In connected car news were Ford, Honda, BMW, UVeye, Siemens, Tektronix, BlueSignal, Otava, IBM and Monnit.
CA Makes Pact with 4 OEMs
Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen announced a deal with California regulators that delays by one year the new-vehicle fuel efficiency requirements approved under the Obama administration for model years 2022 through 2025.
The ICCT welcomed the agreement on light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards announced between California and four major automakers—BMW, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen—as a constructive step forward on public policy to confront the urgent problem of climate change and preserve the benefits that accrue to American consumers from a cleaner and more efficient vehicle fleet.
The agreement shows substantial concessions from regulators are possible to meet the auto industry’s requests for “relief” on certain aspects of the Obama administration’s vehicle CO2 emission regulations. We have explained at length and in detail that in our estimation those standards remain in fact achievable, feasible, practical, beneficial to the public, and overwhelmingly necessary to the environment:
UVeye Raises More Eyes and Money
Israeli company UVeye, which provides sophisticated solutions for automatic external inspection of vehicles, has raised an additional $31 million in funding, led by Toyota Tsusho, Volvo Cars and W. R. Berkley Corporation, bringing total funds raised since 2017 to $35 million.
Israeli company UVeye, which provides sophisticated solutions for automatic external inspection of vehicles, has raised an additional $31 million in funding, led by Toyota Tsusho, Volvo Cars and W. R. Berkley Corporation, bringing total funds raised since 2017 to $35 million.
Israeli company UVeye, which provides sophisticated solutions for automatic external inspection of vehicles, has raised an additional $31 million in funding, led by Toyota Tsusho, Volvo Cars and W. R. Berkley Corporation, bringing total funds raised since 2017 to $35 million.
Optimal Plus New ADAS
OptimalPlus, the global leader in lifecycle analytics solutions, announced the launch of their new Lifecycle Analytics Solution for Advanced Drivers Assistance System (ADAS) cameras. The new offering provides the manufacturers of ADAS with real-time data insights based on big data and machine learning to optimize production and increase product quality. A cornerstone of the technologies being developed for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, ADAS cameras are electro-optical systems that aid vehicle drivers and are intended to increase car and road safety.
The manufacturing of ADAS cameras is a highly complicated and costly process. Assembling ADAS cameras involves the integration of multiple specialized and sensitive sensors in a series of irreversible processes to create a high-performance system. This has made it difficult for manufacturers to detect defective products during the assembly process, resulting in unpredictable performance that remains undetermined until the camera system is fully assembled and tested. As a result, new designs of ADAS camera manufacturers struggle with extremely high scrap rates of around 25% on already expensive systems, leading to a high cost per unit and impeding the rate automakers can integrate the systems into their cars.
Siemens Capital Software for Mazda
Siemens today announced that Mazda Motor Corporation has adopted the Capital electrical design software suite from Mentor, a Siemens business, to help maximize innovation in the design of next-generation automotive electrical systems. Recognized worldwide for its successful launch of innumerable innovative technologies, Mazda uses Capital for model-based generative design for the electrical and electronic systems of the entire vehicle platform. The Capital automated generative design flow helps Mazda automotive design teams manage design complexity and changes across the entire vehicle platform, minimizing errors and reducing costs.
New Tektronix Software for Testing
Tektronix, Inc. released two new software packages that greatly simplify Automotive Ethernet testing, debug and Protocol Decode for use with its 5 and 6 Series mixed signal oscilloscopes (MSO). Using the new Signal Separation software, automotive engineers can now perform Automotive Ethernet testing without disrupting the ECU system or cutting the Ethernet cable to install a directional coupler, while the PAM3 analysis package provides in-depth insight into signal characteristics at the system level.
As the move toward Automotive Ethernet or IEEE 802.3bw (formerly BroadR-Reach) technology in vehicles accelerates, comprehensive design validation is vital to ensure interoperability and reliable operation across multiple ECUs. Current Automotive Ethernet testing solutions require engineers install a directional coupler to separate the full duplex signal. This adds insertion and return loss and makes it difficult to determine if an error is a result of the system or the additional hardware.
The three levels of PAM3 in Automotive Ethernet introduce additional complexity in signaling and place new demands on test methodology, in part because the three amplitudes produce two eyes diagrams. The Tektronix PAM3 analysis package provides a comprehensive set of measurements with software clock recovery that offer greater insight into signal characteristics, speeding up validation and characterization of PAM3 designs with different cable lengths, noise conditions or ECU configurations. The solution also enables eye opening measurements, eye mask testing, jitter separation and Bit Error Rate (BER) plotting in a real ECU environment.
