Autonomous & Self-Driving Vehicle News: Waymo, Nissan, LG Innotek, Oxa, Huawei & STRADVISION.

In autonomous ans self-driving vehicle news are Waymo, Nissan, LG Innotek, Oxa, Huawei & STRADVISION.

Way More Roads for Waymo in CA

Despite protests, CPUC has approved Waymo cars to drive at up to 65mph on local roads and highways in approved areas.

The decision noted Waymo’s “attention to continuous evaluation and improvement of its technology, safety practices, and aspects of its operations involving humans … that minimize risk of driverless passenger service operations.”

Nissan Details Autonomous-Drive Services in Japan

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced its roadmap to commercialize its inhouse-developed, autonomous-drive^*1 mobility services in Japan.

This is a significant step towards the company’s long-term vision, Nissan Ambition 2030, to empower mobility by solving transportation service issues faced by local communities in Japan. Local communities have been facing several mobility challenges, such as driver shortages, which are a result of an ageing population. With this service, Nissan will provide a broad range of new services that enable free movement.

Nissan has been testing business models for mobility services in Japan and abroad since 2017. These vicinities include the Minato Mirai area of Yokohama and Namie town, Fukushima Prefecture, where a manned mobility service called Namie Smart Mobility has been in operation since 2021. Outside Japan, Nissan has been testing autonomous-drive mobility in London and other areas with the support of the UK government.

Equipped with this knowledge, Nissan plans to begin offering autonomous-drive mobility services starting in fiscal year 2027^*2, working with third parties such as local authorities and transport operators. Nissan will begin trials in the Minato Mirai area in fiscal 2024, and eventually scale up the trials the following fiscal year. During the trials, the level of autonomous driving will be gradually enhanced while assessing customer acceptance, with the aim to provide driverless services.

The following is a broad timeline:

Fiscal year 2024	Driving tests in the Minato Mirai area of Yokohama using an autonomous driving vehicle based on the Serena minivan.
Fiscal years 2025 to 2026	Service demonstration tests in the Yokohama area, including Minato Mirai, Sakuragi-cho and Kannai, with a total of 20 vehicles (with a driver on board).
Fiscal year 2027	Aiming to start providing services in three to four municipalities, including rural areas, with tens of vehicles. Discussions are underway with a number of municipalities.

This initiative will be promoted in close cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; and other central ministries. The ministries will also promote initiatives to realize new autonomous mobility services at the Level 4 Mobility Acceleration Committee that they organize.

*1 SAE Level 4 equivalent
*2 Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. fiscal years run from April 1 to March 31.

LG Innotek Heating Camera Modules for AVs

LG Innotek (CEO Moon Hyuksoo) announced that it successfully developed the “High-performance Heating Camera Module” for autonomous vehicles applied with the world’s top ultra-precision optical design and technology. LG Innotek has adopted a strategy to launch a full-fledged drive to preoccupy the autonomous vehicle camera market.

The Heating Camera is a product made by mounting a heater on an Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) camera. Automobile manufacturers are increasingly adopting heating cameras as an indispensable component for safe autonomous driving.

When frost forms on the automotive lens or when it collects snow, it fails to detect obstacles around the vehicle, which may lead to  serious accidents. This is why we need a heating camera that gets sharp images.

• LG Innotek develops a ‘directly heating’ camera module that withstands snow and frost in freezing temperatures

The “High-performance Heating Camera Module” LG Innotek has developed heats up the bottom of the lens to consume less power (up to 4W) while quickly eliminating snow and frost.

Using the product saves up to half the time conventionally needed to melt away frost.

In a test conducted in an extremely low temperature of -18°C, LG Innotek’s “High-performance Heating Camera Module” restored the resolution of a frozen lens to that in room temperature in just four minutes. In contrast, products currently available takes eight minutes on average to completely eliminate frost covering the lens in the same environment.

The most important feature of the “High-performance Heating Camera Module” LG Innotek developed is that it uses Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) materials. PTC materials reduce the amount of current when the temperature rises above a certain point and maintain the temperature in the appropriate range.

