I was had planned to do a long post on self-driving cars a quite long time. I was planning to do one this spring, but I might not do that, because it seems that predictions that self-driving cars would be here in 2020 were far too rosy. Five years ago, several companies including Nissan and Toyota promised self-driving cars in 2020. So it may be wise to take any new forecasts with a grain of salt. Hare is a worth to check out article of the current status of self-driving cars:
Surprise! 2020 Is Not the Year for Self-Driving Cars
https://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/self-driving/surprise-2020-is-not-the-year-for-selfdriving-cars
In March, because of the coronavirus, self-driving car companies, including Argo, Aurora, Cruise, Pony, and Waymo, suspended vehicle testing and operations that involved a human driver. Around the same time, Waymo and Ford released open data sets of information collected during autonomous-vehicle tests and challenged developers to use them to come up with faster and smarter self-driving algorithms.
It seems that the self-driving car industry still hopes to make meaningful progress on autonomous vehicles (AVs) this year, but the industry is slowed by the pandemic and facing a set of very hard problems that have gotten no easier to solve over the years.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/05/26/aluminium-pucks-fuel-hydrogen-trucks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Car autopilot security
https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/protecting-adas/35961/
Today, many companies are experimenting to the max with autopilots of
varying complexity. Some are trying to build devices that actually
take control of the vehicle out of human hands, while others are
developing advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). . The main issue
that autopilot manufacturers must address is guaranteeing reliability
and safety. After all, peoples lives depend on the proper functioning
of the system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Who Says DMS Is an Interim Solution?
https://www.eetimes.com/who-says-dms-is-an-interim-solution/
It’s time to get serious about DMS — Driver Monitoring System.
The footage of a Tesla slamming into an overturned truck on a highway in Taiwan seems to have been featured in every automotive publication since it occurred in early June. Watching the video, three thoughts cross my mind:
Why didn’t the autonomous emergency braking activate?
What was the driver doing?
Why does anyone still believe privately-owned passenger vehicles will be “self-driving” in just a couple of years?
One of the most extraordinary disconnects I have experienced in 20 years of covering automotive electronics is how many people entirely dismiss driver monitoring systems (DMS), even though Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) and the updated European General Safety Regulations (GSR) both specify the need for active driver monitoring starting in just a couple of years.
Over and over when talking with supposedly smart and well-informed people, I am confronted with approximately the same viewpoint, which can be summarized as “DMS is at best an interim solution and at worst already obsolete.”
Rightly or wrongly, many people believe we are in the home stretch to L4 autonomy and that a “full self-driving” reality is but one over-the-air update away. Watch the Tesla crash footage again and honestly ask yourself this: How is that working out?
I don’t dispute that companies like Waymo and Cruise will offer some kind of autonomous shuttle or robotaxi service somewhere by 2025.
Blinded by the light
The most common criticism of the driver monitoring vision sensor in Super Cruise is that it can be blinded by sunlight and critics often use this to dismiss DMS technology altogether. I’m a total DMS geek, so I can tell from looking at the slide that the first two images on the top row use an 850nm infra-red (IR) optical path, while the other pictures all use IR components operating at a wavelength of 940nm.
Did I just hear you ask: “Why not start with 940nm components in the first place, then?” That’s because they weren’t automotive-qualified until the end of 2016, so on typical automotive timescales, they couldn’t have featured in production vehicles until 2019 at the earliest. Sure enough, 940nm vision-based DMS will start in series-production vehicles later this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://semiengineering.com/week-in-review-auto-security-pervasive-computing-20/
Automotive/Mobility
Arm has updated its Arm Mali Driver Development Kit (DDK) so different in-vehicle graphics systems in automotive cockpits can share electronic control units (ECUs). Using virtualization, separate virtual machines can access the same graphics processing unit (GPU) but not have access, for security, to the other virtual machines using the GPU. A cockpit domain controller on the SoC will manage the traffic demands on the GPU from the virtual machines.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bluetooth Enhances EV and Hybrid Battery-Management Systems
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21133774/bluetooth-enhances-ev-and-hybrid-batterymanagement-systems?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS200611053&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.mwrf.com/materials/article/21849238/armys-aluminum-powder-produces-hydrogen-as-needed?utm_source=UM_Classics06120&utm_medium=email&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=32087&elq2=30361fe03a2a4cac837afb77762b78f1&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.mwrf.com/markets/automotive/article/21133915/v2x-module-enhances-traffic-safety?utm_source=RF+MWRF+Today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS200610052&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/uwb-enhances-security-of-passive-keyless-entry/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=link&utm_medium=EDNFunFriday-20200619
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.designnews.com/batteryenergy-storage/last-mile-million-mile-battery-or-first/47515796863203?ADTRK=InformaMarkets&elq_mid=13514&elq_cid=876648
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.eetimes.com/a-tesla-model-3-tear-down-after-a-hardware-retrofit/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.eetimes.com/avs-cant-drive-everywhere-can-trieyes-swir-camera-help/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mercedes-Benz Jilts BMW, Elopes with Nvidia
https://www.eetimes.com/mercedes-benz-jilts-bmw-elopes-with-nvidia/
Mercedes-Benz Tuesday announced a new partnership deal with Nvidia to develop an in-vehicle computing system architecture designed for software-upgradable ADAS vehicles that are scheduled for rollout in 2024.