BlueSignal Signals Traffic Signals
BlueSignal’s AI-based Future Traffic Forecasting Solution uses AI technology to collect a diverse and massive amount of traffic environment information (traffic volume in certain areas, signal traffic light systems, vehicle speeds, risks, congestion, etc.) to provide drivers with optimized traffic data. The solution’s most competitive feature, by far, is its prediction accuracy, which is one of the world’s best. An assessment of BlueSignal’s traffic prediction platform, conducted by the Telecommunications Technology Association of Korea (TTA), on approximately 500 Korean roads, showed that the platform’s forecasting is 94.8% accurate. With the platform, drivers can use a navigation service or HUD to take the safest and quickest route to their destination and avoid many of the dangerous traffic situations and/or congestion-prone areas along the way. By predicting traffic in real time, the solution also helps reduce the time drivers spend waiting at traffic lights. Ultimately, BlueSignal’s solution not only helps prevent traffic accidents, but also minimizes the social costs of traffic congestion.
The solution can also be used as a core technology for autonomous cars. It not only predicts traffic conditions to prevent accidents but could also enable defensive driving by predicting the possibility of accidents with nearby non-autonomous vehicles.
Otava for Auto
Otava, a global leader in secure cloud services for enterprise and channel partners, announced today that it has partnered with Atlassian Platinum Services Partner, E7 Solutions, to enable the delivery of fully managed cloud solutions for a multi-national auto manufacturer based in Detroit. The comprehensive service, designed to help the automaker improve communications globally, includes application implementation, integration, and data management hosted in a private cloud environment with backup, data recovery and data protection as a service. As a result, the automobile manufacturer now benefits from significantly improved communication and collaboration, with world-class infrastructure uptime and service levels.
MiX Telematics Humanitarism
MiX Telematics a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions, announced that a global humanitarian organization will be expanding their adoption of MiX Telematics’ solutions.
This renowned organization works in over 190 countries and territories to protect children and help them achieve their potential, from early childhood through to adolescence.
Countries where the organization is using MiX’s solutions include Senegal, India, Papua New Guinea and Central African Republic, where more than 100 vehicles will be equipped with a combination of MiX’s light and premium fleet solutions.
“We’re honored that such an important organization will be deploying our products to keep their drivers and vehicles safe. This success once again highlights our global reach and ability to drive value to fleet managers regardless of their geographic location,” remarks MiX Telematics Group Chief Operating Officer, Charles Tasker.
More Electric for All of USA
Electric vehicles made up 2.1% of new U.S. light-duty vehicle registrations in 2018, while the Midwest market had a 0.9% electric vehicle market share. Although the United States has a larger market share of electric vehicles, the new electric vehicles added in the Midwest over 2017-2018 amounted to 82% of the total new electric vehicles over the six previous years. Given this growth trajectory, electric vehicles in the Midwest can be expected to continue growth as seen elsewhere across the country, just with a several-year delay.
This growth is fueled primarily by consumer demand and model availability, but also by complementary policies at the state and local level. Policy actions, which differ across the areas studied, include financial and nonfinancial incentives, public charging infrastructure installation, fleet programs, and public information campaigns. On their own, these factors do not explain electric vehicle market share, but taken together they can have a large influence on electric vehicle adoption rates in metropolitan areas.
IBM Joins AECC
-The Automotive Edge Computing Consortium (AECC) announced that IBM Japan Co., Ltd., has joined the AECC. The AECC is a non-profit consortium of cross-industry players working to drive best practices for the coming vehicle and computing convergence.
ALTA Vehicle Detector
Monnit Corporation announced the release of the ALTA™ Vehicle Detector/Counter that offers two options for businesses and municipalities wanting to monitor auto traffic. In vehicle detector mode, the sensor detects when a vehicle crosses a pneumatic tube and can be set to trigger an immediate alert. In vehicle counter mode, the sensor counts vehicles that cross the pneumatic tube, providing valuable traffic data to transportation departments and commercial entities.
More EV Batteries for BMW
BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in the US state of South Carolina has doubled its capacity for production of high-voltage batteries. The plant’s own battery facility now produces the new fourth-generation batteries. These are intended for the plug-in hybrid models of the new BMW X5 and the future BMW X3, also produced in Spartanburg.
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