Entering into a strategic partnership, Volkswagen and Microsoft Corp. will collaborate to develop the ‘Volkswagen Automotive Cloud’, one of the largest dedicated automotive industry clouds for all future Volkswagen digital services and mobility offerings. With Microsoft as its strategic partner, Volkswagen is taking a decisive step in its digital transformation... Read more →

Ford and Vodafone are now testing connected vehicle technology that could alert drivers to an accident ahead moments after it has happened. Furthermore, the system can provide early warning that emergency vehicles are approaching and direct to which side of the road drivers should move towards to avoid being an... Read more →

TRATON AG, formerly Volkswagen Truck & Bus AG, announced two strategic partnerships. The first is with Solera, to develop smart and secure solutions to answer challenges of transport and logistics customers. The second is an expansion of TRATON’s long-term partnership with Sinotruk to establish a joint venture to localize a... Read more →

At the BMW AG Annual General Meeting in May 2018, Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management at the BMW Group, said that the iNext would provide its building blocks for the future, from which the entire company and all of its brands are set to benefit. BMW is... Read more →

Autotalks (earlier post) has launched a deployment-ready, second-generation V2X (Vehicle to Everything) chipset that is currently the only available solution capable of supporting both DSRC and C-V2X direct communications (PC5 protocol) at the highest security level. The chipset supports DSRC based on 802.11p/ITS-G5 standards and C-V2X based on 3GPP specifications.... Read more →

The BMW Group is introducing the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant—a new proprietary in-car AI assistant intended to enhance the BMW driving experience. The always on-call technology platform is an intelligent, digital character that responds to the prompt “Hey BMW” and has the ability to serve the driver in a range... Read more →

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, and the Datang Telecom Group, also known as China Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), announced the first successful multi-chipset vendor interoperability of 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 14 C-V2X direct communications (PC5) Mode 4, which is also referred to as LTE-V2X.... Read more →

TomTom (TOM2) announced that, in a single month, it has made 1.5 billion changes to its digital maps which are delivered to TomTom customers on a weekly basis. The milestone is key to the company’s mission to shape the future of mobility in a world that increasingly relies on digital... Read more →

In April 2017, the City of Gainesville, Florida began work on a pilot project with Connected Signals, Inc., a provider of real-time, predictive traffic signal information, as part of the University of Florida Transportation Institute’s I-STREET testbed. I-STREET was created in partnership with Florida Depart of Transportation’s (FDOT) Connected Vehicle... Read more →

 An open ecosystem of best-in-class technologies working seamlessly together will be at the heart of the automated transportation systems of the future. That is the shared vision of Renovo, a mobility software technology company, and mapping and location services company HERE Technologies have entered into a partnership to deploy open... Read more →

In the current issue of Nature, economists Peter Cramton, Axel Ockenfels (both University of Cologne) and R. Richard Geddes (Cornell University) propose having drivers pay a dynamic fee for the use of roads. This would contribute to avoiding traffic jams and protecting the environment, the researchers argue. Fees that respond... Read more →

NTT DOCOMO, INC. (DOCOMO) and AGC Inc. (AGC) achieved the world’s first 8 Gbps 5G communications with a fast-moving vehicle equipped with “vehicle glass mounted antennas” (On-Glass Antennas) in a field trial conducted in conjunction with Ericsson Japan. System configuration. The 5G 28 GHz band compatible On-Glass Antennas used in... Read more →

With collaboration between German and Chinese companies accelerating in the areas of automated driving and intelligent connected vehicles, Daimler and Baidu recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their Sino-German cooperation in these strategic fields. The two companies have agreed to deepen their partnership through joint automated driving... Read more →

Continental is offering end-to-end cyber security and over-the-air software update solutions from Argus Cyber Security (Argus) and Elektrobit (EB) pre-integrated into its connected vehicle electronics products including telematics units, infotainment systems, gateways and more. More than 60 million connected vehicles will be sold worldwide per year by 2021. Automobile connectivity... Read more →

China-based Didi Chuxing, the world’s leading one-stop mobile transportation platform, and Booking Holdings, a global leader in online accommodations and travel e-commerce, have entered into a strategic partnership. Booking Holdings has invested US$500 million in DiDi, recognizing DiDi as a leader in the mobile transportation industry. Under the partnership, DiDi... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation, with Toyota City, will start Japan’s first verification testing for road maintenance inspections using vehicle data obtained from connected cars, beginning 1 August. The verification testing will enable assessment of whether the degree of road deterioration index values computed from the car’s behavior data and actual road... Read more →

Daimler and Chinese partner Tsinghua University signed an agreement further to deepen their research cooperation in the fields of automated driving and intelligent mobility. Through the Tsinghua Daimler Joint Research Center for Sustainable Transportation, the cooperation has been extended for an additional three years. With an annual multi-million RMB (1... Read more →

The Volkswagen Group is expanding its successful business relationships in China with a particular focus on e-mobility. As part of the 5th German-Chinese government consultations, the Volkswagen Group China signed letters of intent with a long-time joint-venture partner, the FAW Group, and with the China Intelligent and Connected Vehicles (Beijing)... Read more →

In Hawaii, Toyota launched a new round-trip, station-based car share service called Hui. Operated by Servco Pacific (Servco), Toyota’s distributor in Hawaii, the Hui service utilizes Toyota’s proprietary global Mobility Service Platform (MSPF) (earlier post) and a consumer facing app developed by Toyota Connected North America (TCNA), the global technology... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group and Baidu signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Internet of Vehicles (IoV), signaling their commitment to strengthening cooperation on next-generation connected car technologies. The newly-signed MOU will see the existing partnership reinforced to accelerate development of innovations in vehicle connectivity. As a first step on the... Read more →

ZF has founded Car eWallet GmbH, a Berlin-based start-up, in which the company will outsource the current activities of the transaction service Car eWallet. The objective is to further develop and market the service following an initial six month collaboration with project partners IBM and UBS, which successfully concluded this... Read more →

Hyundai Motor made a strategic, direct investment in Israel-based fabless semiconductor company Autotalks (earlier post), a technology company specialized in the manufacturing of Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communication chipsets. Through the partnership, Hyundai intends to accelerate the development and deployment of the next generation chipset for connected cars. V2X technology... Read more →

The future of just-in-time vehicle services and support has arrived in Japan in the form of two well-known Toyota vehicles—the Crown, the volume nameplate’s flagship passenger vehicle—and the Corolla Sport—the all-new hatchback version of the Corolla—launched just this year. Crown and Corolla Sport, as the first generation of “Connected Cars,”... Read more →

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 →