Connected Car News: Walmart, Rightware, Zeibart, Magnachip, Cognata, Qualcomm, OMNIVISION, SMK & Fisker

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In connected car news are Walmart, Rightware, Zeibart, Magnachip, Cognata, Qualcomm, OMNIVISION, SMK and Fisker.

Walmart InHome Deliveries Expanded

It’s a new year and Walmart is resolving to bring the convenience of InHome delivery to even more customers in 2022. Today, the retailer is announcing plans to scale the service, going from InHome being available to 6 million households to making it accessible to 30 million U.S. households by the end of the year. To support the expansion, Walmart plans to hire more than 3,000 associate delivery drivers this year as well as build out a fleet of 100% all-electric delivery vans.

Launched in 2019, Walmart’s InHome delivery service is designed to give time back to families by using highly trained associates to deliver fresh groceries, everyday essentials and more directly into customers’ homes, including placing items straight into their kitchen or garage refrigerator, as well as picking up Walmart.com returns. Here’s how it works:

  1. Order: Once signed up for InHome, a customer places their order on the Walmart App and selects InHome as their preferred delivery option.
  2. Deliver: A highly trained InHome associate completes the delivery. Upon arriving at the customer’s home, the associate uses a one-time access code to unlock the customer’s door or garage through their InHome app, which pairs with smart entry technology. The app notifies the customer at every step and a camera, worn on the associates’ vest, records the entire delivery, which customers have access to from their phones for up to a week after each delivery.
  3. Enjoy: The customer can rest easy knowing associates took the appropriate safety measures, including wearing a mask, sanitizing surfaces and locking up, leaving the perfect finishing touches.

Walmart’s InHome Delivery service is $19.95 per month or $148 per year, with no additional fees, including tips which are built into the membership price. Customers can extend one-time access to their InHome associate using an existing smart lock, a garage keypad, or by purchasing a new smart lock from InHome for $49.95.

Rightware Releases Kanzi One

Rightware released Kanzi One, concluding a highly successful and oversubscribed beta program announced in September. The first automotive HMI toolchain to be fully compatible with Android™, Kanzi One delivers industry-leading 3D graphics and a new UI workflow, empowering automakers to create compelling new user experiences with visual excellence and maximum productivity.

“As announced at IAA in Munich, Kanzi One is a game-changer for creativity and productivity by automakers,” said Rightware CEO Freddie Geier. “We are grateful for the positive feedback from customers and partners since our product launch, and we eagerly await the new Signature UIs they create with Kanzi One.”

Rightware’s goal with Kanzi One is to inspire OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers with impressive rendering capabilities and a powerful 3D graphics engine, the deepest Android integration for next generation infotainment systems, and a straightforward workflow that unleashes HMI possibilities.

Kanzi One lets manufacturers deliver future-looking user experiences for advanced HMIs in less than half the time with teams half the size and with significantly less coding compared with traditional methods.

All-in-One Solution

In addition to the core Kanzi framework consisting of Kanzi Studio and Kanzi Engine, Kanzi One delivers further value to automakers by including a growing list of feature packs.

Initially, five feature packs are included: Kanzi Connect makes it easy to share data, content, and services across screens and devices; Kanzi Maps enhances navigation with creative visualization; Kanzi Particles enables astounding visual effects and animations; Kanzi Autostereoscopy enables realistic depth effects; and the new Kanzi VR makes it easy to validate designs in an early phase by placing live UIs inside a virtual car interior and interacting with the screens with or without a virtual reality headset.

“We are certain that Kanzi One will transform the in-car user interfaces of today into tomorrow’s Signature UIs—highly appealing, easy-to-use, and true to their brand,” said Geier. “We invite all friends and observers of innovation in the automotive industry to explore the possibilities of Kanzi One, and count on us to drive HMI development to the next level.”

Due to the rapidly rising health risks associated with covid, Rightware made the decision not to attend CES 2022.

Zeibart Grows

Due to extreme demand for vehicle care services, leading automotive protection services provider Ziebart is ending 2021 with record-breaking sales and franchise growth. Company executives attribute the impressive system-wide performance to a variety of factors, including the automotive chip shortage. The shortage has motivated consumers to invest in optimal care and protection for their existing or recently purchased new or used vehicles.

Magnachip Expands OLED DDIC

Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation (“Magnachip”)  announced today that the company is expanding its organic light-emitting diode display driver integrated circuit (OLED DDIC) product lineup by developing a next-generation OLED DDIC for automotive displays.