Mercedes-Benz will leverage Nvidia’s Orin computer SoC, which is based on the recently announced Nvidia Ampere supercomputing architecture. Nvidia will be sampling the chip in 2021.
The German automaker is playing catch-up with over-the-air (OTA) software updates Tesla has pioneered. Under the new system architecture, Mercedes-Benz will be able to apply software updates not just to its in-vehicle infotainment units but to an entire vehicle — a feat that has stumped traditional OEMs because their vehicle architectures are tied to legacy platforms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Wilson / Fast Company:
Segway, the two-wheeled, self-balancing vehicle known for the hype it generated in the early 2000s, ends production as the company lays off most of its staff — Steve Jobs said it would be bigger than the PC. Some dubbed it the most hyped product since the Apple Macintosh.
Exclusive: Segway, the most hyped invention since the Macintosh, ends production
The Segway brand will no longer make its two-wheeled, self-balancing namesake.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90517971/exclusive-segway-the-most-hyped-invention-since-the-macintosh-to-end-production
Tomi Engdahl says:
ETNdigi: Robottiauto vaatii valtavasti testaamista
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/10906-etndigi-robottiauto-vaatii-valtavasti-testaamista
Tomi Engdahl says:
A super-powerful system-on-a-chip is now being presented as the brains of an future autonomous vehicle that will not be as advanced as what had been promised for today.
Mercedes and Nvidia Announce the Advent of the Software-Defined Car
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/mercedes-and-nvidia-announce-the-advent-of-the-softwaredefined-car
The idea of tomorrow’s car as a computer on wheels is ripening apace. Today, Daimler and Nvidia announced that Daimler’s carmaking arm, Mercedes-Benz, will drop Nvidia’s newest computerized driving system into every car it sells, beginning in 2024.
The system, called the Drive AGX Orin, is a system-on-a-chip that was announced in December and is planned to ship in 2022. It’s an open system, but as adapted for Mercedes, it will be laden with specially designed software. The result, say the two companies, will be a software-defined car: Customers will buy a car, then periodically download new features, among them some that were not known at the time of purchase. This capability will be enhanced by using software instead of dedicated hardware in the form of a constellation of electronic control units, or ECUs.
“In modern cars, there can be 100, up to 125, ECUs,” said Danny Shapiro, Nvidia’s senior director of automotive. “Many of those will be replaced by software apps. That will change how different things function in the car—from windshield wipers to door locks to performance mode.”
