DENSO Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation will establish a joint venture for research and advanced development of next-generation, in-vehicle semiconductors. The two companies will study the details and aim to establish the new company in April 2020. Recently, electronic controls have been increasingly implemented into vehicles. Furthermore, the number of... 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 →

Infineon’s planned $10-billion acquisition of Cypress Semiconductor will produce the world’s largest automotive chip supplier, surpassing current market leader NXP and giving the German firm a stronger position in the critical markets for infotainment and advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), according to IHS Markit. In 2018, Infineon ranked second in... 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 →

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 →

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 →

NSITEXE, Inc., a DENSO Group company that designs and develops semiconductor IP cores, acted as lead investor and has a stake in startup quadric.io. The purpose of the investment is to help quadric.io’s development of edge processing units (EPUs)—high-performance semiconductors that could be used as a foundation for enabling automated... Read more →

At CES 2019, ZF will unveil a steering-wheel- and pedal-free robo-taxi to show how its technologies enable new forms of urban mobility. Users can hail the taxi using their smartphone or tablet; the robo-taxi will maneuver autonomously to pick them up. It can then chauffeur them to where they wish... Read more →

Infineon Technologies AG is the first semiconductor manufacturer to put a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) specifically for automotive applications on the market. The new OPTIGA TPM 2.0 protects communication between the car manufacturer and the car—which is increasingly turning into a computer on wheels. A number of car manufacturers have... Read more →

Volvo Cars and NVIDIA are partnering on the development of a highly advanced, AI-capable core computer for the next generation of Volvo cars. The core computer is based on NVIDIA’s DRIVE AGX Xavier technology and will allow Volvo Cars to implement an advanced computing platform for its new cars on... 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 →

Renesas Electronics Corporation announced the sample shipment of the industry’s first on-chip flash memory microcontroller (MCU) using a 28 nanometer (nm) process technology. To contribute to the realization of next-generation green cars and autonomous vehicles with higher efficiency and higher reliability, the RH850/E2x Series MCU incorporates up to six 400... Read more →

NVIDIA and Continental are partnering to create AI (artificial intelligence) self-driving vehicle systems built on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform, with a planned market introduction starting in 2021 for Level 3 functionality. The partnership will enable the production of AI computer systems that scale from automated Level 2 features through full... Read more →

General Motors has filed a Safety Petition with the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) for GM’s fourth-generation self-driving Cruise AV—the first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls. In 2016, GM acquired then-three-year-old start-up Cruise Automation... Read more →

Visteon Corporation unveiled its DriveCore autonomous driving platform at CES 2018. Designed to accelerate the development and commercialization of autonomous driving technology, DriveCore allows automakers to build autonomous driving solutions quickly and in an open collaboration model. Visteon designed DriveCore as a complete technology platform, consisting of the hardware, in-vehicle... Read more →

At CES, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. introduced the new Samsung DRVLINE platform—an open, modular, and scalable hardware- and software-based platform for building advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). The platform is designed to accommodate a wide range of automated driving requirements, from ADAS and scaling upwards to support full autonomy. DRVLINE hardware... Read more →

NVIDIA is delivering first samples of its Xavier processors (earlier post) to customers this quarter. Xavier, an all-new AI supercomputer designed for use in self-driving cars, is a complete system-on-chip (SoC), integrating a new 512-core Volta GPU, a custom 8-core CPU architecture, and a new computer vision acceleratora, new deep... Read more →

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) will show its next-generation automated driving research vehicle, Platform 3.0, at CES next week in Las Vegas. The new platform, which is built on a Lexus LS 600hL, combines greater technological capabilities with new harmonized styling that integrates the automated vehicle technology into the LS model’s... Read more →

The Volkswagen Group and self-driving technology startup Aurora Innovation, founded by technology veterans from Google, Tesla and Uber, announced a strategic collaboration ahead of the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The collaboration brings the two companies together to realize self-driving electric vehicles in cities as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS)... Read more →

At CES, Continental will showcase a highly flexible computing platform for automated driving systems and the processing of large amounts of data. Developed by Continental’s San Jose Research & Development Center in collaboration with Xilinx, the Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit will enable Continental’s customers to get to market... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation is introducing the R-Car V3M Starter Kit to simplify and speed up the development of New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) front camera applications, surround view systems, and LiDARs. The new starter kit is based on the R-Car V3M image recognition system-on-chip (SoC), delivering a combination of low... 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 →

Renesas Electronics Corporation and Dibotics, a leader in real-time 3D LiDAR processing, have collaborated to develop an automotive-grade embedded solution for LiDAR processing used in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving applications. The jointly-developed solution will enable system manufacturers to develop real-time 3D mapping systems with high level... Read more →

At the GPU Technology Conference in Munich, NVIDIA unveiled Pegasus, its new NVIDIA DRIVE PX AI computing platform designed to handle Level 5 driverless vehicles. NVIDIA DRIVE PX Pegasus delivers more than 320 trillion operations per second—more than 10x the performance of its predecessor, NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2, which was... Read more →

The GENIVI Alliance, an open, collaborative software development community of automakers and their suppliers, is introducing a Vehicle Domain Interaction Strategy focused on developing open standard interfaces and code that will define the necessary paths bridging multiple car software domains. Announced during its All Member Meeting in Seoul, the new... Read more →

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) plans to introduce a new 12nm Leading-Performance (12LP) FinFET (fin field-effect transistor) semiconductor manufacturing process. The technology is expected to deliver better density and a performance boost over GF’s current-generation 14nm FinFET offering, satisfying the processing needs of the most demanding compute-intensive applications from artificial intelligence and virtual... Read more →

