Ficosa inaugurates its new e-Mobility Hub, a pioneering centre at a national and international level for electric mobility technology
Autonomous Driving: Optical Data Network Enhances Safety
Free Auto Auto Session Aug 8 at FMS
NGMN Alliance backs C-V2X technology for the Connected Car Eco-System
Continental Strengthens AI Research with UC Berkeley DeepDrive Collaboration
Closing the gap: On the road to terahertz electronics
Artificial Intelligence: Continental and DFKI Enter into Close Collaboration
When the autopilot hands over to the human driver
Microchip Technology Automotive Market Strategy and Solution Announcement Press Conference
Continual launched as new brand identity for CellMining
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KDPOF Enables Seamless Optical Networks Integration
leading supplier for automotive gigabit transceivers over POF (Plastic Optical Fiber) – is delighted to present a complete POF solution to be seamlessly integrated into the wire harness of the vehicle. At the International Congress Automotive Wire Harness on March 13 and 14, 2018 in Ludwigsburg, Germany, KDPOF will display innovative gigabit POF solutions in partnership with leading wire harness suppliers such as TE and others. "POF cables are very reliable: they can withstand harsh environments and tolerate conditions such as routing across the engine compartment with temperatures as high as 105°C and down to –40°C," stated Carlos Pardo, CEO and Co-founder of KDPOF. "As an optical fiber with a large core, POF is able to withstand vibrations and misalignments much better than other optical or copper alternatives such as glass optical fiber (GOF), coax, and STP." Well-established engineering collaboration between key leading optoelectronic, connector, and wire harness vendors worldwide ensures a well-supplied and competitive market for all the components needed in the system: Physical Layer (PHY), Fiber Optic Transceiver (FOT), fiber cable, and connectors. All these companies, such as Broadcom (formerly Avago), Hamamatsu, KDPOF, TE, and others, as well as the IEEE and ISO, are ready for the market opportunities that the new gigabit POF technology has opened. Easy Handling and High Robustness As a plastic, wide diameter fiber, POF is cheap to manufacture and install. It does not require any sophisticated equipment or professional qualification, and harness manufacturing processes do not need to be changed. Installation is just easy plug and play. Winding and clamping is similar to copper cables. Their good bending performance starts at a radius of 10 mm. Gigabit transmission distances of up to 40 meters are possible without in-line connectors, or 15 meters with up to 4 in-liners. Further, POF allows fast dynamic bending, tight bending, and dark liquid immersion in addition to delivering low noise and robustness regarding incoupling of electromagnetic fields.
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Continental ‘2017 Tech-Ride’ Media Technology Experience Event
On November 6th, 2017, Continental held '2017 Tech-Ride' event to showcase the latest technologies for future mobility at BMW Driving Center in Jung-gu, Incheon, Korea. At this event, Continental introduced a variety of the latest technologies for improved stability and automated driving that will contribute to the realization of Vision Zero. Future mobility is aimed at full automated driving. Continental develops and produces integrated active and passive driving technology and vehicle dynamics supporting products under the slogan of 'SensePlanAct', providing more secure and comfortable mobility. The 'Sense' area of the slogan includes a long-range radar sensor for forward looking applications, a short-range radar sensor to detect danger in the adjacent surroundings of the vehicle, a 5th generation high performance camera MFC with excellent night vision, and a high-resolution 3D flash lidar that implements vision. In the "Plan" area, 'Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit (ADCU)', a central control unit that analyzes and evaluates collected data and comprehensively generates the surrounding environment model was introduced. The "Act" area features advanced brake technology MK C1 for a high level of automated driving and electric drum brake with parking brake (EPB-Si). At the same time, the event also prepared an opportunity to experience how these technologies would be applied to actual experimental vehicles and how they would work in the actual vehicles. ▲ Lee Hyuk-jae, CEO of Continental Korea Lee Hyuk-jae, CEO of Continental Korea, introduced about Continental that it is now a global tier-1 company in the automotive industry, with sales of 40.5 billion euros in 2016. It expects to grow by 3% this year. It has 427 workplaces in 56 countries and 220,000 employees. It consists of five business divisions: Chassis & Safety, Powertrain, Interior, Tire and ContiTech. In Korea, there are 2,470 employees in eight business sites in 2016 with 1,889 of them belonging to the Automotive Group. Continental's entry into Korea began in 1986 with the launch of the Rubber Group in 1986 and the Automotive Group in 1987. It has been selected as the best place to work for 15 consecutive years since 2002, while Icheon and Sejong factories are reported to have achieved the highest performance in productivity within Continental. So far, Continental's domestic organization has been acknowledged for its superiority in production, but its future strategy is to concentrate on R&D. It suggested the direction to become the most efficient center in the R&D center. Continental has identified three major directions for future technology development. Among these, "Automated Driving" aspect is an important technology for suggesting ways to increase safety through sensors before automated driving, providing stress-free mobility by reducing traffic congestion, providing spare time on the move, and creating new freedom of movement in the disabled and the aging society. The others include "Cruising Chauffeur" such as adaptive cruise control, and "Self Driving Car" for automatic parking and unattended operation. It is added that Continental has a lot of various individual technologies to implement them. ▲ In terms of electrification of vehicles, Continental