DARPA’s Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) program (earlier post) aims to improve mobility, survivability, safety, and effectiveness of future combat vehicles without piling on armor. Several Phase 2 contract awardees recently demonstrated advances on a variety of potentially groundbreaking technologies to meet the program’s goals. We’re looking at how to enhance... Read more →
Gemalto is providing the data security and encryption technology that will help protect the software that will power Faraday Future’s first intelligent electric car, and data collected from everyday use of its cars. Alongside connectivity, security has been a key issue in both development and deployment, especially given the complexity... Read more →
Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, and leading truck maker Volvo Trucks (independent companies despite the names) are collaborating to share real-time data to expand coverage of the companies’ connected safety technology—cloud-based systems that allow vehicle to communicate with each other and alert drivers of nearby hazards. Volvo Trucks is... Read more →
Autotalks, an Israel-based fabless semiconductor company devoted to vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications (earlier post), has joined the Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC). Autotalks will work with other CMC members to help realize the vision of a uniform motorcycle platform for V2M (Vehicle-to-Motorcycle) communication. Specifically, Autotalks and other CMC members will work together... Read more →
On the eve of the 2018 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, Volkswagen Group announced that it its joint-venture partners will invest around €15 billion ($18.3 billion) through 2022 in China on e-mobility, autonomous driving, digitalization and new mobility services. Volkswagen sold almost 3.2 million vehicles in China in 2017—the most successful... Read more →
The DS 7 CROSSBACK is the first Groupe PSA vehicle using the PSA IoT “Connected Vehicle Modular Platform” (CVMP) and equipped with Huawei technology for new connected services. DS 7 CROSSBACK is the first tangible result of the partnership announced in November 2017 between Huawei and Groupe PSA covering all... Read more →
Drivers of plug-in electric vehicles have needed to have the right charging card or smartphone app to gain access to public charging stations. To simplify this process, Berlin-based emobility specialist Hubject has developed a solution which enables customers to access charging stations by means of a digital certificate: Plug&Charge via... Read more →
Toyota and Lexus plan to start deployment of Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) systems on vehicles sold in the United States starting in 2021, with the goal of adoption across most of its lineup by the mid-2020s. Toyota and Lexus plans to introduce DSRC represent a significant step forward in creating... Read more →
IEEE signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the American Center for Mobility (ACM) (earlier post), a global center for testing and validation, product development, education and standards work for connected and autonomous vehicles and other technologies. The MOU is intended to help accelerate development and deployment of technical standards.... Read more →
Autotalks, a developer of V2X (Vehicle to Everything) communication chipsets, and the Israeli startup Griiip, which is developing a next generation single seater race car, have demonstrated the first motorsport Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) application on a racetrack. As part of the demonstration, which took place on 15 March 2018 in a... Read more →
Mahindra Group and Ford Motor Company will jointly develop new SUVs, and a small electric vehicle as part of several initiatives announced between the two companies. The two companies signed five new memoranda of understanding (MoU) that further strengthen their strategic alliance and accelerate the development of key products for... Read more →
Ford introduced the new 2019 Transit Connect Cargo Van. The best-selling compact cargo van in the US, Ford Transit Connect has a 46% market share. More than 300,000 Transit Connect vehicles have been sold since 2009 when Ford created the segment in the United States. Of those, 97% are still... Read more →
At the Geneva International Motor Show, Volkswagen is presenting the fourth member of the I.D. Family: the I.D. VIZZION sedan. (Earlier post.) The battery-electric vehicle drives autonomously, is operated by voice and gesture control, and via artificial intelligence, will be capable of learning. Volkswagen said that the sedan will be... Read more →
Audi unveiled the eighth generation of its successful A6 full-size sedan; all engines feature Audi’s 48V mild-hybrid (MHEV) system (earlier post) as standard equipment. In Audi’s new mild-hybrid technology, a belt alternator starter (BAS) works together with a lithium-ion battery. The Audi A6 can coast between 55 and 160 km/h... Read more →
Daimler AG is intensifying its cooperation with the Israeli start-up Anagog Ltd. Daimler has participated in a financing round together with MizMaa Ventures, a venture capital company located in California. Based in Tel Aviv, Anagog has developed software which provides on-device mobility status detection, with cloud-based processing power, deep learning... Read more →
In collaboration with the Berlin-based start-up XAIN, Porsche is currently testing blockchain applications directly in vehicles—making Porsche the first automobile manufacturer to implement and successfully test blockchain in a car. Transactions based on this technology are both secure and can be processed far more quickly than anything that has come... Read more →
Groupe PSA and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated announced advances in Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) communication technology testing as the first step of 5G deployment for automotive applications with direct communication between vehicles. C-V2X directly connects vehicles to each other (V2V), to pedestrians (V2P), and to roadway infrastructure... Read more →
