MWC Connected Car News: Ford, Nissan, LG, Intel, SanDisk, Jasper, Movimento, Vidders, FCA, SEAT, SAP & RecSmart

Fiat_Graphic_1There were more connected car announcements at Mobile World Congress. Ford’s CEO Mark Fields was a keynote speaker while other companies such as Nissan, LG, Intel, SanDisk, Jasper, Movimento, Vidders, FCA, SEAT, SAP and RecSmart.

Ford Goes Further with Autonomous Driving Investment, FordPass & MyBoxMan Package Delivery

Ford’s CEO Mark Fields like to make appearances at technology trade shows. At Mobile World Congress Fields revealed that Ford will triple engineering investment in driver assist technology, speeding the roll-out of semi‑automated systems that make it easier to park and drive in heavy traffic.

The FordPass customer experience platform is coming to Europe. FordPass partners will include BP, parking payment company Mobile City and Ford Carsharing.

Ford is demonstrating on new Kuga for the first time in Europe its new SYNC 3 communications and entertainment system. SYNC 3 allows drivers to control audio, navigation, and climate functions plus connected smartphones using simple, conversational voice commands.

The company is announced new apps for the system that can be voice-activated using SYNC AppLink, and include enabling drivers to earn money by transporting packages. The MyBoxMan app enables drivers delivering a package for others to earn around €5-8 for a typical five kilometre journey.

2016 Nissan Leaf with 4 Cams & New Telematics

Nissan unboxed its new 2016 Nissan Leaf the world’s best selling electric vehicle as a revolutionary movement offering a better experience at the touch of the button. The camera technology can process million of pixesl and can show feed back from four cameras in panorama. Via the touchscreen connect to social media, news, maps and apps. Each camera has real-time feed to be sure there are no crashes while backing up.

The enhanced NissanConnect EV telematics system is at the forefront of accessible in-vehicle technologies, allowing Nissan LEAF owners to control many of the vehicle’s features at the touch of a button. Providing a suite of digital alerts and remote access features, owners can remotely manage and check the status of the battery, set timers for charging, remotely switch on climate control and find local charging stations.

In addition to this, the new operating system also allows users to analyse their driving patterns, including energy usage and CO2 saved per journey.

5G Telematics from LG & Intel for Cars

LG Electronics (LG) and Intel announced that they are collaborating to develop and pilot 5G-based telematics technology, the next generation of wireless technology for cars. LG and Intel will utilize research and development expertise and leadership from both companies with the intent to be first to market with 5G ready solutions. LG is the first company to supply telematics products that rely on LTE connectivity instead of older 2G or 3G based networks.

5G telematics delivers data more than 33 times faster than 4G LTE with latency expected to drop to about one tenth of current speeds. Software can be updated at high speeds through OTA (Over The Air) networks while videos and other multimedia content will see faster downloads through the car’s infotainment systems.

Powered by V2X (Vehicle to Everything) technology, 5G’s dramatically reduced latency is possible even when cars are travelling at high speeds. Communication from vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to infrastructure or vehicle to pedestrian through 5G can help prevent accidents for a safer driving experience.

SanDisk Intros Next Gen Auto Storage

SanDisk Corporation introduced its latest generation SanDisk Automotive flash storage solution, an automotive grade SD card optimized to meet the unique storage demands of the “connected car”. The new card includes a suite of built-in smart features that enhance reliability and allow original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to better manage their storage in data-intensive automotive environments.

The automotive-grade SD card is built to meet the intense reliability, quality and temperature demands of the automotive market. The new SD card offers a new suite of smart features. These include enhanced power failure protection, a memory health status monitor, OEM customization capabilities, and enhancements for read-intensive applications, such as navigation. With these features, automotive manufacturers can designate and program a SanDisk Automotive SD card for use exclusively with a specific connected application. Manufacturers can also remotely and proactively monitor the easily removable SD card to ensure that it is operating at its ideal performance level or to identify when card upgrades or replacements are needed.

Ficosa Panasonic SCM

Ficosa announced a partnership with Panasonic at Mobile World Congress for the Smart Connectivity Module (SCM).

Ficosa, maker of high-technology vision, safety, connectivity and efficiency systems for the automotive and mobility sectors, has been working intensively on connected car development for the automotive industry for more than 9 years. The partnership with Panasonic consolidates Ficosa creates the first global group specializing capable of leading the automobile transformation.

Ficosa and Panasonic are showing a new generation of Smart Connectivity Module (SCM), that enables all passengers to be simultaneously but independently connected through the vehicle’s own connection. This system, based on a connectivity platform, offers a secure connection for communications inside and outside the car, and for communication between vehicles (V2V) and with infrastructure (V2X).

The SCM provides important features to improve safety, such as how long the vehicle has been running without a stop, traffic density, weather conditions, dangerous areas and those with limited visibility in order to avoid accidents. It also allows users to surf the Internet, watch movies, listen to music, play online games and access the GNSS navigator, among other functions.