has a wide range of capabilities in hybrid and electric vehicles. In aspect of movement for electrification, so far, an internal combustion engine is the main, but in the future, drivetrain with electrification and battery, energy and heat management, drive systems such as brakes, steering, and pumps suitable for electrification, system for energy collection from tires and solar light, and system for communication with other vehicles will be combined. And in response to this journey of electrification, Continental stated that it launched a massive supply of mild hybrid solutions, 48V, in 2016, and it will be able to have a battery-based electric vehicles in 2020 and technology for automated driving-based 'people mover' in 2025. In addition, Continental aims to maximize the efficiency of the engine in its electrification solutions and transmissions. In the future, Continental will provide solutions that range from current hybrid efficiency improvements to electric vehicles as well as high-voltage drive systems composed of motor and inverter systems for electric vehicles, DC/DC converters and power electronics. In aspect of connectivity, more than 50 percent of the cars produced in 2017 will have connectivity, and by 2020, more than 250 million vehicles on the roads will be connected. Moreover, a new application through the Internet connection is expected to provide a safer and more efficient environment by transferring accident information and traffic situation recognized by individual vehicles to other vehicles. However, it is expected that there will be applications that cannot be imagined yet. At the moment, 5G will be able to provide a role for increasing reliability of communication. Continental has also introduced that it provides connectivity parts including telematics and user interfaces such as dashboard and infotainment, and it has the capability to secure connectivity through recent acquisitions of security companies. In addition, the company continues to strengthen its capabilities in the software segment and it is partnering with a variety of vendors such as IBM and China Unicom in terms of back-end servers for acquiring and analyzing data from vehicles. ▲ Lee Sang-gil, Representative of Chassis & Safety Division in Continental Korea Lee Sang-gil, Representative of Chassis & Safety Division in Continental Korea, introduced about Continental's Chassis & Safety Division that it covers Vehicle Dynamics (VED), Hydraulic Brake Systems (HBS), and Passive Safety Sensorics (PSS) and Advanced-Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) for airbags and vehicle speed sensing. In 2016, the division's sales are 9 billion euros, and the sale in the Asian market is becoming more significant since its proportion is 31%. Meanwhile, the Chassis & Safety Division has 43,000 employees, of which Asia accounts for 25%. Continental's "Vision Zero" is a vision that aims to eliminate injuries and death caused by accidents, and the implementation is following the process of "Sense-Plan-Act", which is similar to human's recognition and behavior process. Among them, "Sense" area includes a long-range radar sensor for forward looking applications, a short-range radar sensor to detect danger in the nearby environment of the vehicle, a 5th generation high-performance camera MFC with excellent night vision and high resolution, and high-resolution 3D flash lidar that implements real-time 3D machine vision without any mechanical movement. The "Plan" area includes 'Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit (ADCU)', a central control unit that analyzes and evaluates various collected data and comprehensively generates the surrounding environment model. In the "Act" area, advanced brake technology MK C1 for a high level of automated driving and MK C1 HAD system architecture with two connected braking systems will provide elements needed for automated driving. In addition, electronic drum brake with parking brake (EPB-Si) provides more flexibility and options for vehicle manufacturers. Automated driving is now attracting attention as a technology that can solve problems such as environmental pollution, boredom due to long driving and traffic congestion, waste of time, stress and accident, which are pointed out as a disadvantage in individual's mobility. By utilizing automated driving technology, it is possible to increase safety by decreasing serious danger situation, improve efficiency by reducing energy consumption and improving traffic flow, increase time utilization and convenience by using HMI solution. In addition, in future aging society, it is expected that mobility improvement for the population will ensure individual mobility for all. ▲ A wide range of solutions is provided for the vehicle 'sensing'. ▲ These are the major new products in the sensing section presented at this event. In the sensing section, various cameras, radar sensors capable of accurately measuring relative speed and distance, and high-resolution flash lidar capable of 3D scanning based on the infra-red and constructing a model of surroundings are used. At this time, 5th generation Advanced Radar Sensor (ARS) is installed behind the radome on the front of the vehicle to perform forward looking functions such as adaptive cruise control and can provide EuroNCAP 2018, 2020 and later standards. Moreover, the 5th generation high-performance camera platform, MFC500, is a front-view multi-function mono camera that can observe various angles closely and can support driver assistance functions and highly automated driving through lane departure prevention, frontal collision prevention, and signs and traffic lights detection. The standard specification was developed in response to EuroNCAP 2020, and the premium specification provides highly automated running and early recognition of the surroundings with a wide horizontal viewing angle of 100 degrees. High Resolution 3D Flash Lidar consists of a laser and a highly integrated receiver chip that illuminate the surroundings of the vehicle with a distance of up to 200 meters. It also implements a comprehensive 3D model around the vehicle for automation operation, and provides reliable data even in bad conditions. Besides, V2X with M2XPro, which can identify the