Wolfspeed announced that ZINSIGHT Technology, an innovator of advanced electric drive systems, will utilize Wolfspeed 1200V Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFETs in its advanced motor controller for ultra-high-speed air compressors in fuel cell vehicle (FCV) systems. The use of SiC in battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and FCVs results in significant cost savings,... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation unveiled an innovative automotive gateway solution with R-Car S4 system on chips (SoCs) and power management ICs (PMICs) for next-generation vehicle computers, communication gateways, domain servers and application servers. Renesas’ new solution meets the automotive industry’s high demands for high performance, high-speed networking, high security and high... Read more →

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) will use an evolved version of the Super-All Wheel Control (S-AWC) system in its plug-in hybrid (PHEV) model of the all-new Outlander crossover SUV, which is scheduled for launch in Japan in the second half of this fiscal year and in the US in the second... Read more →

Woven Planet Holdings, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, has acquired Renovo Motors, a Silicon Valley-based automotive operating system developer. The acquisition will add depth to Woven Planet’s resources, particularly for Arene, Woven Planet’s open vehicle development platform, by: Adding a team of top-tier engineers with deep expertise in building... Read more →

Embark Trucks, a developer of autonomous technology for the trucking industry, is collaborating with Cummins to accelerate the integration of next-generation truck components and controls in self-driving trucks. Under this collaboration, Embark is testing Cummins’ automated driving system (ADS) powertrain interface to manage powertrain operations. The integration of the platform-agnostic... Read more →

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has developed a model-based development (MBD) simulation technology that shortens verification times for automotive semiconductors by about 90%. (Verification times for simulation of three-phase inverter circuits in an automotive electric power steering system during a right turn with a duration of six seconds.) The... Read more →

Jacobs Vehicle Systems and Tula Technology have signed a cooperation agreement to accelerate the development of Jacobs Cylinder Deactivation (CDA) valve actuation technology in conjunction with Tula’s Dynamic Skip Fire (DSF) control algorithms (earlier post). Cylinder Deactivation leverages Jacobs’ well-established componentry to disable engine valves in selected cylinders allowing a... Read more →

At IAA Mobility, during his first in-person keynote since taking the helm of Intel in February, CEO Pat Gelsinger predicted that semiconductors will account for more than 20% of the total premium vehicle bill of materials (BOM) by 2030. That represents a 5x growth rate over 2019’s 4% figure. This... Read more →

At IAA Mobility in Munich, ZF is presenting the Moldular eDrive Kit for purely electric drives. Th kit bundles the entire expertise of ZF's e-mobility team for system solutions, components, and software controls in a flexible and modular platform. The Modular eDrive Kit can halve the development time until series... Read more →

SAE International, in collaboration with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), published ISO/SAE 21434™ Standard: Road Vehicles – Cybersecurity Engineering. The standard helps the industry define a structured process to ensure cybersecurity is incorporated into the design of road vehicles, including systems, components software and connections of any external device... Read more →

During the first half of 2021, wafer fab capacity constraints were causing the greatest disruption and getting the most attention as the “semiconductor shortage” affecting automotive production. Now that those have improved, other related constraints in getting leadframes, substrates and resins are getting attention, according to analysts at IHS Markit.... Read more →

Embark Trucks Inc., a developer of autonomous technology for the trucking industry, will use NVIDIA DRIVE autonomous vehicle compute platform solutions to power the Embark Universal Interface (EUI) and the Embark Driver software. By collaborating with NVIDIA and adopting the DRIVE platform, Embark intends to equip its test fleet with... Read more →

Volkswagen is strengthening its expertise in the integration of automotive software. At present, high-performance automotive functions can only be achieved by networking many individual software and hardware components. Integrating these components and testing the resulting assembly is a key development task for Volkswagen. As part of its ACCELERATE strategy, Volkswagen... Read more →

Venti Technologies, a developer of safe-speed autonomous logistics systems, secured approximately $8 million in a seed round funding. The financing round was led by LDV Partners and Alpha JWC Ventures. The investment will further Venti’s production of AI-enabled autonomous logistics transport, including fulfilling new and existing customer agreements with PSA... Read more →

Exro Technologies is introducing a new application for its patented Coil Driver technology—enabling EVs to fast charge seamlessly and provide electricity back to the grid regardless of power source or charger type. Coil Driver is a next-generation dynamic motor controller that expands the capabilities of electric motors by enabling multiple... Read more →

Haldor Topsoe will build a 15,000 ton per year hydroprocessing catalyst plant at the company’s existing Bayport production site in Pasadena, Harris County, Texas. The plant will increase production capacity of Topsoe’s TK catalyst family to meet increasing demand, both in traditional refining and for use with Topsoe’s HydroFlex technology... Read more →

Though EVs represent a small fraction of delivery vehicles today, the number is growing. In 2019, Amazon announced plans to obtain 100,000 electric delivery vehicles. UPS has ordered 10,000 of them and FedEx plans to be fully electric by 2040. Now, a study from University of Michigan researchers shows that... Read more →

