#CES2023 Connected Car News

In connected car news at CES were Immervision, BurgerFi, SMK, TrustInSoft, AVIVA Links,3Cadence, Continental, GEO Semi, Wejo, Microsoft and ThunderX.

Car IQ & BlackBerry

Car IQ Inc., the first payment network for cars, announced it is partnering with BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) to demonstrate a new in-dash vehicle-wallet at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that connects vehicles to merchants and enables customers to pay right from the dash of their car.

Car IQ® Pay is accepted at over 21,500+ fuel stations nationwide including Shell, Sunoco and Kum & Go and now offers fleets and consumer vehicles the ability to pay for EV charging, nationwide tolling, and parking without the use of a credit card. Using Car IQ to refuel is simple: locate the nearest participating gas station, add the pump number to Car IQ Pay, refuel the vehicle, replace the pump and leave. Car IQ Pay facilitates payment and the receipt is sent to the car’s account.

Immervision  190 Lens

Immervision, the world’s leading developer of advanced vision systems combining optics, image processing, and sensor fusion technology, introduced at CES its off-the-shelf 190° lens developed to address the specific low-light in-cabin requirements for safety and comfort in the automotive industry.

The first to design wide-angle Panomorph lens technology, Immervision continues its pioneering technology with this ultra-wide Field of View (FoV) lens, offering complete coverage inside the cabin to meet the needs of both driver and occupant monitoring applications. The lens distortion profile is designed to generate image quality and a pixel density targeted for crucial applications to enhance gaze tracking, passenger identification, and hands on wheel tracking.

The broadband support, from visible to near-infrared (VNIR), and the lens exceptional capability to capture quality images in low-light, offers versatility for complex monitoring features such as eye tracking through eyeglasses, determining safety hazards such as driver fatigue and improving passenger classification and object detection at night, without external illuminator sources.

“In-cabin monitoring applications are evolving from luxury car options to mandatory safety features and are crucial to autonomous driving systems (ADAS),” explains Jean-Sébastien Landry, Director, Product Management, Immervision. “With our new lens, we can combine more applications in a single camera, allowing Tier 1 and OEMs to reduce costs, have a less intrusive In-cabin design, and offer a safer and more enjoyable experience to end users.”

The flexibility in vehicle design afforded by offering the lens in a smaller footprint, means carmakers now have more complete coverage inside the cabin with fewer cameras. It also enables manufacturers to offer new capabilities to optimize comfort, such as passenger classification to automatically manage preferences and new entertainment features such as video chat or video conferencing.

The Immervision off-the-shelf automotive wide-angle lenses are readily available for integration and available for custom designs to meet specific customer requirements.

BurgerFi OnMyWay Mobile Retail In-Vehicle Foodie Partnership

BurgerFi International Inc.  owner of leading fast-casual brand BurgerFi, and the casual dining pizza brand Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings, and MAVI.io will showcased the new OnMyWay™ Mobile Retail Network™ with demos of the first in-vehicle restaurant partnership with BurgerFi  at CES. Visitors tested other OnMyWay™ partners including C-Store Choice Market, and car services / car wash Everwash and others to be announced

The MAVI OnMyWay™ brings convenient shopping options straight to the dashboard of customer vehicles. In addition to pickup and curbside options, the in-vehicle solution will allow passengers in any Connected Car to make payments, by connecting the car’s interface and data to MAVI’s Mobile Retail Network™. The marketplace will feature leading -restaurants, convenience and grocery stores and more. The options consider inventory in real-time to ensure availability as well as the driver’s location, route, destination, order and payment preferences, and loyalty program memberships.

“Drivers appreciate the convenience of curbside pickup. The added benefit of being able to shop safely and efficiently from their cars to make the most of each trip is priceless,” said Karl Goodhew, Chief Technology Officer of BurgerFi. “BurgerFi has been leveraging and testing  technologies to keep up with evolving customer demands and remains at the forefront of innovation as part of its commitment to provide the best restaurant experience, while continuing its aggressive expansion along the Eastern seaboard.”

BurgerFi, known for its pioneering, tech-forward approach in the fast-casual space, is MAVI’s first in-car OnMyWay™ partner and key QSR Innovation partner. Mavi OnMyWay™ will allow hungry customers to pick up food while on the go, whether it be on the way to work or on the way home from dinner. For those with children it’s a great time saver after picking the kids up from an after-school activity. This way customers will have access to the freshest, fastest and most high-quality options out there.

SMK Intros RGB IR 5MP Auto Camera

SMK Electronics Corporation, U.S.A. nnounced the introduction of the company’s RGB-IR ultra-high resolution 5-megapixel automotive grade camera. Designed for in-cabin monitoring of seat occupancy, the RGB-IR gathers significantly greater detail in both normal and low light conditions; and, with its comparatively smaller footprint, replaces the dual RGB and IR cameras traditionally used for this purpose.