surrounding situation and communicate with the surroundings for automated driving, will create the basis for an automated driving environment by recognizing vehicle's position and movement at the same time. ▲ ADCU, at the center of automated driving implementation ▲ MK C1 HAD system combines MK C1 with MK100 HBE to create a redundant brake system. ▲ MK100 ESC High Plus Hybrid and Drum-Based Electric Parking Brake EPB-Si The "Plan" area introduced 'Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit (ADCU)', a central control unit that analyzes and evaluates various collected data and comprehensively generates the surrounding environment model. This enables a safe, versatile processing platform for applications in highly autonomous driving and plays an important role in interconnecting electric chassis and safety systems. Continental stated about the advantages of ADCU: scalability of its processing power and software modules, meeting safety requirements at maximum ASIL-D levels, possibility of integrating OEM black box software, and implementing the HAD environment model. In 'Act' area, brake related systems were introduced. Among them, MK C1, introduced as the next-generation brake system, is an electric braking system that provides fast and accurate pressure rise by-wire, making it ideal for autonomous driving. MK C1 integrates the existing system's tandem master cylinder (TMC), brake booster and control system (ABS&ESC) into a single compact box package to lighten approximately 30% and increase the braking pressure within 150ms, which is twice as fast as the conventional one. Moreover, the design of electric brake can regenerate braking energy over a wider range than standard regenerative braking systems. MK C1 HAD system architecture combines MK C1 system with an auxiliary brake system in the form of MK 100 HBE, enabling to stop vehicles even in the situation of a complete failure of the electronic main brake system. This can also provide an alternative for the user to stop a car when the main braking system fails in the implementation of the autonomous vehicle. Also, it is easily integrates into the existing MK C1 vehicle platforms, enabling the next step towards automated driving. MK 100 ESC High Plus Hybrid is designed to combine the dynamic high pressure requirements of the automatic emergency braking function with the convenience requirements of the driver assistance function. This system, which makes use of both hydraulic brake and regenerative braking systems, can provide braking sense with reduced sense of difference in the hybrid system by appropriately applying the wheel braking and the deceleration by generator's regeneration of the power transfer unit according to the operation of the brake pedal. In addition, electric drum brake (EPB-Si) replaces the existing mechanical operations in drum brakes and provides key features of electric parking brakes to provide user convenience and interior design flexibility.
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Avnet and Xilinx Participate in Tech Talk Series Organized by A*STAR Scientists to Drive the Future of Automation
Avnet Asia partnered with Xilinx® in the "Lab to Market" Tech Talk Series, organized by the A*STAR Postdoc and Early Career Scientists Society (A*PECSS) at the JTC Launchpad in Singapore. Presenters from Avnet Asia, Xilinx and A*STAR discussed the future of driverless cars and other embedded vision applications. "Avnet has been playing an active role in supporting and nurturing start-ups in Singapore and across Asia, to guide their ideas to production. This initiative with A*PECSS allows us to interact directly with the makers to better understand and address their needs," said Andy Wong, senior vice president of global design solutions, Avnet Asia. "The adoption of embedded vision will transform IoT applications and unlock innovations across key industries such as automotive. Avnet's hardware and software solutions for Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) equips automotive engineers with essential information to further innovate and realize the potential of IoT technologies." With an emphasis on embedded vision as the next engineering frontier, key market opportunities in the region span automotive & transportation, security, industrial, healthcare, retail and consumer technology. Embedded vision enables machines to respond through algorithms, digital processing and visual intelligence, including facial and object recognition, and is being increasingly adopted for a variety of applications from smartphone cameras to driverless vehicles. Octavius Lim, senior director of Xilinx APAC channel sales, commented, "Embedded Vision is one of the most exciting fields in technology today. Xilinx sees embedded vision as a key and pervasive megatrend that is shaping the future of the electronics industry. For years, Xilinx and Avnet have helped customers and start-ups accelerate the development of embedded vision applications in markets where systems must be highly differentiated, extremely responsive, and able to immediately adapt to the latest algorithms and image sensors. With Singapore's Smart Nation initiatives, we see strong potential in Singapore to apply embedded vision innovations for advanced driver assistance drive and surveillance security." The convergence of advanced technologies including embedded vision, sensors, connectivity and deep learning is essential to make driverless vehicles safe and efficient. Supporting Singapore's agenda to introduce driverless vehicles from 2022, Avnet showcased its latest autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) model utilizing the MicroZed™ Embedded Vision Kit. From enhancing security by providing real-time and more accurate analytics, to automating tray return at food centers, the AGV is ideal for helping makers accelerate product development. The A*PECSS 'Lab to Market' Tech Talk Series, which is regularly held in A*StartCentral, serves as a platform for researchers and industry comprising start-ups and entrepreneurs to exchange insights on technological advances and product development under various themes, with the aim of bridging research and development (R&D) and the marketplace, and accelerating product innovation and development.