Thanks to PTC materials’ ability to control temperature, LG Innotek was able to mount a heater at the bottom of the lens, the location optimized to quickly remove snow and frost. This dispels the concern for degrading of the lens performance due to overheating when the lens is heated directly.

Most products available in the market use heat conductors instead of PTC materials. Unlike PTC materials, heat conductors can’t self-regulate temperature, requiring users to install a temperature-controlling circuit on the camera module to prevent overheating. This makes the camera module to become bigger, and customers experience inconvenience due to the change in camera design.

Some brands that use heat conductors has released a heater component that can be installed on top of the camera module to minimize the trouble of changing the product design. In this case, however, the heater indirectly heats the entire camera module. This not only takes longer than direct heating, but also consumes more power due to higher heat loss.

• ‘Integrated’ the lens and the heater with ultra-precision optical design and technology, enhancing customer convenience

The “High-performance Heating Camera Module” LG Innotek developed is applied with the world’s best ultra-precision optical design and camera module assembly technology.

This allowed LG Innotek to compensate for the shortcomings of the existing products and increased freedom in design by integrating the lens and the heater into a single module. The size of the camera module is about the same as the existing module because the PTC heater is inserted into an empty space inside the camera module and the power sources for the camera and the heater are integrated into one.

Accordingly, customers can replace the product in the same location where the existing camera module was mounted on without the need to change the camera design.

• “Slated for production in 2027, the module is expected to accelerate LG Innotek’s engagement in the autonomous vehicle camera market.”

First Oxa Driver Shuttles in Jacksonville from JTA at FSCJ

The code has hit the road for Oxa, a global provider of self-driving vehicle software, as the company launches its first commercial Oxa Driver product in passenger shuttles in Jacksonville, Florida. The services are a major investment in the city’s downtown area and are operated by US shuttle service provider Beep in partnership with the Jacksonville Transport Authority (JTA) and the Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ).

The shuttles are part of an autonomous vehicle (AV) program licensed by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). They support the JTA and FSCJ’s ambition to become beacons for autonomous transportation as the college builds AV skills into its academic track and the city begins major investment in autonomous transport as part of an Ultimate Urban Circulator Project.

Oxa Driver enables vehicle automation independent of human control but trained safety attendants will be used on the FSCJ route to boost confidence and trust while passengers get used to the self-driving experience. The first rollout will be followed by 7 more featuring Oxa software planned in cities across the US and UK in 2024.

Oxa Driver is the culmination of 10 years of invention, software engineering, hardware integration, machine learning and testing in the virtual and real worlds; the product of millions of hours of engineering development.

US shuttle services running Oxa Driver are being deployed in partnership with Oxa’s strategic US fleet operations partner Beep. The company is delivering programs across six states in more than Other city services yet to be announced in 2024 will be a mix of private and public transportation shuttles using a variety of vehicle types from fully customized to retrofitted commercial platforms.

Huawei Core Network ADN Accelerates Digital-Intelligent Transformation

Huawei’s core network Autonomous Driving Network (ADN) solution builds end-to-end automation and intelligence capabilities throughout the entire lifecycle of core networks covering planning, construction, maintenance, and optimization, providing telcos with agile delivery, high reliability, and an optimized experience. During network planning and construction, CDCT deployment, intent-driven automation, and network-level canary upgrades are used to achieve efficient and secure network changes (such as upgrades and expansion) and fast service rollout. As for network maintenance, digital twins and intelligent algorithms are employed to quickly identify potential risks and rectify faults, ensuring high network stability. When it comes to network optimization, this solution guarantees a deterministic experience for individuals and enterprises through poor-QoE user identification and SLA assurance, significantly reducing user complaints. Currently, it has been successfully applied in multiple world-leading operators’ networks, accelerating implementation of the AN strategies.

