In connected car news this week were Volvo, Silicon Mobility, BMW, Mitsubishi Electric, Innovusion, PSA, EyeSight AI, INRIX, Spot Hero, ParkMobile, Enevate, LG Chem, Renesas, BlackBerry, Auro, Keysight, Econolite, Wind River, Ford, Magna Chip and Danlaw.
Volvo Cars Helps Wire FreeWire
Volvo Cars has acquired a stake in electric car charging company FreeWire Technologies via the Volvo Cars Tech Fund, deepening the company’s commitment to a fully electric future.
While Volvo Cars’s electrification strategy does not envision direct ownership of charging or service stations, the investment in FreeWire reinforces its overall commitment to supporting a widespread transition to electric mobility together with other partners.
FreeWire is a San Francisco-based company that has been a pioneer in flexible fast-charging technology for electric cars. It specialises in both stationary and mobile fast charging technology, allowing electric car charging to be deployed quickly and widely.
Installing traditional fixed fast-charging stations is usually a cost- and labor intensive process that requires a lot of electrical upgrades to support the connection between charging stations and the main electrical grid. FreeWire’s charging stations remove that complication and use low-voltage power, allowing operators to simply use existing power outlets. This means drivers can enjoy all the benefits of fast charging without operators needing to go through the hassle of establishing a high-voltage connection to the grid.
Silicon Mobi ISO Cert
Silicon Mobility, a full stack semiconductor technology player powering control solutions for a cleaner, safer and smarter mobility, has announced its certification under ISO 9001:2015 standard for the design, development, sales, support and supply chain management of its semiconductor and software products aiming at the improvement of the energy efficiency of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles. International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 9001:2015 focuses on quality management systems and performance and is the most updated standard of its kind.
BMW Chooses KPIT TTTech
The BMW Group has once again selected expert software development partners, further consolidating its partner network in the process. The aim of the collaboration with KPIT and TTTech is to press ahead with the scalable Autonomous Driving Platform and to work together on the development of Level 3 and Level 4/5 functions (Highway Pilot and Urban Pilot).
Mitsubishi Demos V2G Tech
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that it has developed a technology for efficiently managing photovoltaic (PV) and other power-generation systems and also the charging/discharging of electric vehicles (EVs) parked on company campuses. By optimizing the schedules for not only charging EVs but also discharging their power back into the company, as well as optimizing the operation of PV and other power-generation systems according to the fluctuating unit price of electricity sold on the grid, Mitsubishi Electric’s new system enables companies to reduce their electric-power costs.
Going forward, Mitsubishi Electric will continue research and development of its new energy-management technology aiming for even higher efficiency and performance. Further, by combining the technology with the company’s energy management systems it expects to continuously expand its energy related business.
New Mitsubishi Demos 2 New LIDAR
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that it has started demonstration testing of a new system equipped with wind LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and water vapor DIAL (differential absorption LIDAR) measuring methods for the early forecasting of torrential rain. The system incorporates a newly developed high-output-power waveguide laser amplifier that delivers what is believed to be the world’s highest output, 15.8 millijoules, using an a single-frequency pulse laser in the 1.5μm wavelength, which is not harmful to human eyes. The tests are expected to demonstrate that the system simultaneously measures water vapor in the air and upward air currents, which cause cumulonimbus clouds, quicker, more accurately and in a wider range compared to conventional alternatives. Going forward, Mitsubishi Electric expects to make further improvements prior to launching a commercial system for the extra-early forecasting of torrential rain.
Innovusion Raises $30M
Innovusion, a leading developer of LiDAR technology for the autonomous vehicle markets, announced it has raised about US $30 million in Series A funding, co-led by NIO Capital and Eight Roads Ventures in China, and F-Prime Capital in the U.S., in addition to seed round from Gaorong Capital and other strategic investors. On the heels of the funding, the company’s LiDAR system, the Innovusion Cheetah, is now available for ordering by customers worldwide. Innovusion Cheetah is the world’s first image-grade LiDAR system to support level 4+* (fully autonomous under certain operating conditions) autonomous driving solutions.
PSA is Free2Move in D.C.
Groupe PSA starts its Free2Move Carsharing services in Washington, D.C. on October 25th. This “free-floating” service, provides 24/7 access to a fleet of 600 cars parked on public streets across all 8 wards
in the District of Columbia.
The user-friendly Free2Move Carsharing app allows new members to join in a few clicks. With a valid drivers’ license and a $10 membership fee, booking a car and driving from point A to point B for minutes, hours or days is easy. The app provides all of the logistics required to locate, book, open/lock & pay for its vehicles throughout the city. “Free-floating” refers to the user’s freedom to drive.
Free2Move Carsharing app always calculates the least expensive cost to the user. There are no late fees, “per trip” fees or insurance charges and every trip cost is based on a 500-mile usage. Parking and gas – as well as insurance for above 21 years drivers– is included in the service.