The plan is to give cars a degree of self-driving competence comparable to Level 2 (where the car assists the driver) and Level 3 (where the driver can do other things as the car drives itself, while remaining ready to take back the wheel). The ability to park itself will be Level 4 (where there’s no need to mind the car at all, so long as it’s operating in a predefined comfort zone).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microelectronics Power the Future of Mobility – Part 2: Opportunities for Electronics
https://blog.semi.org/technology-trends/microelectronics-power-the-future-of-mobility-part-2-opportunities-for-electronics-in-the-evolving-ecosystem
Tomi Engdahl says:
Volvo will use Waymo’s self-driving technology to power a fleet of electric robotaxis
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/25/21303324/volvo-waymo-l4-deal-electric-self-driving-robot-taxi
Waymo says it is an ‘exclusive’ supplier of Level 4 technology to Volvo
Partnering with Volvo Car Group to scale the Waymo Driver
https://blog.waymo.com/2020/06/partnering-with-volvo-car-group-to.html?m=1
Waymo is now the exclusive global L4 partner for Volvo Car Group, a global leader in automotive safety, including its strategic affiliates Polestar and Lynk & Co. International. Through our strategic partnership, we will first work together to integrate the Waymo Driver into an all-new mobility-focused electric vehicle platform for ride hailing services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amir Efrati / The Information:
Sources: Amazon to pay $1B+ to buy self-driving car developer Zoox; source says most investors will get their money back and some will make a positive return
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-to-pay-more-than-1-billion-for-self-driving-car-developer-zoox
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwheelcar.htm
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elephant in Automated Vehicle Room
https://www.eetimes.com/elephant-in-automated-vehicle-room/
There is an elephant in the automated vehicle room, although most reporters pretend there is none.
I once heard someone define news as: “Something that happened today that didn’t happen yesterday” and this has been a busy couple of days for news reporters covering AV. Let’s take a look:
Kirsten quotes Ola Källenius, head of Mercedes, saying: “Many people talk about the modern car, the new car as kind of the smartphone on wheels. If you want to take that approach you really have to look at source software architecture from a holistic point of view,” he said. “One of the most important domains here is the driving assistant domain. That needs to dovetail into what we call software-driven architecture, to be able to (with high computing power) add use cases for the customer, this case the driving assistant autonomous space.”
Can anyone please tell me what Ola is talking about, because that quote just sends my BS meter to 11. I expect that junk from Tesla, but Mercedes? I understand perfectly why Xpeng has licensed Nvidia for its AV technology, but Mercedes?
As a tech analyst, the Mercedes story doesn’t seem to me to be anything to do with the capability of Nvidia’s chips — even though that made all the headlines — but that Mercedes seems to have no more intellectual property for automated driving than Xpeng or any of the other Chinese new energy vehicle makers that have signed licensing deals with Nvidia.
I really hope I am wrong, because otherwise Mercedes looks to be heading for a future as an Nvidia white-label box maker with a legacy internal combustion engine business — but who wants to write that headline?
Waymo-Volvo deal
Who is going to buy the Waymo-enabled cars to operate as a robotaxi fleet? Who is liable for the statistically inevitable deaths resulting from these vehicles being deployed in ever greater numbers? I’m fantastically impressed that Waymo has signed-up another automaker alongside Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Renault/Nissan. I am certain more will follow. But let’s look at some cold, hard numbers.
If we take the 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans and add it on to the 20,000 all-electric I-Pace vehicles, we get 82,000 units. Say the average car price, plus sensor suite, compute processing, and Waymo license fee is about $100K, and we have an up-front investment from the robotaxi operators of over $8 billion — for an unproven business model. All of the investment, depreciation, liability and execution risk would appear to be on them, so who are the operators? Forget about L4 autonomy, I want to know where the money is coming from?
Waymo’s valuation in March was down to $30 billion and that was pre-Covid-19. The bottom has fallen out of the automotive market this year and robotaxi VC investments have dropped too — Zoox was just sold to Amazon for about $1.2 billion having raised about $800 million.
There’s only one entity left buying everything at current nosebleed valuations, and that is the Federal Reserve. So maybe the expectation is that the Fed is going to become a robotaxi operator sometime in the next couple of years?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Organizers cancel 2021 Geneva show
https://europe.autonews.com/geneva-auto-show/organizers-cancel-2021-geneva-show
The Geneva auto show will not be held in 2021, the organizers have announced.
The reasons for the cancellation were lack of interest from automakers as well as the uncertain situation over the control of the coronavirus, the Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) Foundation said in a statement on Monday.