The emergence of foundation models has undoubtedly changed the course for tackling industry pain points. Huawei’s ADN solution aims to lead the industry through continuous innovation. By diving into operators’ O&M pain points and the service rollout, troubleshooting, and complaint handling workflows, the solution solves industry problems with advanced technologies such as digital twins, foundation models, and intent-driven automation. Based on cloud core network O&M expertise, data, and experiences over the past three decades, we released the industry’s first multi-modal foundation model used for core network O&M and the Digital Assistant & Digital Expert (DAE) powered by the foundation model. Through intelligent collaboration among multiple agents, the DAE provides automatic complaint classification, automatic alarm analysis, and fast fault awareness, analysis, decision, and handling, converting network O&M from “Human+Tools” to “Human+Intelligence”. This solution builds network-level high stability for cloud-based O&M towards L4 and avoids the needs of keeping increasing O&M staff.

Arthur Wang, President of the Data Center Network Domain at Huawei Data Communication Product Line, attributes the evolution of Huawei’s data center autonomous driving network solution from L3.5 to L4 to the company’s profound understanding of customer pain points and service scenarios across industries such as finance, government, and manufacturing, as well as its joint innovation projects with leading customers. He underscores Huawei’s steadfast commitment to collaborating with customers and industry partners to advance data center networks into the era of highly autonomous driving.

Kevin Tolly, Founder and CEO of The Tolly Group, has praised Huawei’s super-connectivity CloudFabric 3.0 solution for introducing the network digital map functionality into data center networks. This innovation offers significant benefits in terms of unified orchestration, simulation, and verification, as well as integrated application and network O&M for multi-cloud heterogeneous networks. Additionally, it extends intelligent O&M capabilities from general-purpose computing networks to multi-architecture computing networks that include both intelligent and general-purpose computing.

The test report not only underscores Huawei’s innovation and leadership in the data center autonomous driving network field, but also provides a clear development trajectory for enterprises embarking on intelligent digital transformation. Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to collaborate with industry partners to promote the widespread adoption of L4 data center autonomous driving network technologies. This concerted effort aims to accelerate data center networks towards the autonomous driving era, characterized by agile business operations, unparalleled user experience, and streamlined O&M efficiency.

STRADVISION Numbers YoY

Building on the success of its groundbreaking SVNet with 3D Perception Technology, STRADVISION, a trailblazer in the automotive technology sector, proudly announces yet another milestone achievement, surpassing an annual commercial production of 1 million units. This remarkable feat comes on the heels of the company’s announcement in September 2023, where STRADVISION celebrated surpassing 1 million units in cumulative commercial production since 2019.

The company’s deep learning-based vision perception technology, SVNet, is celebrated for its ultra-lightweight design and unparalleled efficiency. With over 1.82 million vehicles globally equipped with SVNet since 2019, STRADVISION is setting the standard for innovation in automotive vision technology.

The exceptional Year-over-Year (YoY) volume increase of approximately 189% underscores STRADVISION’s unparalleled growth and industry impact. The projection from the previous year of exceeding 1 million units in annual commercial production has materialized, propelled by the successful introduction of 8 new model lineups by a prestigious German OEM. These additions not only meet customer demands but propelled STRADVISION to the forefront of advanced automotive technologies. As a driving force behind the widespread adoption of driver-assist systems incorporating vision AI technology in the automotive industry, STRADVISION plays a pivotal role in assisting customers as they seamlessly integrate cutting-edge features into their vehicles. This strategic expansion ensures that our solutions continue to lead the way in enhancing safety and driving convenience for vehicles equipped with our state-of-the-art technologies.

Junhwan Kim, STRADVISION’s CEO, expressed gratitude to their customers for their continued support, emphasizing the instrumental role they played in reaching this significant milestone. He stated, “We are thrilled to exceed the 1 million units annual production mark, a testament to our commitment to innovation and meeting the evolving needs of our customers.”

As the automotive industry continues to embrace advanced technologies, STRADVISION remains at the forefront, actively collaborating with automotive OEM and Tier 1 customers to secure a series of production projects globally. The company looks forward to exploring new business horizons and expanding its footprint in the European and Japanese markets.

With a robust foundation in deep learning-based vision perception technology, STRADVISION is poised for continued success as it shapes the future of autonomous driving capabilities and advanced driving assistant systems. For more information on STRADVISION and its cutting-edge technologies, please visit STRADVISION.