China-based self-driving startup AutoX unveiled its full Gen5 self-driving system this week. The autonomous driving platform, which is specifically designed for robotaxis, uses NVIDIA DRIVE automotive grade GPUs to reach up to 2,200 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of AI compute performance. In January, AutoX launched a commercial robotaxi system... Read more →

Volkswagen is taking its next step towards becoming a software-oriented mobility provider; starting this summer, the brand will regularly send over-the-air (OTA) software updates to models in the ID. electric vehicle family. The first model to benefit is the ID.3. The latest software version ID.Software2.3 will be delivered to “First... Read more →

Volvo Cars will take software development in-house as a car’s appeal increasingly becomes more defined by software-driven functions and features, rather than traditional automotive attributes. The next generation of pure electric Volvo models, including the company’s first SUV on a completely new electric-only technology base, will run on Volvo Cars’... Read more →

Volvo Cars’ forthcoming fully electric flagship SUV will have industry-leading safety technology as standard. The fully electric successor to Volvo Cars’ XC90, to be revealed in 2022, will come with state-of-the-art sensors, including LiDAR technology developed by Luminar and an autonomous driving computer powered by the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip,... Read more →

LDRA, a provider of automated software verification, source code analysis and test tools, and OpenSynergy, specialist in embedded automotive software, are partnering to support and promote a defense-in-depth strategy combining hypervisor technology with secure coding techniques. Automotive connectivity is an ongoing concern, with vulnerability to attacks from bad actors being... Read more →

Implementation of domain and zonal controller-based automotive architectures remains at an early stage, and while Strategy Analytics forecasts overall domain controller penetration will approach 60% by 2028, the Strategy Analytics Powertrain, Body, Safety & Chassis Service (PBCS) Service report “The Rise of the Domain Controller: When, where and how?” notes... Read more →

Woven Planet Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, has agreed to acquire Level 5, the self-driving division of Lyft, Inc. one of the largest ride-hailing companies in the world. This marks the first major deal for the newly established Woven Planet. The deal will bring together world-class scientists... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation and SiFive, Inc., the industry leader in RISC-V processors and silicon solutions, announced a strategic partnership to develop next-generation, high-end RISC-V solutions for automotive applications. The partnership will also include SiFive licensing the use of their RISC-V core IP portfolio to Renesas. RISC-V is an open standard... Read more →

A global shortage of semiconductors—caused by manufacturing delays that some semiconductor makers blame on a faster-than expected recovery from the coronavirus pandemic—has forced automakers to adjust or cancel production over the past months. Now SEMI, the largest global trade association for the design and manufacture of semiconductors, and the Center... Read more →

Continental and Amazon Web Services (AWS) will work together going forward within the scope of a new development cooperation. The goal of their long-term collaboration, with AWS serving as the preferred cloud provider, is to develop Continental Automotive Edge (CAEdge): a modular hardware and software platform that connects the vehicle... Read more →

UK-based Aeristech, a developer of high-speed electric motor and controller technology (earlier post), closed a £5.15-million (US$7-million) private funding round led by investors Sabien Technology, Vela Technologies and SAIC Venture Capital, the venture capital arm of China-based automaker SAIC Motor. The funding round will supercharge the company’s investment in its... Read more →

Mobileye, an Intel Company, and Udelv, a Silicon Valley venture-backed company, announced that Mobileye’s self-driving system—Mobileye Drive—will “drive” the next-generation Udelv autonomous delivery vehicles (ADV), called “Transporters.” The companies plan to produce more than 35,000 Mobileye-driven Transporters by 2028, with commercial operations beginning in 2023. Our deal with Udelv is... Read more →

Volvo Cars, Zoox and SAIC are among the growing number of leading transportation companies using the newest NVIDIA DRIVE solutions to power their next-generation AI-based autonomous vehicles. NVIDIA’s design-win pipeline for NVIDIA DRIVE now totals more than $8 billion over the next six years, reflecting a growing range of next-generation... Read more →

Luminar Technologies, Inc. has partnered closely with Zenseact to deliver a full-stack autonomous software system or series production vehicles. Zenseact is a newly-formed 550-person team of top ADAS and autonomous software experts, was founded by Volvo Cars in 2020. Volvo Cars is the first launch customer, representing both Luminar’s and... Read more →

Plus (formerly Plus.ai), a leading company in self-driving truck technology, will equip the next generation of its autonomous truck driving system with the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC). The company plans to roll out this next-generation system in 2022 across the US, China and Europe. NVIDIA introduced NVIDIA DRIVE AGX... Read more →

A new deep-learning algorithm developed by MIT researchers is designed to help machines navigate in the real, imperfect world by building a healthy “skepticism” of the measurements and inputs they receive. A study outlining the new approach appears in the journal IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems. Deep... Read more →