The Geneva event is Europe’s only major international auto show to be held annually. This year’s event was due to take place in March but was canceled just days before opening as the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic became clear.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can Self-Driving Cars Help Solve the Climate Crisis?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wu3zvyibovQ&feature=share
Self-driving vehicles aren’t just about making roads safer. Famed former MythBusters host Kari Byron asks two Cruise experts about the ways an all-electric autonomous vehicle fleet – powered by 100% renewable energy – can help combat climate change.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla blows past Toyota to become most valuable automaker in the world
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/01/tesla-blows-past-toyota-to-become-most-valuable-automaker-in-the-world/?tpcc=ECFB2020&fbclid=IwAR24-AHR2lHp-KsImnedK77n-uRAhOpBb5zYpqllK6cpDDvEb3sCaPaZy9I
In 10 years, Tesla has gone from public market newbie to the most valuable automaker in the world by market value. The electric automaker had long since passed the valuations of Ford and GM and in January became the most valuable U.S. automaker ever when its market cap hit $81.39 billion.
Still, a few automakers remained ahead of Tesla. Until today. Tesla shares popped Wednesday after the market opened, rising nearly 4% to $1,129.18 — hitting a new 52-week high. The company’s market capitalization now stands at nearly $208 billion, surpassing Toyota to become the world most valuable automaker by market value. Toyota’s market cap is $202.74 billion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/07/03/mercedes-benz-tuo-autoihinsa-nvidian-kayttojarjestelman/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robocar Bill Stays Stalled, but DMS Climbs Hill
According to Google Maps the drive from San Jose to Capitol Hill is a little under 3,000 miles, so I can understand why the autonomous vehicle (AV) tech industry doesn’t …
https://www.eetimes.com/robocar-bill-stays-stalled-but-dms-climbs-hill/
Tomi Engdahl says:
BMW is going all-in on in-car microtransactions
Like in-app purchases, but for your car
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/2/21311332/bmw-in-car-purchase-heated-seats-software-over-the-air-updates?fbclid=IwAR08EDH4VyQkon6_AU4YHWAEvtJuh9u_3a8fI8L_FjzpwyCsrzpcJGYHRQw
BMW has detailed an overhaul to the digital systems that power its luxury vehicles, including a new map and navigation system, a revamped digital assistant, a “digital key” (first shown off at Apple’s annual developer conference last week), and wireless Android Auto. But the most interesting thing BMW shared about the changes is that the company is going all-in on in-car microtransactions.
Cars are more full of computers and software than ever before, which has made it possible for automakers to add new features or patch problems on the fly with over-the-air software updates. This has also presented these automakers with new ways of making money. Take Tesla, which pioneered them and currently sells access to a variety of features after purchase.
BMW now wants to take this to a far more specific level. The German automaker announced on Wednesday that all cars equipped with its newest “Operating System 7” software will soon receive an update that makes it possible for the company to tinker with all sorts of functions in the car, like access to heated seats and driving assist features like automatic high beams or adaptive cruise control. And the company unsurprisingly plans to use this ability to make money.
It will likely cost BMW more up front to build all of these features into every car, though the manufacturing process may go more smoothly with less differentiation. But BMW could make some of that money back from secondary owners of these cars. People buying them on the used car market — or, as is more likely with BMW, picking them up on a three-year lease — will be able to configure the car to their liking in a way that wasn’t possible with the company’s previous vehicles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Autonomous driving startup turns its AI expertise to space for automated satellite operation
https://tcrn.ch/3gt808q
Hungarian autonomous driving startup AImotive is leveraging its technology to address a different industry and growing need: autonomous satellite operation. AImotive is teaming up with C3S, a supplier of satellite and space-based technologies, to develop a hardware platform for performing AI operations onboard satellites. AImotive’s aiWare neural network accelerator will be optimized by C3S for use on satellites, which have a set of operating conditions that in many ways resembles those onboard cars on the road — but with more stringent requirements in terms of power management and environmental operating hazards.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Waymo’s Lidar Plan: How’s It Working out?
https://www.eetimes.com/waymos-lidar-plan-hows-it-working-out/
Many autonomous vehicle (AV) developers have been in hot pursuit of lidar technologies, which are important because of their ability to build 3D models of the environment around a car, an essential feature in the race for self-driving cars.
Leading AV companies — Waymo, GM Cruise and Argo AI — have either already acquired lidar technology companies or have developed lidars internally. Even Mobileye, an Intel company, is crafting its own lidar tech, Amnon Shashua, Mobileye’s CEO acknowledged, in a recent interview with EE Times.
But among all self-driving car developers, Waymo is currently the only company making its lidar commercially available. Waymo isn’t licensing to everyone, however. Its partners are limited to only those who work in non-automotive autonomy.