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KDPOF Equips Electric Cars with Optical Connectivity
leading supplier for automotive gigabit connectivity over POF (Plastic Optical Fiber) – provide their innovative Automotive Gigabit Ethernet POF (GEPOF) for electric and autonomous driving to perfectly solve the electrical challenges and interferences of new powertrain architectures. "We are happy to announce that several car makers and Tier-1 suppliers have adopted our optical technology for electrical powertrains and autonomous vehicles," stated Carlos Pardo, CEO and Co-Founder of KDPOF. "Electromagnetic noise is a major issue in any electrical power train, both in full electrical or hybrid architectures. It affects the operation of the electronic circuits within the car and countermeasures have to be taken at early stages of the design." Consequently, due to the presence of hazardous high voltage (above 25 Vac or 60 Vdc), galvanic isolation is necessary between the domains of a battery management system and also between the primary and secondary systems of both ac-dc and dc-dc. Optical connections with POF provide the optimal means to achieve galvanic isolation while realizing data communications between the domains at the same time. KDPOF will present their GEPOF technology at Automotive Ethernet Congress on January 30 and 31, 2018 in Munich, Germany. Optical Connectivity for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles The control of all the subsystems involved in the electrical powertrain requires a communication bus that transports the control, actuation and sensor signals among the different components in all domains. The communication bus has to be immune to the electromagnetic noise and, at the same time, comply with the mechanical, temperature, and weight constraints of the overall vehicle. 1000BASE-RH, the Ethernet specification for a Gigabit capable, POF-based communication protocol, is ideal for the new architectures, as it provides a natural galvanic isolation between communicating modules and a radiation free harness. Moreover, it can operate at 100 Mbps for most current needs while also supporting future needs at 1 Gbps. KDPOF recently announced the sampling of the KD1053, the first automotive grade Gigabit Ethernet POF transceiver. The KD1053 complies with the new IEEE standard amendment Std 802.3bv™ for Gigabit Ethernet over POF. It fully meets the requirements of carmakers by providing high connectivity with a flexible digital host interface, low latency, low jitter, and low linking time.
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E-CAVE project to see Ordnance Survey shaping the UK’s driverless vehicle infrastructure
Ordnance Survey (OS) has been appointed by Business Secretary Greg Clark to help shape a national infrastructure capable of supporting a nationwide network of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs). The four-year project lies at the heart of the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy, and further establishes the UK as one of the world’s leading locations in this sector. E-CAVE will focus on the challenges of creating effective connected environments using OS digital data expertise. OS will also be engaged in supporting and collaborating with CAV testing across the four recently announced CAV test bed projects overseen by Meridian. OS has experience at the centre of major national infrastructure research projects. Projects such as the ground breaking ‘Atlas’ initiative, which studied and identified data critical to the efficient operation of autonomous vehicles, and the development of a Digital Twin planning tool for the roll out of 5G. Nigel Clifford, OS CEO, said: “This project will provide the UK government with evidence-based insights to speed up the deployment of connected environments in the UK. In addition to this, the learning we gain will show the UK to be an exemplar, and the infrastructure design which comes from this activity can be scaled up and used internationally. We believe there is an opportunity to attract inward investment. Our primary aim though, is to ensure driverless vehicles will be connected and collaborating to ensure the safety of the public at all times.” Business Secretary, Greg Clark, said: “Low carbon and self-driving vehicles are the future and the UK is determined to be one of the world-leaders in this technological revolution. Through our Industrial Strategy and the Automotive Sector Deal, the Government is paving the way to ensure the UK is best placed to seize the opportunities presented by the development of our next generation of vehicles. “With its centuries of experience in mapping and its status as a big data powerhouse, Ordnance Survey’s new project will make a valuable contribution to us achieving our bold ambitions accelerating the development and deployment of driverless technology in the UK.”
