A data-driven simulation system invented at MIT, in collaboration with the Toyota Research Institute, to train driverless cars creates a photorealistic world with infinite steering possibilities, helping the cars learn to navigate a host of worse-case scenarios before cruising down real streets. Control systems for autonomous vehicles largely rely on... Read more →

In a recent Leaderboard report, Navigant Research ranks NVIDIA as the leading automated driving compute platform. Navigant ranks companies in this report on 10 criteria: vision; go-to market strategy; partners; production strategy; technology; sales, marketing, and distribution; product capability; product quality and reliability; product portfolio; and staying power. Automated Vehicle... Read more →

SAKOR Technologies Inc., a recognized leader in the area of high-performance dynamometer systems, recently provided the University of Houston’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering with a dynamometer test system designed to test motor and inverter designs for use in hybrid and electric vehicle applications. The system features dual opposing... Read more →

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has developed a motion prediction system that enhances pedestrian detection for automated vehicles. The computer vision tool uses a novel deep learning algorithm to predict motion by observing real-time biomechanical movements with the pelvic area being a key indicator for changes. SwRI’s human motion prediction system... Read more →

Self-driving vehicles need to navigate safely and flawlessly without crashing into others or causing unnecessary traffic jams. To make this possible, Northwestern University researchers have now developed the first decentralized algorithm with a collision-free, deadlock-free guarantee. The researchers tested the swarming algorithm in a simulation of 1,024 robots and on... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation have developed a predictive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Connected Shift System, enabling the vehicle to shift automatically to the optimal gear after identifying the road and traffic conditions ahead. Hyundai and Kia plan to apply the technology on future vehicles. During system... Read more →

The European PRoPART (Precise and Robust Positioning for Automated Road Transports) project, funded by the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency (GSA), recently successfully demonstrated its highly accurate positioning system in a recreated motorway situation at the AstaZero test area in Sweden, with a connected autonomous truck and two unconnected... Read more →

Volkswagen Group of America and Aeris, a technology leader in the Internet of Things (IoT), have formed Ventic LLC, a joint venture that is the result of a long-term commitment between Volkswagen and Aeris in the development and operations of connected vehicle platform technologies. The Aeris mobility suite can be... Read more →

NXP Semiconductors N.V., the world’s largest supplier of automotive semiconductors, has introduced a multi-gigabit Ethernet switch designed to help automakers deliver the high-speed networks required for evolving connected vehicles. The NXP SJA1110 is the first automotive Ethernet switch with safety capabilities built in, offering integrated 100BASE-T1 PHYs, hardware-assisted security as... Read more →

Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas, Inc. and TomTom (TOM2), the location technology specialist, are collaborating on a proof-of-concept for the development of a new real-time hazard service for navigation and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Through the collaboration, the companies will combine technological strengths to deliver real-time updates on the location... Read more →

Visteon Corporation demonstrated its newest SmartCore—the first production cockpit domain controller with a third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platform—which will be launched on Chinese automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group’s (GAC) new pure electric vehicle platform, Aion LX. The SmartCore application on the Aion LX is the product of the collaboration by... Read more →

Oxbotica, a developer of autonomous vehicle software, and Navtech, a global radar solution company, are developing a radar-based navigation and perception system to be launched this year. The product represents the latest advancement in radar-based technology and the partnership marks an important milestone in Oxbotica’s plans to take its software... Read more →

Savari announced that two leading global automotive manufacturers and one leading OEM in Asia have committed to implementing the Savari V2X Software Stack in new automobiles beginning in 2020. Together, these automotive OEMs account for more than 30% of the US market share and roughly 15% of the global market... Read more →

Aiqudo (pronounced: “eye-cue-doe”) announced ahead of CES 2020 a partnership with premium electric vehicle manufacturer BYTON, bringing Aiqudo’s Voice AI platform to BYTON cars. Aiqudo’s Voice AI platform will voice-enable actions in native apps within the BYTON ecosystem as well as intelligently launch app actions on personal mobile devices in... Read more →

NVIDIA will provide the transportation industry with access to its NVIDIA DRIVE deep neural networks (DNNs) for autonomous vehicle development on the NVIDIA GPU Cloud (NGC) container registry. NVIDIA DRIVE has become a de facto standard for AV development, used broadly by automakers, truck manufacturers, robotaxi companies, software companies and... Read more →

Oxbotica, an autonomous vehicle software spinout from Oxford University, has signed an MoU with ZF to integrate its autonomous driving software with ZF’s automotive-grade ProAI compute platform and sensor sets. (Earlier post.) Oxbotica provides a full suite of Universal Autonomy software that is fully modular, has low compute power requirements... Read more →

The Ricardo and Roke partnership is launching a comprehensive vehicle digital resilience assessment and benchmarking service to help automakers and tier 1 manufacturers assure the security of their products, and to ensure that they meet international cybersecurity regulations currently under development, as well as existing legislation affecting customer data security... Read more →