AmeriTrust Goes with Floow
AmeriTrust, a specialty niche-focused, commercial insurance underwriter and insurance administration services company, has selected insurance telematics and scoring innovator, The Floow, to partner on the development of a commercial auto telematics solution, using smartphone technology as a sensor. /
Eyesight AI Funded
Eyesight, the leading computer vision company which brings Edge-based Computer Vision and AI solutions to the automotive and IoT markets, announced today a $15m growth investment round, led by Jebsen Capital, Arie Capital, Mizrahi Tefahot, among other investors.
Investment to Drive Future Growth
Already working with some of the world’s leading companies, Eyesight will be leveraging the investment to further expand the company’s fast-growing Edge Computer Vision and AI footprints.
These technologies are key to shaping user interactions in automotive and smart home environments and are critical to human safety in vehicles. The company’s Driver Monitoring and Occupancy Monitoring System tracks the driver’s attention on the road and behaviour in the cabin to dramatically reduce the millions of car accidents that occur annually.
INRIX Continues US BMW Partnership
INRIX, Inc., a global leader of connected car services and mobility analytics, today announced the extension of its collaboration with BMW Group to connect North American vehicles with INRIX driving services for real-time traffic, travel alerts and online routing.
Powered by the INRIX network of more than 300 million connected vehicles and devices, BMW ConnectedDrive with Real-Time Traffic Information provides drivers with real-time and predictive traffic for routes, travel times, and accident and incident alerts. During a navigation session, INRIX also provides traffic-influenced rerouting for the most up-to-date travel information.
The award-winning INRIX Intermodal Navigation and EV Range Spider services for BMW’s electric vehicles are also included in the extension.
Aptiv Buys Winchester Interconnect
Aptiv PLC a global technology company enabling the future of mobility, announced it completed the acquisition of Winchester Interconnect, a leading provider of advanced interconnect solutions for harsh environment applications, from an affiliate of Snow Phipps Group.
For over 75 years, Winchester has delivered mission-critical interconnect solutions for high cost-of-failure applications across a broad range of industries, including aerospace and defense, industrial and medical. Going forward, Winchester will operate as an independent business unit within Aptiv’s Signal & Power Solutions segment, and will continue to go to market under its current brand names.
SpotHero Parkers Can One-Tap inot FlashPARCS
SpotHero, North America’s leading parking reservation platform, and FlashParking, an innovative parking technology company, announced a pilot program to enable drivers in Austin, TX who purchase parking with SpotHero to enter garages equipped with FlashParking’s FlashPARCS Smart Stations using the SpotHero app—a process the companies have coined “one-tap redemption.” With this technology, there’s no longer a need for drivers to roll down their car windows to redeem their parking reservation before entering parking garages.
ParkMobile 360’s
ParkMobile, the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in the US, announced the launch of ParkMobile 360, a next generation management platform that enables clients to optimize parking inventory across multiple locations, manage rates in real-time and analyze results.
LG Helps Charge Up Enevate Funding
Enevate’s HD-Energy® Technology for EVs allows Li-ion batteries to be charged to 75 percent capacity in five minutes, while also providing higher energy densities than available for today’s current long-range EVs. They can also safely charge and discharge down to -40°C and capture more energy during regenerative braking, extending their range in cold climates.
Enevate offers a complete HD-Energy Technology and licensing package to rapidly enable global EV automotive and EV battery manufacturers to quickly achieve production volume and drive adoption of next-generation features that take EVs to the next level.
Renesas & BlackBerry Help Devs
Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, and BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) tnnounced they are expanding their partnership to offer an integrated virtualization, functional safety and secure development environment for the Renesas R-Car system-on-chip (SoC) devices. Using BlackBerry’s QNX software, it was developed as part of the companies’ ongoing strategic relationship to advance autonomous and connected driving technology.
The new development environment is an expansion of Renesas’ software package lineup for the R-Car automotive computing platform. It allows automotive cockpit system designers to quickly develop advanced cockpit systems and improve the user experience.
The development environment features both the high reliability and rich graphics functions required for integrated cockpit systems. It is based on the Renesas R-Car family, and features BlackBerry’s QNX Software Development Platform 7.0 and QNX Hypervisor 2.0 virtualization software. It also provides access to the extensive set of software products developed by BlackBerry, allowing designers to leverage the multimedia and HMI-related software for cockpit graphics systems development.
Ridecell’s Auro Gets Self-Driving License in CA
Ridecell Inc., the leading platform for new mobility operators, announced that its self-driving vehicle division, Auro, is now licensed to test autonomous vehicles on public roadways in California.
Ridecell began offering self-driving vehicle solutions with its acquisition of Auro in October 2017. Auro first developed and operated driverless shuttles for private geo-fenced locations, such as corporate parks and university campuses. Auro is now expanding its autonomous product offering to include passenger vehicle models and mini vans, which will operate on public roads alongside existing vehicle traffic.
Keysight Tech C-V2X
Keysight Technologies, Inc. announced a new cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) and advanced automotive Ethernet solution to address the evolving industry standards and ensure interoperability among components.
The Keysight C-V2X Toolset offers customers:
- Compliance with the 3GPP, Release 14 specifications.
- An intuitive user interface to simplify C-V2X measurements (protocol and radio frequency).
