In connected car news are Continental, Amazon, C2A & GEM.
Continental, Amazon vECU Creator SDK
Continental has expanded its tool box for automotive software development: With the future virtual ECU Creator software (vECU Creator), developers at vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and third parties will be able to configure and run virtual cloud-based electronic control units in their specific development environments to help develop code for micro-controller and processor hardware that does not yet exist. The virtual ECU Creator is part of the Continental Automotive Edge (CAEdge) framework, which runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). By using cloud-based vECUs, new applications or software features for software-defined vehicles (SDV) can be built by OEMs faster, more efficiently and in a more agile way. That allows future developments to be tested and debugged continuously by engineers within the cloud, at the same time as hardware development and production cycles. The virtual ECU Creator brings together Continental’s high-performance computers, and Electronic Control Units, with Elektrobit’s production-proven software for Classic and Adaptive AUTOSAR. “A great vehicle relies on both quality hardware and software. Our virtual ECU Creator will make it easy for our software experts to work in parallel, enabling us to create applications for the software-defined vehicle that enhance the driver’s safety and experience,” said Gilles Mabire, CTO at Continental Automotive.
Development from virtual to real
In times when car manufacturers are looking to bring new car models much faster to market and want to continuously provide software updates to customers, traditional hardware-in-the-loop-based development (HiL) and testing of automotive software is slow and limited in scale. Most of the functional, safety and security issues, can only be addressed when the physical ECUs are available. Until now, there were no comprehensive tools for developers at automotive manufacturers and system suppliers to simulate, in the cloud, the performance of digital features and confirm compatibility across existing or new car lines prior to general hardware availability, leading to increased risk prior to launch. According to industry statistics fixing issues in late stages can be 10 times or more expensive.
Bringing together Continental’s proven track record in design and manufacturing of complex automotive systems at scale and Elektrobit’s mass market ready automotive base software and middleware, the virtual ECU Creator marks the next step in future system development in the automotive industry.
Automotive software developers will be able to use the virtual ECU Creator to help decouple hardware and software decisions, simulate digital feature performance on the digital twin of hardware subsystems and continuously release applications that customize and enhance the driver experience. With the virtual ECU Creator, CAEdge users can configure their vECU choosing from a range of virtualized hardware and software for base tooling and simulation, covering typical microcontroller-based ECUs, Zone Controllers or High-Performance Computers.
After selecting the target chipset and middleware, a vECU is automatically set up in the user’s development environment based on their CAEdge preferences, allowing developers to begin coding immediately.
Elektrobit’s Classic and Adaptive AUTOSAR product lines are pre-integrated in the virtual ECU Creator and help enable a highly automated approach to integrate software, upgrade components, and test and validate new builds without the need of the target hardware. Scaling vECUs for verification and validation is easy and on-demand, and time for test runs can be reduced significantly, decreasing overall time-to-market.
Collaboration with AWS
Continental and AWS have been collaborating since 2021. AWS is Continental’s preferred cloud provider for vECU Creator and its services help support Continental Automotive Edge framework (CAEdge) – a modular hardware and software framework developed by Continental that connects the vehicle to the cloud and features a virtual workbench offering numerous options to help automakers develop, supply and maintain software-intensive system functions. This allows drivers to integrate the functions they want going forward during the entire service life of their vehicle by downloading quick and convenient software updates.
“Offering Continental’s vECU Creator on AWS will fundamentally change the automotive design process, which, for years, presented the challenge of developing vehicle software when physical hardware may not yet exist,” said Wendy Bauer, General Manager of Automotive and Manufacturing at AWS. “Extending our work with Continental through virtual ECUs and the vECU Creator offerings directly addresses a significant industry issue and democratizes the development process between automakers and their suppliers. Now, with the parity that vECU provides in the cloud, automakers can accelerate their development and increase testing efficiency earlier in the cycle.”
GenAI in C2A
C2A Security, the mobility-centric DevSecOps Platform for car makers, suppliers, and EV charging companies, announces a huge leap forward in its offering with the integration of Generative AI (GenAI) into their EVSec Platform. As the 1st cybersecurity vendor to offer these capabilities in the mobility ecosystem, C2A Security’s AutoSynth marks a significant milestone, promising to revolutionize the way products & systems are developed and optimized for security, cost, and time reduction.
GenAI, the cutting-edge artificial intelligence layer built on top of large language models (LLM), has already made waves across various industries, with its remarkable potential to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, automate software, and elevate performance metrics. Its rapid adoption has been nothing short of remarkable – in a recent McKinsey survey1, 40% of C-level executives said their organizations will increase investment in AI because of advances in GenAI, while one in four said they are personally using GenAI tools (as ChatGPT, Midjourney, others) for work.
Developed to be LLM-agnostic, C2A Security is poised to set a new industry standard. Since mid-2022 the company has been building an infrastructure of Generative AI into its DevSecOps Platform named AutoSynth. By leveraging the capabilities of GenAI, developers, security engineers, and product leaders will be able to optimize production processes, detect inefficiencies, automate security controls, and prioritize response to vulnerabilities.
“We are elated to introduce this groundbreaking integration of GenAI into our DevSecOps platform,” said Roy Fridman, CEO of C2A Security. “This transformative combination will not only bolster our product roadmap and patent track record but also enable us to create cutting-edge products that redefine the industry landscape. AutoSynth adds advanced automation to the product security lifecycle, while opening up many more use cases to solve problems we didn’t know are problems before GenAI. I’m psyched to see the extent of automations we can achieve with AutoSynth!”
By harnessing the underserved potential of GenAI in the automotive industry, C2A Security is primed to accelerate the innovation lifecycle, reduce time-to-market, and ensure the delivery of more secure products that exceed customer expectations. Within the next 18 months Gartner expects2 generative AI to account for 10% of all data produced, up from less than 1% just 18 months ago.
Gem Go App for 35 mph or Lower Roads
A new app is providing confidence and accessibility for safe, more sustainable and more enjoyable ways to travel — GEM Go identifies nearby roads with posted speed limits of 35 mph or lower, which are legal for low-speed vehicle (LSV) operation in most communities around the country. GEM Go is a free web-based, mobile-friendly, interactive mapping app at go.GEMcar.com.
More than half of United States roadways are 35 miles per hour or less, and that number is growing constantly as more cities are lowering speed limits to increase safe, healthy and equitable mobility. With GEM Go, users drop a pin or enter an address, and the map will populate with a radius of all roadways 35 mph or less. In cities such as Washington, D.C., with a default speed limit of 20 mph, LSVs can get anywhere in the city and beyond.
“GEM has been leading the charge in LSVs for more than 25 years,” said Keith Simon, CEO, Waev Inc. “We created the GEM Go mapping app to help current and future GEM owners understand the breadth of places LSVs can actually operate – it’s eye-opening and we expect it will drive even greater adoption of LSVs across the country.”
With more than 65,000 GEM electric vehicles (EVs) sold, fleet operators and consumers have been leveraging GEM for decades as a safe, sustainable, and cost-efficient solution. GEM vehicles often replace full-size cars, trucks, vans and non-street legal golf carts for applications ranging from neighborhood errands to urban shuttles and delivery to utility work. GEM Go makes it simple and clear to identify where an LSV can be driven.
Simon adds, “Although we have an extensive installed base with GEM, it represents a very small fraction of what LSVs can become in the market when you keep breaking down the barriers like the lack of understanding of where GEM vehicles can be driven. With our recent launch of the all new MY24 GEM and now GEM Go we are on the leading edge of driving the LSV category forward.”