Jasper updates 1.1 Million Cars with POST in One Day

Jasper announced a partnership with mobile operator POST Luxembourg and joint customer PSA Peugeot Citroën. The partnership migrated 1.1 million Peugeot and Citroen (PSA) vehicles onto the Jasper platform in a single day.

Jasper is the platform powering Internet of Things for companies like Garmin, Amazon Kindle and Heineken, along with the connected car initiatives of GM, Ford and Volkswagen. Cisco this month announced its intent to acquire Jasper for $1.4 billion.

Movimento + Vidders for Security

Over-the-Air (OTA) software provider Movimento announced it has partnered with leading security provider Vidder, Inc. to deliver a cloud-based security solution that stops potential hacks in their tracks. Movimento will incorporate Vidder’s Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) components into its OTA platform, giving vehicles an unprecedented level of protection for both OTA updates and car-to-cloud communication.

Vidder’s PrecisionAccess security platform is the first commercial solution based on the new Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) architecture. Based on a completely new security paradigm, SDP defeats credential theft, server exploitation and connection hijacking by dynamically connecting only authenticated users to protected servers and applications. The SDP security model has been tested in public hackathons, surviving billions of attacks.

Vidder’s PrecisionAccess enhances Movimento’s OTA platform, which can wirelessly complete five vehicle FOTA/SOTA or more than 20 ECU FOTA updates per minute. In this joint solution automotive supply chain partners only have access to their own data, car module or cloud app while the OEM maintains total control, ensuring the car is protected. Each application or module in the car has its own unique secure network connection, thus ensuring a hacker does not gain access to the whole car. Also, data in transit from the car to the cloud is also protected.

SEAT SAMSUNG & SAP Concepts

SEAT, Samsung Electronics and SAP SE have created a technological alliance to develop future projects for the connected car. The three companies are showcasing cutting-edge concepts developed by pooling their innovation and industry-leading expertise at Mobile World Congress.

SEAT, Samsung and SAP have developed a future concept that can be accessed with the SEAT ConnectApp. The plan is for this app to enable users to reserve a parking space from any location through fingerprint recognition, navigates the driver to the location and automatically raise the access gate when the car approaches. When the driver exits the carpark, payment is planned to be made directly from the app without leaving the car.

SEAT and Samsung are presenting an evolution of last year’s Digital Key proposal, which was a solution for locking and unlocking the doors, turning on the air conditioning and opening and closing the windows remotely, from a smartphone or wearable. The new version allows the owner to create a digital key for use on someone’s smartphone.

The MY SEAT App will showcase new functionalities including remote control of connected home appliances, capabilities to replicate car dashboard warnings and alerts, and driver behaviour monitoring to offer driving tips, increase performance and even save money by reducing fuel consumption and unplanned car maintenance.

FCA Tangos with VR Car Buying Experience

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) unveiled a prototype of an immersive car sales application at Mobile World Congress designed and built by Accenture Digital using Google’s Project Tango developer kit. The prototype demonstrates how augmented reality can revolutionize the shopping experience for consumers by allowing them to view and interact with a full-scale virtual version of the object – or car – they are considering buying.

The prototype allows car buyers to hold a device and, using the integrated sensor technology and motion tracking, area learning, and depth perception from Project Tango, view, walk around, look inside and configure a life-size virtual car. On the Accenture  demo, doors can be opened to reveal a realistic and detailed interior, where changes to upholstery colors or dashboard styles can be made with a tap on the device screen.

Project Tango technology gives mobile devices the ability to navigate the physical world similar to how we do as humans. Project Tango brings a new kind of spatial perception to Android devices by adding advanced computer vision, image processing, and special vision sensors. A Project Tango device maps the 360-degree environment around it, meaning that as it is moved it navigates and views the changing environment in the same way as a person would. As the car is viewed through the device, the virtual car moves in relation to how the user moves.

RecSmart Social Wi-Fi Dashcam Launched

RoadEyes introduced recSMART, connected and social dashcam. Users connect recSMART to their smartphones via Wi-Fi to share  driving story: pictures, videos, GPS locations, routes and many more.

In the spirit of building a community, a key advantage of recSMART is its connected feature. Unlike other dashcams in the market, recSMART connects directly to smartphones via Wi-Fi in order to capture, save and share collected data (e.g. videos, photos, GPS location, distance, time and speed). Being Wi-Fi enabled, recSMART users can easily control, manage and configure the settings of the dashcam from their smartphones.

Unlike traditional dashcams, recSMART can easily be removed from its base for photo-taking and filming. With its built-in battery, users can run the dashcam to take photos inside and outside the vehicle. These can be potentially used as valuable evidence in court, insurance settlements and for accident claim reports.

Transit Strike

People attending Mobile World Congress who don’t have connected car may be concerned that there will be transit strike.The Mobile World Congress blog stated “On Wednesday, 24 February, transport officials have confirmed that while the metro strike will go ahead, service levels will be increased. Therefore, we encourage attendees to utilise Metro Line L9 Sud as well as the FGC Train Service.”