“With the ongoing transition to electrically powered vehicles, the integration of advanced technology into new car builds is not only at an all-time high, but growing exponentially,” said Paul Evans, President of SMK Electronics, U.S.A. “And nowhere is this more evident than in the design of automobile optical systems, with the integration of in-cabin cameras now standard across newer models and brands. In this spirit of innovation, SMK is pleased to introduce our new RGB/IR 5-Megapixel Automotive-Grade Camera at CES 2023.”

“Gathering significantly greater detail in both normal and low lighting conditions, the RGB/IR camera is ideal for OMS (Occupancy Monitoring System) and DMS (Driver Monitoring System) roles,” continued Mr. Evans. “Its higher resolution and greater RGB color sensitivity, combined with a relatively small footprint, make the RGB/IR a perfect single camera replacement for the dual RGB and IR camera sub-systems now in use.”

SMK’s RGB/IR Automotive Grade Camera Specifications

Specifications

TrustInSoft Trusted by EasyMile

– TrustInSoft, the leader in exhaustive C/C++ software source code analysis, announced that they have expanded into the Automotive market in addition to their collaboration in the last few years with worldwide leaders in the Critical and Telecoms/IoT/Semiconductor markets. TrustInSoft announced  that eSOL, a specialist in embedded systems, and EasyMile, a vendor of autonomous mobility solutions, have chosen TrustInSoft Analyzer to complement their product development strategies.

TrustInSoft provides safety and cybersecurity critical software verification tools and services based on mathematics. Professionals involved in developing safety and cybersecurity critical embedded software understand the importance of proper testing of software. Simple problems that go undetected during development can result in product problems with dramatic consequences. TrustInSoft helps companies to fix bugs early in the product development cycle with an innovative approach that allows developers and testers to run the equivalent of billions of tests using mathematical techniques known as formal methods.

eSOL

eSOL is a publicly traded (TSE:4420) global leader in embedded systems and edge computing, headquartered in Japan. eSOL’s high-performance, scalable software platform products are centered on its unique, patented eMCOS multikernel real-time operating system (RTOS) technology and provide the safety and security features essential for today’s critical embedded systems such as autonomous driving.

Their products are used worldwide in diverse and demanding embedded application fields conforming to stringent quality, safety, and security standards; these range from automotive systems to industrial equipment, medical and digital consumer electronics.

“eSOL uses TrustInSoft Analyzer for the development of our eMCOS RTOS and Hypervisor platform, ensuring that all functions are correctly integrated and eliminating at a very early stage complex errors that might occur later, during or after integration. In this way we achieve the highest quality of our RTOS, and our customers receive a fast and secure system integration. We avoid unacceptable risks and damages and help our customers to build highly reliable autonomous vehicles,” said Masaki Gondo, CTO and Senior Executive Vice President of eSOL.

EasyMile

EasyMile is a pioneer in driverless technology and smart mobility solutions. The fast-growing company, founded in 2014, develops software to automate transportation platforms.

EasyMile’s technology is revolutionizing passenger and goods transportation, offering completely new mobility options. Since 2014, the company has developed and deployed more than 210 autonomous mobility projects in 24 countries.

In June 2019, EasyMile became the first autonomous vehicle company ever to be ISO 9001 certified. This certification recognizes the commitment of the company to deliver high-quality-level services to partners and customers.

“Working with TrustInSoft’s static code analyzer is a way to help us to build class-leading software applications efficiently and effectively,” said Arnaud Telinge, Research and Development Manager at EasyMile. “Robust software development is critically important with applications such as autonomous mobility, with real-life consequences.”

“TrustInSoft believes in the power of mathematically guaranteed software verification,” said Fabrice Derepas, CEO of TrustInSoft. “In an increasingly complex technical landscape, it has become too easy to discover product problems only after they have been deployed. Verifying software code with formal methods can avoid many of these issues, which are often costly to remedy after the fact.”

TrustInSoft is a market innovator with TrustInSoft Analyzer, which analyzes source code for potential errors with an advanced mathematical model. Traditional static analysis is not exhaustive so it cannot identify all issues in the code, and usually identifies a lot of false alarms. TrustInSoft delivers the power of formal methods-based, exhaustive static analysis efficiently, making sure the most critical and subtle C and C++ code errors are detected cost-effectively for the automotive industry and other verticals such as telecom, semiconductors, IoT, and critical.