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Intel Tech Talk: Solutions for Safety Problem of Autonomous Vehicle
On October 18th, Intel Korea introduced new viewpoints that can solve safety problems and verify stability of autonomous vehicles through 'Intel Tech Talk' event at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jongro-gu, Seoul. At the event, Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye as well as vice president of Intel, attended and introduced methods for verifying safety of autonomous vehicles that were presented at World Knowledge Forum. Mobileye, a part of Intel, is a leader in automation technology and the world's largest supplier of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). Based on years of success in automotive automation and the experience that has evolved from ADAS to fully autonomous driving technology, Professor Shashua and his colleague, Shai Shalev-Shwartz, developed and published mathematical formulas that can bring certainty to questions about responsibility and criticism when accidents occur. This mathematical formula was also published at World Knowledge Forum in Seoul. Their Responsibility Sensitive Safety model (RSS Model) provides specific and measurable parameters for the human concepts of responsibility and attention. It also defines a 'Safe State' in which autonomous vehicles can not be a cause for accidents, regardless of the movement of other vehicles. In order to verify the stability of autonomous vehicles, it is impossible to prove the high level of safety requirements required for autonomous vehicles. To solve this problem, it is necessary to introduce and apply a model-based proof method. ▲ Amnon Shasua, CEO of Mobileye Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye as well as vice president of Intel, pointed out the aspects of safety guarantee and economic expandability as fundamental issues in the difficulty of moving from a project to develop an autonomous vehicle to a mass production. In order to go to the stage of mass production, it is necessary to clarify the definition of 'stability' in society and to suggest measures for guaranteeing this stability. In terms of economic expandability, autonomous vehicles should be used anywhere in the world, and policies such as economic expansion and government incentives should be considered, which is necessary to make autonomous vehicles a single industry. The safety problems of autonomous vehicles are conflicting with the two requirements. First, it is pointed out that autonomous vehicles, required to try 'negotiate' with their surroundings according to their circumstances and operate like humans, not conservative principles. For example, in situations of joining other roads or having heavy traffic, it is not wanted to be stuck up by autonomous vehicles, but to go through the situations at the same level as humans, while not to make an accident like humans. In addition, autonomous vehicles can not have any accidents at all. Expectation could be lowered to the extent that accepts a little accident, but it is also necessary to identify the responsibility for the accident. If the automobile industry is responsible for the accident of an autonomous vehicle, the movement power to the autonomous vehicle may fall. And so far, the safety of automobiles has been dealt with at the hardware and system integrity levels, but autonomous vehicles need to be discussed at different levels. Autonomous vehicles require high level of decision making and sensing, and it is necessary to review the errors in sensing and decision making situations. ▲ It is too costly to verify the safety expected of autonomous vehicles with current statistical methods. Verification of the safety of the vehicle is conducted on a statistical basis, and the maturity of the system is being verified with an empirical method that acknowledges reliability if there is no accident in the driving of millions of kilometers. However, this method is wrong for autonomous vehicles, and if it is continued to be used, autonomous vehicles may not be accepted in society and may disappear in the future. Also, the biggest contradiction in verifying autonomous vehicles by conventional means is expectation statistics about stability expected of existing cars and autonomous vehicles. For example, in the United States, the number of deaths from traffic accidents is estimated to be around 35,000 a year. If autonomous vehicles are introduced at an annual death rate of 35,000, autonomous vehicles will not be accepted. The death of a person due to problems with vehicles and computers is socially unacceptable, and in order for receptiveness of the number of deaths from autonomous vehicles by the society, a very high level of achievement is required. Therefore, it was introduced that about 35 people, which is improved about a thousand times a year, and an achievement as the same level of aircraft could be accepted. In order to prove these figures by conventional methods, if an autonomous vehicle travels about 30 km/h, it can be achieved by driving 30 billion km. Not only the distance is unrealistic, but also in terms of data collection and analysis, an autonomous vehicle that generates 5TB of data per hour will require 5 million PB of storage space. On top of that, when driving 20 hours per day for a year with 4 million vehicles that cost $100,000 per vehicle for driving distance of 30 billion km and considering costs for test drivers, it becomes unrealistic in terms of cost. ▲ The RSS model suggests a more explicit verification of the responsibility of autonomous vehicles. Likewise, while the existing data-based method for verifying the safety of autonomous vehicles has difficulty, the 'model'-based verification method has been chosen as an alternative to overcome this problem. It is also introduced that it will interpret and explain about situations. Moreover, it is based on the premise that it cannot guarantee a "complete safety", because the accident cannot be avoided in circumstances surrounded by uncontrollable factors, such as when the vehicle is surrounded by other vehicles. Also, it is because the purpose of the accident investigation is usually to cover responsibilities. The Responsibility Sensitive Safety model provides specific and measurable parameters for the human concept of responsibility and attention. It also defines a 'Safe State' in which autonomous vehicles cannot be a cause for accidents, regardless of the movement of other vehicles. Also, during development of this model, the rules based on the common sense about the rules that could be matters of responsibility will be pre-defined. In this part, the detailed definition about matters of responsibility and the parts of model construction need to be discussed with regulation authorities. On the basis of this RSS model, the vehicle will control the behavior so that it moves only within the safety state, thereby enabling the safe driving without the accident responsibility of the autonomous vehicle. This 'Safe state' allows vehicle to understand the speed, the road condition, the speed of the surrounding vehicles, and calculate the safe keeping distance of the vehicle. Even if the vehicle in front is suddenly stopped, the vehicle will maintain the distance regardless of reasons and enables driving without accidents. This 'safety distance' is set fairly conservatively, but it can be pulled more than this in reality. In the case of autonomous vehicles, it is possible to react quickly to changes in the surrounding environment, and the safety distance can avoid accidents when the car in front is suddenly stopped, even if it is 5.5m instead of a few hundred meters. ▲ Its feature is to secure safety in a fairly complicated situation while showing similar behavior to human. It is introduced that the RSS model could be applied in a case of extending autonomous driving scenario into a more complicated situation. It is also negotiable with authorities about rules, and it can establish methods for accurately identify matters of responsibility in a mathematical way. It is also capable of handling both-way traffic and signal waiting, and it will be able to respond to any situation that can be encountered on the road through a comprehensive related model. On the other hand, there is a need to discuss with the regulatory authorities the definition of safe state and the parameters that ensure that the autonomous vehicle does not become a cause for accidents in situations of driving like human with an aggressive inclination. In conclusion, unlike an empirical model or a simulator, the RSS model was introduced as a model for ensuring safety. This section needs to be discussed with regulatory authorities, and the certification section of the vehicle also needs to be discussed. In addition, it is emphasized that the introduction of the RSS model will not only benefit specific companies but also help everyone in the autonomous vehicle-related industry. It will help them move to the mass production stage of an autonomous vehicle. The model, meanwhile, will be a publicly available model, and it is added that industry-wide and regulatory authorities should work together to help everyone in their ecosystem.