- A global navigation satellite system (GNSS) emulator to generate signals for realistic GNSS.
- A 5G NR measurement platform to protect initial investments and accelerate deployment of the new technologies that will enable advanced safety features.
- A foundation for C-V2X conformance test.
Econolite Tests V2X in Liberty Ohio
Econolite announced that it has partnered with the Transportation Research Center, Inc.’s (TRC Inc.) Smart Mobility Advanced Research Test Center (SMARTCenter) (East Liberty, Ohio) – a state-of-the-art automated and connected vehicle testing facility designed to test advanced automotive and mobility technologies. As part of the partnership, Econolite will design and install the facility’s traffic management and V2X systems.
Econolite will design and install the SMARTCenter’s Traffic Control System that will control the signalized intersections, vehicle detection, facility monitoring, and wireless connectivity. Working with its Ohio distributor, Path Master Inc. (Twinsburg, Ohio), Econolite will also install the V2X systems, including the Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) network that will provide a fully functioning connected vehicle environment.
Wind River in Real-Time
Wind River, a leader in delivering IoT software for safety-critical domains including automotive, announced that it has provided its VxWorks real-time operating system to power the latest versions of MotionWise, TTTech Auto’s safety-software platform for autonomous driving applications.
Building on their long-standing partnership, Wind River and TTTech Auto, a leading provider of safe software and hardware platforms for automated driving, have worked together to develop highly scalable ECUs based on networked multi-core system-on-chips (SoCs) for advanced safety-critical automotive applications. As an underlying software platform for the Audi zFAS architecture, VxWorks maintains and monitors the safety of critical applications. The zFAS platform enables automated driving assistance features such as lane assist, adaptive cruise control, and intersection assist in vehicles including the 2018 Audi A8, one of the auto industry’s most advanced connected vehicles on the market.
TTTech Auto operates under the umbrella of TTTech Group. These globally oriented high-tech companies offer real-time networking platforms and safety controls for a variety of industries, such as automotive, aerospace, off-highway, energy production, railway, and industrial automation. TTTech Group builds on 20 years’ technology leadership with extensive experience in collaborating with market leaders.
Ford Tests Self-Driving in D.C.
As Ford’s work continues in Detroit, Pittsburgh and Miami, Ford announced they expanding to become the first company to test autonomous vehicles in Washington, D.C., according to the district, by establishing a self-driving vehicle business – a business that will be responsive to the needs of the city and its residents, announced Sherif Marakby, CEO, Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC.
MagnaChip Displays New Automotive Displays
MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor platform solutions, announced that volume production of a new Display Driver IC (DDIC) for automotive panel displays has begun.
MagnaChip is planning to expand its business to various automotive display applications in the market, starting with the design-win of new product at a leading Japanese panel maker of automotive CSD (Center Stack Display) panels. The application of this LCD-based display driver product will be further extended to a wide range of automotive applications such as instrument cluster, GPS navigation and car entertainment displays in the future. Over time, it is widely anticipated that OLED display drivers also will be adopted for use in automotive applications.
The new automotive DDIC, S8311, has a maximum of 1440 channel outputs and an mLVDS (Mini Low-Voltage Differential Signaling) interface and supports all types of TFT-LCD such as a-Si (Amorphous silicon), LTPS (Low Temperature Poly Silicon) and IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) for various automotive applications. MagnaChip fabricates the product in-house using the 150nm process, which is a cost-effective method the company has successfully used for many different products in recent years.
Danlaw’s AutoLink Gests OminiAir Cert
Danlaw is pleased to announce that its AutoLink on-board unit for V2X applications has received OmniAir Consortium certification. AutoLink is a complete solution that collects real-time driving information from other vehicles and roadside equipment using Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC). This on-board device provides drivers with all the capabilities of Danlaw’s DataLogger, plus the safety benefits of V2V and V2I applications. Achieving OmniAir certification ensures the AutoLink OBU adheres to stringent interoperability standards, essential for meeting program requirements.
As global Smart City programs gain traction, more governments and municipalities are implementing Intelligent Transportation Systems which adhere to WAVE standards. With OmniAir certification, Danlaw’s AutoLink OBU is ready for use in pilot programs requiring V2X communications. AutoLink is currently deployed in numerous Smart City programs throughout North America, where it has been tailored to meet the unique regional and transportation needs of connected vehicle pilots including M-City, New York City, Wyoming and Tampa.
AutoLink’s V2X-DSRC protocol stack generates predictive insights and provides 360-degree situational awareness for safety and mobility applications. Broadcasting Basic Safety Messages (BSM) with lane-level accuracy is made possible by combining data from AutoLink’s dual DSRC 5.9 GHz radios, GNSS receiver, 6-axis inertial sensor, and OBDII vehicle interface. AutoLink interprets DSRC messages from vehicles and roadside units to identify potential threats and provide the driver with critical safety information. Situational awareness is achieved by alerting drivers to potential collision events including pedestrian alerts, forward collision warnings, blind spot monitoring, and other critical safety messages. These warnings can be supported by a variety of driver feedback options, including LED and head-up displays, infotainment systems and audio output.