IBM, its Research Alliance partners GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung, and equipment suppliers have developed an industry-first process to build silicon nanosheet transistors that will enable 5 nanometer (nm) chips. The details of the process will be presented at the 2017 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits conference in Kyoto, Japan this... Read more →

NVIDIA is collaborating with Toyota to deliver artificial intelligence hardware and software technologies that will enhance the capabilities of autonomous driving systems planned for market introduction within the next few years. Toyota will use the NVIDIA DRIVE PX AI car computer platform (earlier post) to power advanced autonomous driving systems... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation launched Renesas “autonomy”, a new advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving platform. As the first product under the new autonomy platform, Renesas released the R-Car V3M high-performance image recognition system-on-chip (SoC) optimized primarily for use in smart camera applications, as well as surround view systems... Read more →

A hybrid computing system developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the enabling technology behind an ambitious experiment testing a relative navigation and autonomous docking capability known as Raven. Developed by the Satellite Servicing Projects Division (SSPD) the carry-on luggage-sized module was launched 19 February aboard... Read more →

France-based Silicon Mobility, a provider of semiconductor control solutions for electric motors, battery and energy management systems of hybrid and electric vehicles, introduced a software library (OLEA LIB) and an application (OLEA APP) optimized for its OLEA chips to increase the energy efficiency, the battery range and the charging speed... Read more →

Intel Corporation announced a definitive agreement under which Intel would acquire Mobileye, a global leader in the development of computer vision and machine learning, data analysis, localization and mapping for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving. A subsidiary of Intel will commence a tender offer to acquire all of... Read more →

Germany-based semiconductor supplier Infineon is Volkswagen’s first partner under its TRANSFORM 2025+ strategy (earlier post). Under the new partnership, Volkswagen will further intensify its direct dialogue with Infineon in order to define the requirements for future semiconductor solutions and thus pursue new joint development approaches. A modern automobile is equipped... Read more →

Audi’s next-generation A8, premiering this year, will feature the first implementation of the MIB2+ (Modular Infotainment Platform). The key element in this new implementation of the MIB is NVIDIA’s Tegra K1 processor (earlier post), which makes new functions possible and has the computing power needed to support several high-resolution displays—including... Read more →

Renesas Electronics and TTTech Computertechnik AG, a global leader in robust networking and safety controls, have developed a highly automated driving platform (HADP). The new HADP is a prototype electronic control unit (ECU) for mass production vehicles with integrated software and tools, which demonstrates how to use Renesas and TTTech... Read more →

Audi announced a partnership with NVIDIA to use artificial intelligence in delivering highly automated vehicles starting in 2020. Deep learning technology will enable skilled handling of real-road complexities, delivering safer automated vehicles earlier. The first phase of this expanded collaboration between the nearly decade-long partners focuses on NVIDIA DRIVE PX,... Read more →

BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye announced that a fleet of approximately 40 autonomous BMW vehicles will be on the roads by the second half of 2017, demonstrating the significant advancements made by the three companies towards fully autonomous driving. Revealing this at a podium discussion held during a joint press... Read more →

Qualcomm is introducing the Qualcomm Drive Data Platform to collect and analyze intelligently information from a vehicle’s sensors. Cars will be able to determine their location up to lane-level accuracy, to monitor and to learn driving patterns, to perceive their surroundings, and to share this reliable and accurate data with... Read more →

Visteon Corporation, a leading cockpit electronics supplier, has secured a second major customer vehicle program for its cockpit domain controller technology, SmartCore. (Earlier post.) Visteon is the only supplier offering an automotive-grade, integrated domain controller approach that can independently operate the infotainment system, instrument cluster and potentially other features on... Read more →

Luxury EV developer Lucid Motors and Mobileye N.V. announced a collaboration to enable autonomous driving capability on Lucid vehicles. Lucid will launch its first car, the Lucid Air (earlier post), with a complete sensor set for autonomous driving from day one, including camera, radar and lidar sensors. Lucid chose Mobileye... Read more →

Delphi Automotive PLC and Mobileye will showcase their Centralized Sensing Localization and Planning (CSLP) automated driving system—which will be ready for production by 2019—on a 6.3-mile urban and highway combined public route in Las Vegas for CES 2017. (Earlier post.) The partners said that CSLP is the first turnkey, fully... Read more →

In a keynote address at the AutoMobility LA conference, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that Intel Capital is targeting more than $250 million of additional new investments over the next two years to make fully autonomous driving a reality. This is the first time Intel is keynoting at an automotive... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation has introduced a new all-in-one Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) view solution kit. Expanding the success of the first-generation ADAS surround view kit that was launched in October 2015, Renesas’ second-generation ADAS view solution kit with up to eight cameras realizes next-generation electronic mirrors, driver monitoring and... Read more →

NXP Semiconductors N.V. and DAF Trucks announced plans to empower truck platoons to react 30 times faster than humans in 2017, enabling a reduced distance between platooning trucks. Achieving this goal would mark a significant milestone in the introduction of platooning to fleet operators who expect considerable efficiency and safety... Read more →

Toshiba has developed what it calls Time Domain Neural Network (TDNN)—a neural network using a time-domain analog and digital mixed signal processing technique—based on a new, extremely low-power consumption neuromorphic semiconductor circuit to perform processing for Deep Learning. (The acronym TDNN (time-delay neural network) is also used broadly to describe... Read more →

Qualcomm Incorporated will acquire NXP Semiconductors with an equity offer worth some $38 billion; including debt, the deal is worth roughly $47 billion. The boards of directors of both companies unanimously approved the definitive agreement. NXP is a leader in high-performance, mixed-signal semiconductor electronics, with innovative products and solutions and... Read more →