AVIVA Links ASA-based Chipset

AVIVA Links Inc., the automotive connectivity company enabling the most advanced multi-gigabit links for in-vehicle networks, today announced the industry’s first Automotive Serdes Alliance (ASA)-based chipset delivering an aggregate throughput of more than 64 Gigabits per second. Automobile manufacturers have been pushing for standards-based advanced connectivity solutions for the development of the latest generation of autonomous driving and software-defined vehicles. AVIVA’s highly integrated and secure end-to-end connectivity solutions meet these needs by moving vast amounts of data at the highest speeds, enabling ultra-high resolution cameras, LiDARs, radars and other sensors.

AVIVA will showcase the best-in-class capabilities of these chipsets at a live demo at CES 2023. As part of the demonstration, AVIVA will highlight how its chipset supports high-speed video communication over an ASA link for in-vehicle remote sensor applications.

“AVIVA is on a mission to set the bar for speed, power and reliability for in-vehicle networks,” said Kamal Dalmia, co-founder, AVIVA. “Our OEM and Tier 1 customers trust our world class team to deliver on a roadmap that addresses the requirements of advanced vehicle architectures, enabling topologies that have not been feasible until now. Today’s unveiling is the first step in a series of game changing solutions we plan to deliver.”

The AVIVA Solution

AVIVA’s scalable portfolio of ICs and software stacks will enable OEMs to develop highly optimized solutions, while significantly exceeding the performance, power and solution size metrics of the more traditional solutions in use today. Below are some of the key features of the chipset:

• Highest Link Speed – Quad port devices support an aggregated bandwidth of 64 Gigabits per second, with up to 16G line rate per port.
• Lowest Power Consumption – Time Division Duplex (TDD) PHY architecture reduces the power consumption per gigabit to less than half compared to other standards-based solutions, enabling smaller camera and sensor modules with better thermals.
• Highest Reliability Links – Non-overlapping signals and Forward Error Correction (FEC) ensure highly robust links with excellent Signal-to-Noise ratios (SNR). This eliminates the need for re-transmission and ensures the lowest deterministic latency.

EPAM AosEdge V2C

EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM), a leading digital transformation services and product engineering company, announced a new “AosEdge” vehicle-to-cloud (V2C) platform that represents the next phase in the evolution of connected cars. The AosEdge platform, created in collaboration with Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, provides a more efficient way to deliver in-vehicle software and simplifies how different software elements operate within the same environment, making it possible for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to develop true software defined vehicles. The platform combines EPAM’s digital platform expertise with Renesas’ embedded automotive software technology to provide a complete software infrastructure – from installation to operation – for vehicles connecting to the cloud.

3Cadence Supports Dolby Atmos

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNS) today announced that Cadence^® Tensilica^® HiFi DSP IP now supports Dolby Atmos^® for cars, making it the first DSP IP with this capability. Cadence has optimized Dolby car experience technology to run on the Tensilica HiFi DSP for audio playback of Dolby Atmos for cars. Offloading Dolby Atmos to the low-energy, high-performance Tensilica HiFi DSP enables system-on-chip (SoC) providers to offer automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers a more energy-efficient implementation without affecting the audio experience.

Dolby Atmos for cars immerses drivers and passengers in the future of in-car entertainment with greater audio details, clarity and sound separation that bring listeners closer to their favorite content. Dolby Atmos brings music to life by providing artists an expanded palette that can be used to express their creativity in an entirely new way. With Dolby Atmos, drivers can experience entertainment that has been created, delivered and played back as the artist intended.

Ultrawide Conti Display

Continental presented its Curved Ultrawide Display at CES 2023. “Ultrawide” refers to a width of 1.29 meters, curving from one A-pillar to the other. The 47.5 inch TFT display is illuminated by more than 3,000 LEDs on a 7,680 by 660 pixel active area. The matrix backlight produces excellent high-contrast picture quality and also offers the option of dimming individual areas of the screen that are not needed. This local dimming technology saves power and improves readability.

The curved pillar-to-pillar display is a driver, central and passenger screen in one. It offers vehicle manufacturers a high level of design freedom to create a futuristic, high-end cockpit and display content on the seamless screen surface. With a radius of 4,200 mm, the curved surface harmoniously integrates into the vehicle front, ensuring that the user sees distant screen areas for a full and relaxing experience. The operating concept is based on an invisible display that becomes perfectly visible on demand and enables convenient and safe control. Volume production of the Curved Ultrawide Display is planned for 2025.