KT Corporation (Korea Telecom), Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., have successfully completed multi-vendor 5G NR (New Radio) interoperable testing compliant with the recently completed 3GPP Release-15 Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G NR global standard. 5G New Radio (NR) is the global 5G standard for... Read more →
From 2019 onwards, the Volkswagen Group brands will use the WLANp standard (IEEE 802.11p) for communications among vehicles and between vehicles and their environment (V2X). The introduction of this technology as standard equipment on volume models ranging from compact cars to commercial vehicles will significantly improve safety on the roads... Read more →
Researchers at the University of Michigan and Ford Motor Company have found that using a Level 4 connected and automated vehicle (CAV) subsystem could increase vehicle primary energy use and GHG emissions by 3–20% due to increases in power consumption, weight, drag, and data transmission. However, when potential operational effects... Read more →
Audi has unveiled the second-generation A7 Sportback, which is the essence of Audi‘s new design language. The four-door coupé brings the show car design of the prologue studies (earlier post) to production. The drive system features a new mild-hybrid system (MHEV) as standard. At market introduction the coupé will be... Read more →
Tokyo Tech and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. have developed a CMOS wireless transceiver chip that can process signals at high speeds across a broad range of frequencies, from 70 to 105 gigahertz (GHz), using their own bandwidth-increasing technology. With these developments, they succeeded in achieving wireless transmission speeds of 120 gigabits... Read more →
Mercedes‑Benz unveiled the latest generation of its successful Sprinter model at an event held at a logistics center in the Duisburg, Germany docks. (Duisburg is home to the world’s largest inland port.) As the first fully connected integral system solution, the third generation of the Sprinter demonstrates the development of... Read more →
New analysis of V2X (vehicle to everything) conducted by ABI Research finds that the cost of implementing DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communication) above cellular communications is expected to be $13.50 to $15 lower per Telematics Control Unit than implementing a C-V2X (CellularV2X) solution. The global automotive industry has been extensively comparing... Read more →
On the heels of an quarterly report marked by an underwhelming profit, and amid a general “lack of fitness” according to CFO Bob Shanks, Ford Motor announced that it is accelerating and expanding its activities in 2018 to deliver a broad suite of mobility products and services to personal vehicle... Read more →
Five trends are transforming the automotive industry, according to PWC: electrification, autonomy, sharing, connecting and yearly updating, a combination the consultancy is now labeling “eascy”. In a report exploring the impact on the trends on the industry in 2030—“eascy – The five dimensions of automotive transformation”—PwC suggests that as a... Read more →
At CES, Cisco and Hyundai Motor Company announced the coming production of a next-generation, hyperconnected car. Hyundai will feature this new in-vehicle network in their premium 2019 vehicles. In 2016, Cisco and Hyundai reported plans to develop a vehicle with a new approach to communication. (Earlier post.) The companies said... Read more →
Continental, Ericsson, Nissan, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., OKI and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, plan to carry out their first Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) trials in Japan. The objective is to validate and demonstrate the benefits of C-V2X using direct communication technology defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project... Read more →
Molex and Excelfore have developed a 10 Gbps Ethernet Automotive Network designed to accelerate data bandwidth in intelligent connected vehicles. Integrating highly reliable high-speed data transmission, prioritization, scalability and security, the new Molex network platform featuring Excelfore connected mobility solutions will be officially unveiled at CES 2018. Based on an... Read more →
Renesas Electronics Corporation and Airbiquity announced a secure, high-performance automotive solution with over-the-air (OTA) capabilities, targeting advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), and automated driving applications of the future. The companies are integrating Airbiquity’s OTAmatic cloud-based OTA software and data management service delivery solution on Renesas’ high-performance, low-power R-Car... Read more →
Continental and Huawei have conducted field trials to test the efficiency of the Cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X) communication standard (earlier post) in Shanghai with positive results. C-V2X is emerging as a promising wireless communication technology, demonstrating strong potential for use in automated driving and intelligent mobility. (Earlier post.) C-V2X... Read more →
DENSO Corporation and Toyota Tsusho Corporation will conduct the first test using a quantum computer to process data from a traffic IoT platform. The companies will process vehicle location and travel data in real-time from about 130,000 commercial vehicles in Thailand, aiming to establish best practices for quantum computer applications... Read more →
At the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, Renault unveiled the SYMBIOZ autonomous, electric and connected concept. (Earlier post.) The automaker has now embodied many of the elements of the show car in a demo vehicle that is currently performing road tests to demonstrate under real-life conditions the benefits of such... Read more →