It’s been well over 16 months since Waymo announced a plan to license its lidar, called Laser Bear Honeycomb, to non-automotive companies. How’s that working out?
Verghese confirmed that Waymo now has multiple design wins. But he was silent on specifics about its lidar technology, pricing or partners.
It’s mechanical
Verghese confirmed that Waymo’s Honeycomb lidar is based on mechanical technology. It comes with a rotating mirror and a turntable.
The AV industry has recently seen something of a gold rush for lidar tech. Reportedly more than 70 startups have jumped into the market, exploring new technology options that include MEMS, solid state and flash lidar.
In this emerging free-for-all, it’s clear that Waymo is pushing its Honeycomb lidars not because it’s a new technology, but because its tried-and-tested mechanical spinning lidars denote stability.
Wider field of view
Waymo is promising that its perimeter lidars, placed at four points around a vehicle, offer “an unparalleled field of view including up to 95 ° vertical field of view, and up to 360 ° horizontal field of view.”
This translates into fewer sensors for AVs to see more area. Waymo also claims that its lidars suffer little interference regardless of proximity; they are able to detect and avoid objects at very close range.
“We know how our sensors work together on blind spots,” Verghese said. Waymo’s Honeycomb lidars provide “higher point density and a better range,” he added.
Waymo’s solution: First, know when to clean the sensors. Second, design user-friendly, easy-to-clean sensors. A decline in sensing capabilities — how far it can see and detect objects on a variety of different road conditions — directly affects the safety of an AV. Waymo has developed a method to “constantly validate” each sensor’s capabilities, Verghese explained.
Pivoting
Most industry analysts agree that many of the 70-plus lidar startups that have sprung up in the past several years are unlikely to survive in the Covid-19 economy. The public health crisis exacerbates the reality that the arrival of commercial AVs is no longer as imminent as once predicted.
In a difficult environment, lidar developers that aren’t yet acquired must pivot their strategies. Some are already scrambling to make their technologies more amenable for design into ADAS vehicles (instead of robotaxis), or to be embraced by the industrial robotic market. Lumotive, a Seattle-based startup, is a good example, now making a three-pronged shift by adding smartphone lidar chips to its product roadmap.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mercedes opts for more screens and fewer buttons in the 2021 S-Class
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/08/mercedes-opts-for-more-screens-less-buttons-in-the-2021-s-class/?tpcc=ECFB2020
Teaser images and leaked photos of the 2021 Mercedes-Benz S-Class suggested the automaker was moving toward a more digital-centric interior. That might have been an understatement.
Mercedes-Benz revealed Monday its second-generation MBUX infotainment system, and it is loaded with new technology, including touchscreens, augmented reality heads-up display and improved voice and facial recognition. Gone are many of the physical switches found in the older version of the S-Class. Mercedes said it removed 27 mechanical switches for the 2021 model.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Musk told an AI conference in Shanghai that the electric carmaker would likely develop “basic functionality” for complete autonomy this year.
Tesla Vehicles Could Soon Become Completely Autonomous As Self-Driving Tech ‘Very Close’, Elon Musk Says
http://on.forbes.com/6183GTte1
Tesla vehicles could soon be completely autonomous as CEO Elon Musk said the electric vehicle firm is “very close” to achieving level 5 autonomous driving technology, during a virtual appearance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.
“I’m extremely confident that level 5 or essentially complete autonomy will happen and I think will happen very quickly,” Musk said.
He added that he is confident “basic functionality” for level 5 complete autonomy will be achieved this year.
The technology will allow vehicles to drive on roads without driver input.
Tesla, the world’s highest-valued carmaker after overtaking Toyota last week, already operates an Autopilot system that uses external cameras, radars and sensors, but it is driver assisted and does not make the vehicle autonomous.
Tech firms, including Uber and Alphabet-owned Waymo, have pumped billions into developing self-driving cars, a futuristic idea that many had predicted would be ready by this year. But limitations around AI have stalled development of the technology. Last month, Waymo and Volvo announced they were teaming up to develop driverless cars for ride-hailing use.
In February, the National Transportation Safety Board found Tesla’s autopilot driver assistance was likely to blame for a fatal 2018 crash in California, leading to the board calling for more regulation of the technology, and for the company to better educate drivers on its limitations.