In recent years, the use of electric vehicles, autonomous driving and connected cars has been increasing and it has driven the demand for automotive semiconductors, which are essential for the rapid advancement of infotainment and driving safety. Magnachip is developing an OLED DDIC for automotive based on the 40nm process technology, which is designed for center stack displays and instrument cluster displays. The company plans to supply the new product to premium European car manufacturers in the first half of 2023.

The next-generation DDIC supports a wide range of resolutions including FHD and it is also suited for both rigid and flexible OLED displays. Another key feature of this next-generation DDIC is that it will be made as an “all-in-one solution,” which means that source drivers, gate drivers and timing controllers are integrated on a single chip. This feature will enable the production of cost-effective display panels consisting of fewer components.

According to Omdia, a global market research firm, the automotive display market is expected to grow from $8.2 billion in 2021 to $9.7 billion in 2025. Shipments of OLED panels are forecast to grow as they offer excellent image quality, high visibility and fast response times. The revenue of global automotive OLED panel market reached $117 million last year and it is expected to increase approximately 350% to $524 million in 2025 based on Omdia data.

“We are entering the OLED DDIC automotive market with a confidence based on our established industry leadership and heritage of working closely with our customers to develop products to meet their exact specifications,” said YJ Kim, CEO of Magnachip. “Vehicles incorporating displays based on our next-generation OLED DDIC technology represents another step in improved safety, functionality and convenience for consumers.”

Cognata LTD Works with Qualcomm

Cognata LTD announced it will work with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to provide Cognata’s simulation platform for sensor and control simulations.

Cognata’s simulation platform is multi-layered and designed to incorporate all factors into its simulation engine to create a full run time orchestration, from planning to HIL – hardware-in-the-loop. The platform offers photo-realistic digital twin 3D environments with real-life traffic agents as moving, interactive objects, and procedurally creates digital twin terrain from imported maps with an auto-validation process as well as on demand, customized photorealistic synthetic datasets with various scenarios and objects for fast and accurate artificial intelligence (AI) perception training and validation.

Since its introduction in 2020, the Snapdragon Ride™ Platform has steadily gained momentum with global automakers and Tier 1 suppliers worldwide. The Snapdragon Ride Platform offers an extended product roadmap, featuring the industry’s first announced scalable and fully customizable system-on-chip (SoC) platforms built on 5nm process technology, with an expanded software ecosystem with industry-proven stacks for vision perception, parking and driver monitoring. With the expanded product roadmap presented in 2021, Snapdragon Ride has become one of the automotive industry’s most advanced, scalable and fully customizable ADAS platforms. It is also a key component of the Snapdragon® Digital Chassis™ from Qualcomm Technologies – a comprehensive set of cloud-connected platforms that individually or collectively digitize the numerous systems inside any automobile.

“Cognata is proud to work with Qualcomm Technologies, one of the world’s leading automotive technology innovators,” Cognata’s CEO Danny Atsmon says. “Cognata’s simulation platform is designed to incorporate all factors into its simulation engine and create a full run time orchestration, and we are thrilled to keep advancing the autonomous simulation market over all of its aspects, and through all development stages.”

“Simulation is a key component of ADAS solutions, and we feel Cognata provides a realistic and comprehensive simulation environment needed to extend the validation of the different components for our Snapdragon Ride Platform,” says Anshuman Saxena, Senior Director, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “As our technology continues to evolve, we look forward to working with industry-leading solution providers to help bring solutions to the automotive ecosystem.”

OMNIVISION Parnters with Seeing Machines

OMNIVISION, a leading global developer of semiconductor solutions, including advanced digital imaging, analog and touch & display technology, together with Seeing Machines, the advanced computer vision technology company that designs AI-powered operator monitoring systems to improve transport safety, announce the automotive industry’s first dedicated driver monitoring system (DMS) and occupant monitoring system (OMS) application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that combines an image signal processor (ISP) and is powered by Seeing Machines’ Occula® Neural Processing Unit (NPU).

OMNIVISION announced the world’s first dedicated DMS ASIC with an integrated AI NPU, ISP and DDR3 memory in January 2021 (OAX8000). The new OAX4600 integrates the Occula® NPU. It will feature a higher level of processing and performance, comply with ASIL B advanced safety standards, and is based on a much deeper level of partnership with ecosystem vendors. It will include an optimal HW RGB-IR ISP, cybersecurity and deliver the most power efficient solution.

SMK Electronics New Additions

SMK Electronics Corporation, U.S.A. today announced several new additions to its family of robust electronic components for automotive manufacturing. Added to SMK’s current family of auto touch-panel controls, camera module solutions and high-speed connectors are In-Cabin Switches for Safety and Control, In-Cabin Ambient Lighting and BLE-Embedded products. (Learn more at Booth #52560 Venetian Expo, January 5th-7th, 2022, Las Vegas).