BYTON, a China-headquartered automotive brand owned by Future Mobility Corporation, inaugurated its North American headquarters in Santa Clara, California last week, marking further progress in the company’s strategic effort to establish a global presence. BYTON aspires to build “affordable” premium intelligent EVs—smart devices on wheels—for the future. The company is... Read more →
The Volkswagen Group will spend more than €34 billion (US$40 billion) by the end of 2022 on the development of electric mobility, autonomous driving, new mobility services and digitalization. Most of this investment will go into the electrification and hybridization of all Group models. This marks another move to advance... Read more →
Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) announced five new research projects focused on better understanding how drivers use and respond to advanced vehicle technologies, including automated driver assistance systems. The new projects, undertaken in partnership with five US research institutions, will launch as part of CSRC Next, the Center’s new... Read more →
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. and NTT DOCOMO, INC. have been jointly testing the real-time collection and delivery of traffic information using high-definition sensors connected via a fifth-generation (5G) mobile communications system for advanced driving support. The system networks sensors that have been mounted on vehicles and installed along roadsides or... Read more →
GM successfully demonstrated its Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) capability on public roads outside Jiading Auto Innovation Park in Shanghai. Conducted in collaboration with Shanghai International Auto City and Shanghai Song Hong Intelligent Automotive Technology Co. Ltd., the demonstration featured testing vehicles that can receive real-time data from traffic lights on signal phasing... Read more →
The Volkswagen Group will support Hamburg and ITS Germany in 2021 for hosting the World Congress for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) as a main partner and chair of the Host Organizing Committee. ERTICO (ITS Europe), organizer of the World Congress, announced the decision to stage the event in Germany with... Read more →
AT&T, Ford, Nokia, and Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated announced the first Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) trials in the US. (Earlier post.) Testing is expected to take place in the San Diego Regional Proving Ground with the support of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), Caltrans, the City... Read more →
The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, has formed an Automotive Birds of a Feather (BoF) Group to solicit industry input from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their suppliers to enhance existing or develop new interface specifications for automotive applications. The group... Read more →
At its Innovation Day in Hamburg, Volkswagen Truck & Bus—which includes the MAN, Scania, Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus, and RIO brands—outlined its technology roadmap to transform the logistics chain in a sustainable way. Volkswagen Truck & Bus is focusing on automated driving, connectivity, and alternative drive systems. On the development... Read more →
Groupe Renault announced “Drive The Future,” a new six-year plan to deliver annual revenues of more than €70 billion and achieve a group operating margin of more than 7% by the end of the plan, with a floor at 5%, and positive free cash flow every year. Drive The Future... Read more →
Many of the infotainment features in most 2017 vehicles are so distracting they should not be enabled while a vehicle is in motion, according to a new study by University of Utah researchers. The study, led by University of Utah Psychology Professor David L. Strayer, found In-Vehicle Information Systems take... Read more →
In New York yesterday, Ford Motor Company provided a strategic update to investors; the presentation follows a four-month deep dive into Ford’s strategy and business operations led by President and CEO Jim Hackett and Ford’s senior leadership team. Hackett said Ford will improve its operational fitness, refocus capital allocation and... Read more →
Mercedes-Benz Vans, US drone systems developer Matternet and Swiss online marketplace siroop have started a pilot project in Zurich to test an efficient van and drone-based system for on-demand delivery of e-commerce goods. The drone delivers the shipment not to the consumer, but rather to the delivery van, which handles... Read more →
Toyota Research Institute (TRI) outlined some of its progress in the development of automated driving technology and other project work, including the development of robots for in-home support of people. Since unveiling its Platform 2.0 research vehicle in March 2017 (earlier post), TRI has quickly updated its automated driving technology... Read more →
At the North American Commercial Vehicle Show (NACV) in Atlanta this week, Bosch is showcasing its portfolio of automated, connected and electrified technologies for commercial vehicles. At NACV, Bosch will debut its 15-inch freely programmable cluster, the largest digital cluster available for the commercial vehicle industry. The optically-bonded display enables... Read more →
At the North American Commercial Vehicle Show, Navistar International Corporation announced it expects a number of new product offerings and integrations with alliance partner Volkswagen Truck & Bus (earlier post), including plans to develop an electric-powered, medium-duty vehicle for the company’s core (US and Canada) market. Troy A. Clarke, chairman,... Read more →
Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) is testing connected trucks in platooning operations on public roads in the US. In truck platooning, connectivity and automated driving improve safety within the vehicle convoys, support drivers and enhance efficiency through closer distances between the connected trucks. Having started with successful trials on Daimler... Read more →