DENSO Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation have named their joint venture to be established in April 2020 MIRISE Technologies (earlier post). The joint venture will conduct research and advanced development of next-generation in-vehicle semiconductors. MIRISE is an acronym for Mobility Innovative Research Institute for SEmiconductors. It also conveys “mirai” (a... Read more →

Volvo Group Venture Capital AB has invested in Apex.AI, a a Palo Alto, California-based software company in the field of autonomous mobility. The investment will fund the development of a safety-certified software framework for autonomous systems, Apex.OS. Apex.AI is building an automotive-grade version of ROS (Robot Operating System), an established... Read more →

Starting 1 January 2020, the Volkswagen Group’s Car.Software organization will operate as an independent business unit. As a Group company, the Car.Software organization will centralize the associates and subsidiaries within the Group that develop car software and software for the digital ecosystems. Initially, around 3,000 digital experts from the software-related... Read more →

Wind River is collaborating with Xilinx on the development of a comprehensive automated driving platform that integrates Xilinx’s Versal adaptive compute acceleration platform (ACAP) and Wind River automotive software. The collaboration will provide carmakers with a flexible, high-performance compute platform for delivering safe and secure connected and automated driving vehicles.... Read more →

The electronics architecture of the modern generation of vehicles is undergoing a profound transformation, moving away from the many individual control units of current cars towards a small number of high-performance functional domain computers. Volkswagen is now putting a server unit developed by Continental into production as an in-car application... Read more →

MIT and Toyota researchers have designed a new model to help autonomous vehicles determine when it’s safe to merge into traffic at intersections with obstructed views. Their paper is published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. In 2016, roughly 23% of fatal and 32% of nonfatal US traffic accidents occurred... Read more →

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory are developing a deep learning framework—MaLTESE (Machine Learning Tool for Engine Simulations and Experiments)—to meet ever-increasing demands to deliver better engine performance, fuel economy and reduced emissions. The MaLTESE effort is a great example of how Argonne supercomputing resources enable researchers to combine large-scale simulations... Read more →

DENSO Corporation and BlackBerry Limite announced the first integrated HMI (Human Machine Interface) digital cockpit system with BlackBerry QNX technology has shipped in the first vehicles by Japanese automotive manufacturer, Subaru. The technology, named DENSO ‘Harmony Core’ will be available first in the United States from Autumn 2019 in the... Read more →

Delphi Technologies, a global provider of propulsion technologies, is pairing vehicle electrification advances with existing and emerging automated and connected vehicle systems to boost fuel economy, lower emissions, and extend driving range. Initial testing of what it calls “Intelligent Driving” has demonstrated a greater than 10% reduction in CO2 compared... Read more →

Silicon Mobility and AVL Software and Functions GmbH will collaborate to increase the energy efficiency of electric and hybrid vehicles. Silicon Mobility offers a complete solution that includes the hardware, software, development platform, and a suite of application specific software modules for a wide range of hybrid and electric vehicle... Read more →

Tier IV, Inc. has raised about $9 million from Quanta Computer, Inc. in a Series A extension round following the previous $100+ million Series A funding. This latest funding engages Quanta Computer and Tier IV to develop a new reference model of electronic control units (ECUs) for autonomous driving. The... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation announced its fourth-generation lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery management IC that offers unmatched lifetime accuracy. The ISL78714 provides accurate cell voltage and temperature monitoring, along with cell balancing and extensive system diagnostics to protect 14-cell Li-ion battery packs while maximizing driving time and range for hybrid and electric vehicles... Read more →

Nissan Motor Co. has adopted Renesas’ automotive technology for the ProPILOT 2.0 system featured in the new Nissan Skyline unveiled in July. The driver assistance system combines navigated highway driving with hands-off, single-lane driving capabilities, employing Renesas’ R-Car automotive system-on-chip (SoC) and RH850 automotive control microcontroller (MCU) to implement core... Read more →

Volkswagen AG intends to group more than 5,000 digital experts together in its new “Car.Software” unit with Group responsibility for software in the vehicle by 2025. The company plans to develop significantly more software in the car and for vehicle-related services itself and to boost the in-house share of software... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation has developed a new flash memory technology that achieves larger memory capacities, higher readout speeds, and over-the-air (OTA) support for automotive microcontrollers (MCUs) using the next-generation 28nm process. This new technology achieves the industry’s largest capacity of embedded flash memory on an MCU – 24 MB –... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation continues to accelerate the development of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) systems with new Perception Quick Start Software based on its R-Car V3H system-on-chip (SoC). The solution delivers reference software for camera obstacle detection (COD), LiDAR obstacle detection (LOD), and road feature detection (RFD)—three key recognition areas... Read more →