Micron Technology has begun sampling the industry’s first automotive low-power DDR5 DRAM (LPDDR5) memory that is hardware-evaluated to meet the most stringent Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL), ASIL D. The solution is part of Micron’s new portfolio of memory and storage products targeted for automotive functional safety based on the... Read more →

At its virtual Automotive Redefined: Technology Showcase, Qualcomm Technologies introduced the 4th Generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms. The automotive digital cockpit is evolving to a zonal (domain) electronic/electrical (E/E) compute architecture, driven by the complexity, cost and need for a central compute consolidation. The 4th Generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit... Read more →

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and General Motors (GM) announced their continued relationship to deliver digital cockpits, next-generation telematics systems and future advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to upcoming vehicles. For its next-generation vehicles, GM is reworking its in-vehicle experience, using third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms. The high-performance digital cockpit systems... Read more →

PACCAR and Aurora have signed a global, strategic agreement to develop, test and commercialize autonomous Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks. This collaboration will integrate PACCAR’s autonomous vehicle platform with the Aurora Driver to enhance the safety and operational efficiency of PACCAR’s customers. Autonomous Peterbilt 579 Test Vehicle with Aurora Driver. In... Read more →

Eyeris Technologies, Inc., a developer of vision AI for in-cabin sensing, is collaborating with Texas Instruments (TI) on an industry-first in-cabin sensing AI solution using TI’s Jacinto TDA4 processors and 2D RGB-IR image sensors. D3 Engineering designs products and integrates technologies from TI and Eyeris using its DesignCore platform to... Read more →

Aptiv PLC announced its next-generation Level 1-3 capable ADAS platform. Aptiv’s full-stack capabilities are helping customers realize their technology roadmaps and democratize advanced safety systems faster and at a lower cost. Its award-winning first-generation automated driving satellite compute platform leverages the integration of its Satellite Architecture and active safety software,... Read more →

Magna is collaborating with Fisker to develop an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS)—FI-Pilot—which will be applied to the Fisker Ocean SUV that is expected to launch in late 2022. This new business win demonstrates Magna’s ability to bring scale and efficiency to the mobility landscape and represents an important expansion... Read more →

Bosch has now won orders worth several billion euros for its vehicle computers—€2.5 billion worth since this past summer alone. Vehicle computers have huge business potential for Bosch. Even now, our high-performance computers mean that automakers view us as one of their leading engineering and technology partners. —Harald Kroeger, Member... Read more →

Middleware—a computing concept that has been around since the late 1960s, but that especially gained traction in the 1980s—is software that provides common services and capabilities to applications beyond what is offered by an operating system. Middleware serves, in effect, as a mediator between an operating system and software applications,... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation unveiled the R-Car V3U—a best-in-class ASIL D system on chip (SoC) for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) systems. Delivering 60 TOPS with low power consumption for deep learning processing and up to 96,000 DMIPS, the R-Car V3U is built for the performance, safety,... Read more →

TTTech Auto—a provider of software and hardware platforms for automated driving and beyond, applicable in series production programs—has expanded its development scope and altered its structure based on three distinct pillars. These include a newly set-up Car.OS unit that will focus on forward-looking technology; a scaled-up customer programs unit; and... Read more →

Xpeng Inc., a leading Chinese smart electric vehicle company, announced its next-generation autonomous driving architecture at Auto Guangzhou 2020. The company is incorporating lidar as a new hardware component for its next-generation autonomous driving architecture, significantly improving the vehicle’s high-precision object recognition performance. The new hardware architecture is a combination... Read more →

DENSO Corporation, the world’s second-largest mobility supplier, has selected Foretify, Foretellix’s advanced coverage driven verification platform, to enhance safety and reduce both development costs and time-to-market for its new ADAS and automated driving solutions. Foretify includes: A Measurable Scenario Description Language (M-SDL) used to describe both scenarios and coverage goals... Read more →

In a brief describing the suspension of the new ID.4 electric SUV, Volkswagen noted that the ID.4 uses the new, networked Vehicle Dynamics Manager (VDM) introduced with the new Golf. In front-wheel drive Golfs, the VDM coordinates and activates the functions of the electronically controlled front-axle locking differential (standard in... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group and NVIDIA announced the roll-out of the NVIDIA DRIVE connected car platform across all new models from Hyundai, Kia and Genesis from 2022 onwards. From entry-level to premium vehicles, all future models will feature in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems powered by NVIDIA DRIVE as standard. NVIDIA DRIVE includes... Read more →

Global automotive semiconductor revenue for 2020 will exceed initial expectations, primarily due to an increase in the average semiconductor value per car sold this year, according to a new forecast by IHS Markit. IHS Markit now expects semiconductor revenue to contract in 2020 by -9.6% to just over $38 billion,... Read more →

Automotive technology company Veoneer, Inc. and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. have decided to collaborate on the delivery of scalable Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Collaborative and Autonomous Driving (AD) solutions powered by Veoneer’s next-generation perception and driving policy software stack and Qualcomm Snapdragon Ride™ ADAS/AD scalable portfolio of System on a... Read more →