Memory Solution Limited continues to develop memory products to satisfy the needs and requirements from the market and customers.
Mobileum Deployed by Audi
Mobileum Inc. (“Mobileum”), a leading global provider of analytics-based roaming and network services, risk management, and testing and monitoring solutions, is pleased to announce that Audi (AUDVF) is deploying Mobileum’s Connected Car Testing solution to test and monitor the end-to-end quality of service (QoS) of their connected cars and to ensure the highest standards of service assurance and control over customer experience.
According to CounterPoint, three-quarters of new cars will be connected cars by 2025. By implementing Mobileum’s Connected Car Testing solution, Audi ensures that its customers will experience the best online infotainment, safety, navigation, and communication capabilities while they are in the car. Audi currently supports more than 5 million connected cars in 74 countries.
Mobileum’s Connected Car Testing solution allows Audi to remotely test their connected cars from a centralized location and it provides unparalleled KPIs to monitor and improve the connected car experience. The capacity to test remotely has allowed Audi to save a significant amount of money and decrease pressure on its global supply chain, reducing the cost with local team support and maintenance and shipping cars overseas. This solution has proved particularly important during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing Audi to enhance quality of service (QoS) by improving service uptimes and minimizing disruptions caused by missing or faulty basic components.
TSD Mobility Authorized by Ford Dealer Telematics
TSD Mobility Solutions officially announced their status as an authorized Ford Dealer Telematics Services Provider this week. Today, over 500+ Ford and Lincoln dealerships rely on TSD’s fleet management software to control costs, reduce liability, and improve the customer experience. The formalization of their partnership offers dealerships access to exclusive features including TSD’s telematics integration with Ford and Lincoln, which launched at the beginning of 2021. The evident success of the integration prompted Ford’s Courtesy Transportation Program and Rent-A-Car teams to select TSD as their preferred partner.
“We’ve helped Ford and Lincoln dealers manage their loaner and rental fleets for more than 25 years,” says Shawn Concannon, Executive Vice President of TSD. “We are excited to bring dealerships more advanced technology such as Telematics, Contactless Customer Contracting, Service Pickup and Delivery, and many other great new features.”
TSD is the leading software provider for over a dozen OEMs because of their unique firsthand knowledge of the dealership space. This industry knowledge combined with fast mobile technology paved the way for TSD’s telematics breakthrough. From geofencing notifications to real-time fleet tracking, dealers seeking connected car telematics can now opt-in directly from TSD’s system—without the need for any hardware.