Autonomous trucking startup TuSimple has been hauling mail more than 1,000 miles between Phoenix and Dallas as part of a two-week pilot with the US Postal Service. Halfway through the test, the self-driving prototypes from TuSimple—an NVIDIA DRIVE partner and NVIDIA Inception member—have been arriving at the delivery hubs earlier... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group has developed a system that estimates the gross vehicle weight of a light duty commercial electric vehicle and optimizes performance accordingly. The development of the system is a first for the industry, utilizing acceleration sensors to optimize the vehicle’s settings based on current gross weight estimate. This... Read more →

Bosch is working on sensor technology for air taxis. The Boston Consulting Group predicts that people around the world will take 1 billion flights in air taxis in 2030, once sharing services have also established a presence on fixed routes above the ground; most of those air taxis will be... Read more →

General Motors President Mark Reuss unveiled the company’s all-new electronic platform necessary for its next-generation of vehicles, EVs, active safety, infotainment and connectivity features, and the evolution of the Super Cruise driver assistance feature. The technology powers an electronic system, capable of managing up to 4.5 terabytes (TB) of data... Read more →

Electronic control units (ECUs) are playing an increasingly critical role in the automotive industry, driving the development of safer, smarter, cleaner and better-connected cars. As a result, IHS Markit expects global automotive ECU revenue to soar to $211 billion in 2030, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of... Read more →

ZF announced ZF coPILOT, an intelligent advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) leading to enhanced safety and driving comfort opportunities. Leveraging the power of AI and equipped with a comprehensive sensor set, vehicles can perform various automated driving functions, especially on freeways. In addition, ZF coPILOT can be operated with voice... Read more →

AVL, TÜV SÜD and NVIDIA are working to develop a simulation test suite and standardized procedures for autonomous vehicle validation. TÜV SÜD and AVL have created an initial set of testing measures for manufacturers of automated driving systems, running them on the NVIDIA DRIVE Constellation simulation platform. Though traffic accidents... Read more →

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new way of controlling autonomous cars that integrates prior driving experiences to help the cars perform more safely in extreme and unknown circumstances. Tested at the limits of friction on a racetrack using Niki, Stanford’s autonomous Volkswagen GTI, and Shelley, Stanford’s autonomous Audi... Read more →

With the public expecting that autonomous vehicles will offer comfort levels approaching those of a living room environment, Ricardo is developing new software to minimize the risks of motion sickness; the development also promises benefits for conventionally-driven vehicles. The imminent introduction of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) has stimulated consumer... Read more →

At its GPU Technology Conference, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA DRIVE AP2X—a complete Level 2+ automated driving solution encompassing DRIVE AutoPilot software, DRIVE AGX and DRIVE validation tools. DRIVE AP2X incorporates DRIVE AV autonomous driving software and DRIVE IX intelligent cockpit experience. Each runs on the high-performance, energy-efficient NVIDIA Xavier system-on-a-chip (SoC)... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation announced the first microcontroller (MCU) with embedded flash that integrates a hardware-based virtualization-assisted function while maintaining the fast, real-time performance of the RH850 products. This hardware-based virtualization assist technology can support up to ASIL D level of functional safety, providing greater levels of system integration. The RH850/U2A... Read more →

Cars have been evolving with increasingly complex circuitry. SEAT’s Ateca crossover (SEAT is a Volkswagen Group company, the Ateca is based on the MQB platform and is related to Volkswagen’s Tiguan) features a complex arrangement of wires more than 2.2 km long. The wires, ranging from one millimeter to one... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation announced the development and successful operation verification of an automotive test chip as a technological stepping stone toward the realization of next-generation automotive-control flash Microcontrollers (MCUs) employing a 28 nanometer (nm) low-power process. The MCU features four 600 megahertz (MHz) CPUs with a lock-step mechanism and a... Read more →

University of Michigan researchers are teaching self-driving cars to recognize and predict pedestrian movements with greater precision than current technologies. The approach relies on a novel objective function that incorporates the periodicity of human walking (gait), the mirror symmetry of the human body, and the change of ground reaction forces... Read more →

Combining human and artificial intelligence in autonomous vehicles could push driverless cars more quickly toward wide-scale adoption, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). That’s the goal of a new project that relies on a technique called instantaneous crowdsourcing to provide a cost-effective, real-time remote... Read more →

The Khronos Group has created an Exploratory Group to gauge industry interest for a potential new open standard for high performance embedded computing (HPEC) applications. Khronos is seeking feedback from automotive, robotics, aerospace, industrial, medical and IoT developers, all target users that wish to focus on algorithm development—not communication intricacies—but... Read more →

Baidu, Inc. has introduced Apollo 3.5, the newest and most powerful release of the open, reliable and secure software platform for the development of autonomous driving systems through on-vehicle and hardware platforms. Apollo 3.5 is the first open source autonomous driving platform that can perform in complex urban and suburban... Read more →