Interaction with the pillar-to-pillar display is supported by an integrated control display, that appears, as if by magic, only when it is needed. This unique display solution prevents unnecessary information from distracting the driver. The panel can also be used to conveniently control areas that are out of arm’s reach for the user. The haptic feedback of the panel makes it possible to operate the pillar-to-pillar display without having to take your eyes off the road. Covered by a semi-transparent surface the invisible display is integrated seamlessly into the interior design surface, both visually and haptically. When the display is not needed, it is invisible. It does not appear as an empty black space, instead it merges with the decorative surface to form a single unit, in a wood, carbon or any other premium look and feel. In addition, a special matrix backlight is used. This lighting technology allows content to be displayed in the required brightness and with the highest possible contrast in any lighting situation, without a visible background (also known as the “postcard effect”).

GEO Semi Single Processor for HDR & IR

-GEO Semiconductor Inc., the market leader in video processors for automotive viewing cameras,  announced a solution for simultaneously capturing and processing high-quality HDR color (RGB) and infrared (IR) automotive interior images from a single sensor. The solution was shown at the GEO Semiconductor suite at CES 2023.

This solution combines ST’s newest VB1940 5MP RGB-IR image sensor and GEO’s proven GW5 Camera Video Processor. It joins the VB1940’s unique ability to offer both global and rolling shutter modes with the GW5’s ability to process both video formats on the fly to produce the industry’s only InCabin solution supporting both DMS and OMS applications with a single high-resolution camera while providing HDR on the color frame. The result allows for easy synchronization with cabin illuminators in global shutter mode while providing the HDR detail required for in cabin monitoring.

“We’ve seen that the interior space creates a unique set of requirements and challenges,” said John Casey, VP of Marketing and GM of Automotive at GEO. “These challenges often require dedicated sensors to handle driver monitoring, occupancy detection, and cabin video to name a few. Pairing GW5 with ST’s VB1940 5MP RGB-IR image sensor creates a single-sensor solution that can handle the needs of multiple monitoring systems and provide video suitable for viewing.”

The ST VB1940 5MP RGB-IR image sensor combines rolling- and global-shutter pixel technologies to offer a combination of features that address the complex challenges of in-cabin video. The rolling-shutter mode allows for multiple-exposure HDR-RGB images up to 100dB in dynamic range. The global-shutter mode delivers frame synchronization with pulsed IR illumination sources to provide flicker-free NIR (near infrared) video.

GW5 is a proven solution in the automotive space and is among the first ISPs to support the hybrid-shutter modes of the VB1940. With design wins across the vehicle, GEO is committed to providing quality solutions; adding ST’s VB1940 5MP RGB-IR to GW5 is key to supporting new innovations to the in-cabin space. The VB1940 will also be supported on GEO’s upcoming GW6 ISP which adds neural-network processing to create a full solution for In-Cabin monitoring and detection.

GW5 is available today, with advanced ASIL functional safety and AEC-Q100 Grade 2 certification for automotive applications. /

Wejo & Microsoft Deal

Wejo Group Limited (NASDAQ: WEJO), a global leader in Smart Mobility for Good™ and cloud and software solutions for connected, electric and autonomous vehicle data, announced an extended collaboration with Microsoft through the adoption of the Microsoft Connected Fleets reference architecture. Wejo will be part of an ecosystem of Microsoft partners addressing the fleet management market – anticipated at $38 billion by 2024 – by helping fleet management independent software providers (ISVs), system integrators (SIs), and fleet managers go beyond limited data sets and basic dashboards to integrate fleet data into core business processes and derive actionable insights for improved business outcomes.

ThunderX  Domain Controller Middleware

ThunderX, a subsidiary of ThunderSoft, officially released its first domain control middleware: RazorWareX 1.0 at CES2023. Featuring on high-reliability, functional safety and compatibility, RazorWareX 1.0 is an open platform specially built for intelligent driving, and can provide a variety of services for intelligent driving applications.

Configured with a high-real-time and high-bandwidth communication backbone network between MCUs and SoCs of the domain controller, RazorWareX 1.0 can fully deploy hardware computing resources, share sensor data and provide AI algorithm with run time environment. In terms of functional safety, RazorWareX1.0 is satisfied with ASIL-D level, which means it supports FFI-Freedom from Interference for partitioning of modules at different level. Meanwhile, it can monitor the operation of modules as well as their inputs and outputs. In addition, RazorWareX 1.0 also has technical advantages such as multi-host heterogeneous, time synchronization, global scheduling, time triggering tasks, scheduling scenario switch and automatic code generation, which can reduce the system misoperation rate to 0, help clients achieve rapid transplantation across MCUs and SoCs, shorten the development cycle and reduce development costs.

Ke Tu, CEO of ThunderX said: “The release of RazorWareX1.0 is another milestone for ThunderX after our first generation domain controller: RazorDCX Takla was launched last year. In 2023, we will continue our efforts on driving the development of automotive industry through advanced technologies, products and services, and will introduce the second generation domain controller as well as first high performance computing central computer within the year.”