“We are excited to announce recent new developments and an enhanced range of automotive-grade components at this year’s CES,” said Paul Evans, President of SMK Electronics Corporation, U.S.A. “As we continue to reinforce our presence in the automotive industry, SMK’s capability to locally design and manufacture high-end In-Cabin Switches for Safety and Control, In-Cabin Ambient Lighting and BLE-Embedded products is of significant value to customers looking for quality solutions.

“In recent years, SMK has invested heavily in our local R&D and manufacturing capabilities, and now we are seeing these investments come to market,” continued Mr. Evans. “With supply-chain uncertainties due to recent global events, our IATF-Certified Mexico-based manufacturing facility will be of significant interest to manufacturers in the Americas, producing quality automotive-grade components that are advanced, robust, and cost-effective.”

SMK’s New Automotive Advancements

SMK Electronics, a leading manufacturer of automotive touch-panels, cameras, and high-speed connectors, expands its range of automotive-grade components to include In-Cabin Switches for Safety and Control, In-Cabin Ambient Lighting and BLE-Embedded products. Supported by locally owned IATF-Certified manufacturing and R&D facilities, SMK supplies global automotive manufacturers with advanced, fully customized solutions that are robust, delivered on time, and cost-effective.

Fisker’s Radar

(“Fisker”) – passionate creator of the world’s most sustainable electric vehicles and advanced mobility solutions – is showcasing its Fisker Ocean all-electric SUV at CES in Las Vegas, highlighting the vehicle’s state-of-the-art Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS).

Called Fisker Intelligent Pilot, the ADAS platform integrates four types of sensors: an industry-leading surround-view camera suite, a camera-based driver-monitoring system, ultrasonic technology, and a Digital-Imaging Radar System that Fisker expects will be first to market when the Fisker Ocean begins production in November 2022.

“Our asset-light, rapid-product-development business model enables us to bring these state-of-the-art active safety systems to market earlier than our competition,” Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker said.

“Fisker Intelligent Pilot and Fisker Digital-Imaging combine reliable ADAS cameras with first-to-market 4D digital radars, giving owners industry-leading safety to go along with a $37,499 price for the Fisker Ocean Sport and over 350 miles of all-electric range for the top-of-the-line Fisker Ocean Extreme and Fisker Ocean One launch edition.”

The Fisker Ocean’s cameras are sourced from one of the market leading suppliers and provide latest-generation vision capability, with a front-facing 8-megapixel camera delivering the highest resolution currently available in a vehicle. The 360-degree camera system enables base-level object detection from proven technology used on tens of millions of vehicles globally.

Fisker Intros Digital Code Modulation Radar

Fisker’s industry-first, Digital Code Modulation-based radar system uses five units positioned around the Fisker Ocean to confirm and enhance what the cameras see. The system also provides an additional degree of perception in conditions of bad weather and excessive sun glare, and performance superior to analog radar systems. The Fisker Digital Radar, for example, can locate vehicles at 200 meters (656 feet) and pedestrians at 80 meters (262 feet).

The system can also better distinguish its surroundings in environments of high light-dark contrast, such as in tunnels and on bridges, and differentiate objects of varying sizes and speeds on highways, such as cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Additionally, Fisker Digital Radar can separate objects from backgrounds and detect low-lying roadway obstructions.

With its features working together, Fisker Intelligent Pilot’s perception stack with camera and radar sensor fusion makes better decisions at highway speeds, in city traffic, and in poor weather.

To ensure that the driver is attentive when the system is engaged, Fisker Intelligent Pilot uses an A-pillar-mounted interior camera that monitors for drowsiness and concentration.

Fisker Intelligent Pilot features standard on the $68,999 Fisker Ocean Extreme and Fisker Ocean One include:

  • 360-degree Surround View with 3D
  • Door Opening Warning
  • Park My Car – automatic parking spot finder
  • Park Assist with Wheel Guard – parallel parking aid
  • Adaptive Drive Control
  • Automatic Emergency Braking – Premium
  • Reverse Collision Mitigation
  • Evasive Steering Assist
  • Integrated Drive Assist
  • Traffic Jam Assist (with Integrated Drive Assist)
  • Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warning
  • Traffic Sign/Light Recognition
  • Front and Side Collision Warning
  • Lane Change Assist
  • Lane Keep Assist
  • Intelligent Speed Assist
  • Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance
  • Blind Spot Monitoring

[Sport and Ultra trim levels each come equipped with the full ADAS hardware system and a subset of the software-enabled features above. Fisker expects to offer additional features as over-the-air delivered options, provided at the point of sale or post-purchase.]