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Navistar To End Production Of Proprietary Medium-Duty 9/10 Liter Engine By 2018
Navistar announced that it will cease all engine production at its plant in Melrose Park, Ill., by the second quarter of fiscal 2018. The company will continue the facility's transformation into Navistar's technical center, including truck and engine testing and validation as well as used truck sales and reconditioning, continuing the process that started in 2010. The majority of engines produced at Melrose Park are medium duty 9/10 liter engines used in International® Class 6 and 7 vehicles, for which alternative engine options are currently offered in all applications. Once completed, the cessation of engine manufacturing at Melrose Park is expected to affect about 170 employees and reduce Navistar's operating costs by approximately $12 million annually. The company will take an approximate $43 million charge as a result of this action, including approximately $8 million of cash related charges. In 2013, Navistar reintroduced the option of a 6.7 liter Cummins engine for its Class 6/7 medium duty vehicles, followed in 2016 by a 9 liter Cummins engine option, both of which have been well received by customers. All of the engines Navistar and its partners manufacture for the U.S. market will continue to be built in America. The Cummins engines that are used in the medium duty Class 6/7 segment are manufactured in Indiana and North Carolina, while Navistar's big bore engine plant, which makes engines for Navistar's Class 8 trucks, is in Alabama. A significant portion of the hourly employees at Melrose Park are retirement-eligible. Assistance and opportunities for retraining will be offered. The transformation of the Melrose Park facility began in 2010, when the company added a state-of-the-art truck testing and validation center at the 80-acre campus, complementing the existing engine test center there, and bringing hundreds of engineering jobs there from out of state. With truck and engine testing now being conducted at Melrose Park, in close proximity to Navistar's product development teams in Lisle and to the company's New Carlisle, Ind., proving ground, Navistar has reduced costs and improved product design. Over the last several months, the company has added to its investment in Melrose Park by opening a used truck evaluation and reconditioning facility and its flagship Used Truck Sales Center. Additional consolidation in the former manufacturing space is possible in the future, which would allow even more employees in product design, engineering, service and sales units to work alongside each other.
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Nexar Announces Automotive AI Challenge with Global Dataset
Nexar issued a challenge to researchers to develop a geography-adaptive autonomous driving perception model. For the challenge, the company released its NEXET image dataset that includes over 55,000 street-level images from over 80 countries. The goal of the challenge is to initiate a collaborative effort to address the problem of building a driving perception that performs consistently over different geographies. The key element for developing an all-weather, all-road, all-country driving perception is the ability to obtain data from an large and diverse training dataset. NEXET was carefully curated to contain scenarios of varying lighting, weather, and topographical conditions, as well as varying driving cultures in different countries to offer a comprehensive dataset. "The robustness of learning driving policy models depends critically on having access to the largest possible training dataset exposing the true diversity of the 10 trillion miles that humans drive every year in the real world. Current approaches are trained using homogenous data from a small number of vehicles running in controlled environments, or in simulation, which fail to perform adequately in the true diversity of real-world dangerous corner cases," said Bruno Fernandez Ruiz, co-founder and CTO of Nexar. "Safe driving requires continuously resolving a long tail of those corner cases. The only way to ensure safety in ADAS is to continuously capture as many of these cases as possible. By releasing this diverse dataset, we are opening our challenge to researchers to help us develop these algorithms and together create more robust ADAS models - essential to a safe autonomous future."
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Marvell Debuts Industry's First Secure Automotive Gigabit Ethernet Switch
Marvell announced the industry's first secure automotive gigabit Ethernet switch, enabling a new level of safe data transmission in next-generation connected vehicles. There are hundreds of computing applications in the car that require a robust, secure in-vehicle-network, making Ethernet the technology of choice for auto manufacturers. Advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), as well as autonomous vehicles, will rely on digital information streamed internally within the vehicle and externally from the vehicle to other vehicles. The new automotive Ethernet switch, the latest addition to Marvell's automotive portfolio of wired and wireless network solutions, is designed to prevent malicious attacks or compromises to the data streamed in-and-out of the vehicle. These industry-leading security features are paramount to ensure the safety of the vehicle and its occupants. This highly secure Ethernet switch has been purpose-built to address the increasing risk cybercrime represents to the automotive industry and is fully compliant with the IEEE802.3 and 802.1 standards. The new solution employs a deep packet inspection (DPI) engine and trusted boot functionality to ensure a robust level of security at the foundational hardware layer. The switch also supports both blacklisting and whitelisting addresses on all its Ethernet ports to further enhance its security. To meet the rigorous standards of the industry and withstand harsh automotive environments, the new Ethernet switch is AEC-Q100 qualified. It supports both 100Mbps and 1Gbps interfaces with five integrated 100BASE-T1 physical interfaces and can connect with Marvell's previously announced 1000BASE-T1 PHY.
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NXP Semiconductors Executive Vice President and Representative of Automobile Business, Kurt Sievers Visiting Korea Commemoration Media Round Table
On September 29, NXP Semiconductors Korea (Chairman: Shin Bark-jae) held media round table attended by Kurt Sievers, Executive Vice President and Representative of Automobile Business of NXP Semiconductors, and Lars Reger, CTO and Vice President of Automotive Department of NXP Semiconductors at its office building. Having been working for Philips and NXP Semiconductors, which is spun out from Philips, for total 21 years, Kurt Sievers is a living witness of semiconductor industry who went through development of semiconductor solution, marketing, sales, and business generalization. Especially, he is serving Chairman of Automobile Business in this year, the 10th anniversary of NXP Semiconductors from when it has spun out from Philips. Visited Korea together, Lars Reger has charge of Director General of automobile-related research development and new business, and administers the business that introduces mainly about the company’s products and solutions to domestic automobile industry-related companies. He had visited Korea and participated in the press conference about automotive held by NXP on July 13. ▲ Kurt Sievers, Executive Vice President and Representative of Automobile Business of NXP Semiconductors ▲ After HELLA, ‘Google’ is mentioned as a main partner of NXP’s automotive area. NXP Semiconductors took the leadership in automotive area after acquiring Freescale Semiconductor for $11.8 billion last year. Especially, by securing entire portfolio in automotive area, it established itself as a major partner to domestic companies which promote future new businesses such as driverless cars in automobile area. Kurt Sievers introduced that the percentage of automobile industry in NXP Semiconductors reaches 40%, and pointed out that Korea’s quick adaptation that can be seen throughout the automobile industry has large synergy with NXP’s business. Especially, with the market scale of automotive semiconductors that is expected average annual growth rate of higher than 6% until 2021, it is emphasized that Korean conglomerates’ concentrated investment is big business opportunity. NXP Semiconductors provide entire lineups such as SoC, chip, sensor, and node to automotive vendor. Particularly, in Korea, it was selected as V2X chip supplier to construction project of Cooperative Intelligent Transport System (C-ITS), which has been pushed ahead by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. So it is providing road link chipset to WAVE Communication solution. At the press conference, it was noticed that it will play an active part in PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic, as it was sealed at the first round of competition. ▲ Lars Reger, CTO and Vice President of Automotive Department of NXP Semiconductors ▲ At this visit, smart key and center fascia-based wireless charging solution are introduced. Lars Reger took charge of introducing major solutions that are being suggested to domestic partners. First, MagniV microcontroller-based solution, one of the assets acquired from Freescale, and modules are mentioned as major products. It is explained that, by keeping up with the automobile industry trend where the proportion of electronization is increasing, the company’s solution contributes to reducing the number of components and enhancing efficiency. Next, 15W wireless charging solution that can be placed on the center fascia and armrest is introduced. It is explained that it will contribute to equipping high speed charging solution which is three times as fast as the original wireless charging solution to the vehicle. In addition, security-enhanced automobile access portfolio is introduced. A typical product that Lars Reger mainly explained was ‘smart key.’ As next generation technologies are integrated into the smart key, it will gradually provide more innovative possibility in vehicle control. As UWB transceiver, motion sensor, and etc. are added, vehicle control by using them is expected to be more varied. ▲ Two important figures representing NXP Automotive Business visited Korea for close consultant with domestic client companies.
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Vice President and CTO of NXP Semiconductors Automotive Department, Lars Reger Visiting Korea Media Briefing
On July 13, NXP Semiconductor (NASDAQ: NXPI) held the press conference at Korea NXP Semiconductors office building to celebrate Vice President and CTO of automotive department, Lars Reger’s visit. Lars Reger currently handles everything the company’s automobile related research development and new businesses. NXP cooperates with the major companies, Siemens, Harman, Delphi, and Cohda Wireless, and automobile OEM companies about V2X technology. Especially in Korea, it announced joint participation with Essys(CEO Kim Yong-beom) for the first domestic Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems(C-ITS) promoted by MOLIT. Shin Bak-je, Chairman of NXP Semiconductor, said, “I’m honored that internationally well recognized NXP’s V2X solution, roadlink chipset is selected as MOLIT’s C-ITS. With this demonstration business, I hope NXP to be of help to Korea’s ITS technology development. Through it, I think another accumulated experience will help provide the technology that can create safer, more smooth and pleasant traffic to prevent accidents and protect lives.” ▲ Lars Reger, Vice President and CTO of NXP Semiconductors Automotive Department ▲ Currently, the level of automobile industry is between 2 to 3. Even Tesla autonomous driving, the talk of the town, is trying level 3. ▲ In Korea C-ITS demonstration business, roadlink chipset of NXP Semiconductors plays important material-based role. In 2015, NXP Semiconductors took over Freescale of America, and achieved rapid extension of automotive related capability. By combining the fields where the company ranked no. 1 and Freescale’s no. 1 properties, it became global no.1 company in communication processor, broad base MCUs, RF power transistor, secure identification, automotive, and etc. In automotive field, NXP Semiconductors keeps the fundamental values such as the abundance of the life and securing life and safety with cars, even inputs technology capacity for CO2 reduction by increasing energy efficiency. Especially among them, the security is raising awareness in the industry as the fatal accident recently occurred during Tesla autonomous driving, and the aspect of fundamental automotive value came to the fore. Autonomous driving can be divided into four levels. Level 1 is defined as driving support, level 2 is defined as partially autonomy (for example: ADAS), level 3 is defined as ordinary autonomy, and level 4 is defined as high level autonomy. In the highest level, level 4 autonomous, it is presupposed that a stage where a driver does not need to bear driving in mind with brain is realized. Therefore, currently it is considered between level 2 to 3. Level 3 itself became a huge mountain to climb. To realizing autonomous driving, technically high dimensional elements are needed. In NXP Semiconductors, when Secure V2X which ensures security, Sensor Fusion which integrating control various sensors, Ultrasonic which contributes to short range obstacle detection, Lider which makes it possible for commercial use, Camera which secures a wide range of view, and Radar which is more accurate through multi-phases in aspect of distance, are all equipped, it must be the start of autonomous driving. As well as integrally securing these technical capabilities, completely securing safety becomes a mission to automotive solution vendors. Therefore, NXP Semiconductors achieved securing ISO26262 certification, maintaining non-hacking incidents record so far, and zero-failure and errorless in a dimension of design, and various research developments for minimizing human errors are being proceeded. ▲ In strengthening car’s capabilities, the most outstanding development is shown in Radar. ▲ V2X research development and investment are the issues which are importantly dealt in Europe and Asia over America. ▲ Along with powerful performance, securing safety is the directing point of NXP Bluebox solution. ▲ It is expected that 100Mbps Ethernet in 2018 and 1Gbps Ethernet in 2022 will be settled in automobile. ▲ NXP Semiconductors automotive solutions eventually aim for the complete ‘security.’ In Korea, autonomous driving will become the near future work. V2X technology of NXP Semiconductors that contributes to C-ITS demonstration business raises road safety, reduces CO2 emission, and supports smooth traffic flow as it allows to check the other side of the corner or the front traffic obstacles beyond the driver’s view. According to the National Police Agency, more than 5,000 people die in car accidents every year, and more than 300,000 people are injured. The traffic congestion causes the cost of more than about 31 trillion won. The Korea Transport Institute expects that if C-ITS is completely introduced, it will be possible to reduce about 76% of total traffic accidents. NXP is already providing V2X solution from various parts of the globe. Recently, it provided intelligent traffic management system to Columbus, Ohio, the US, which is selected in Smart City Challenge by U.S. Department of Transportation. Also, on April, it successfully demonstrated the truck’s autonomous driving by using V2X technology at ‘European Truck Platooning Challenge,’ hosted by Netherland Infra and Department of Environment. For continuously developing autonomous driving car and macroscopic traffic management, NXP’s roadlink V2X communication and security technology are necessary. This technology allows near cars to exchange information such as speed, location, and direction by wireless, and informs dangers such as traffic control data, speed limitation area, traffic signal, roadwork alert, and danger zones among cars and infrastructures. The security element protects the driver’s privacy from dangers of hacking or manipulation as it is integrated as a part of chipset. Besides, 77GHz RFCMOS radar was presented for ADAS system. Moreover, a automotive specialized compute unit ‘Bluebox’ solution, which contains capabilities of both super-computing and safe-computing in one unit, also started supply. In aspect of network, the scales of 100Mbps and 1Gbps, which are generally used in PC, are gradually introduced to take charge of explosive network traffic. In addition, the most sophisticated security technology is incorporated in these all the electronics/electrical operation, so it concentrates on preventing damage from hacking. Meanwhile, NXP Semiconductors develops various activities related to automotive fields. Through smart port, future automobile demo, ADAS live demo, V2X environment based drone integration test, participating in America Smart City Challenge, small car model research in the region, storm bike, and autonomous trunk test operation in Europe, it is building capability and basis for the gradual autonomous driving supply. These know-hows aim for creating global-leveled business through cooperation with partners in Korea. For this reason, the influence of NXP semiconductors’ move to domestic industrial world is permanently in growing trend. ▲ NXP Semiconductors is providing the most extensive and advanced automotive portfolio to Korean companies.
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