The road to completely autonomous driving has five levels: Level 0 describes no automation i.e. everyday cars. Level 1 represents features such as adaptive cruise control, while level 2 describes partial automation features that control speed and steering, such as those seen in Tesla vehicles. Level 3 and 4 represent limited driverless capabilities. Level 5 is the point at which a driverless vehicle can navigate all road conditions without human input, according to True Car.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coronavirus Scrambles Self-Driving Race, Pushing Nuro’s Delivery Bots To Front Of The Pack
http://on.forbes.com/6183GTN8z
When self-driving startup Nuro emerged from stealth mode in early 2018, its ex-Googler cofounders had a simple reason for why they wanted to create street-legal delivery robots instead of autonomous cars or robotaxis: it’s a little easier and you can create a moneymaking business faster. As the coronavirus crisis rolls on, that looks like a particularly shrewd decision.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/07/09/uusia-panoksia-itseajavien-ajoneuvojen-ohjelmistoihin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Close Connected-Car Security Gaps with Safe FOTA Processes
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21136541/close-connectedcar-security-gaps-with-safe-fota-processes
Malicious car hackings now routinely make headlines. But the rise in cyberattacks isn’t surprising as more automakers incorporate wireless interfaces designed to exchange data externally. Firmware over-the-air updates can help solve the problem.
Modern vehicles have become mobile living spaces—extensions of mobile devices in homes and offices. Demand is rising, especially among younger consumers, for convenience functions to maintain and enhance connectivity, and to share and evaluate vehicle data such as consumption or power output via apps.
The age of the connected vehicle has become a reality. That reality excites not only customers and manufacturers, but also cybersecurity experts and white-hat hackers seeking to identify and lock down security gaps to prevent breaches by malicious actors.
For many years, security experts have observed the fact that the desktop PC isn’t the only target of digital attacks. In fact, much of the malware in the mainstream is now customized to target mobile devices. It would be naïve and negligent to believe that this development would overlook the connected car.
Thus far, successful attacks by criminal hackers on vehicles and their systems represent the relatively rare exception. But the pivotal importance of security for connected cars has clearly become apparent to automakers and equipment OEMs. When the vehicle becomes a personal mobile device used by its owner for communication, and possibly personalized by apps, this setup provides would-be cyber assailants with a plethora of potential entry points and targets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deck out your ride with an Arduino-controlled spoiler
https://blog.arduino.cc/2020/07/14/deck-out-your-ride-with-an-arduino-controlled-spoiler/
Car spoilers can provide downforce for better performance, or simply give the appearance of speed. To take things to another level, Michael Rechtin designed his own custom wing that doesn’t just sit there, but pitches up and down via a pair of servos.
The system utilizes an Arduino Nano along with an MPU-6050 for control, adjusting itself based on his Mazda’s movement, and powered is supplied by a LiPo battery. Suction cups are used to attach the spoiler, so installation appears to require no actual modification of the car whatsoever.
As far as performance goes, Rechtin notes that it’s just for fun — likely wreaking havoc on your gas mileage!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Toshiba has developed a compact, highly efficient silicon photo-multiplier that enables non-coaxial Lidar to employ off-the-shelf camera lenses to lower costs and help bring about solid-state, high-resolution Lidar.
Toshiba’s Light Sensor Paves the Way for Cheap Lidar
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/sensors/automotive-sensors/toshibas-light-sensor-highresolution-lidar
The introduction of fully autonomous cars has slowed to a crawl. Nevertheless, the introduction of technologies such as rearview cameras and automatic self-parking systems are helping the auto industry make incremental progress towards Level 4 autonomy while boosting driver-assist features along the way.
To that end, Toshiba has developed a compact, highly efficient silicon photo-multiplier (SiPM) that enables non-coaxial Lidar to employ off-the-shelf camera lenses to lower costs and help bring about solid-state, high-resolution Lidar.
high-end Lidar systems can be expensive, costing $80,000 or more, though cheaper versions are also available. The current leader in the field is Velodyne, whose lasers mechanically rotate in a tower mounted atop of a vehicle’s roof.
Solid-state Lidar systems have been announced in the past several years but have yet to challenge the mechanical variety. Now, Toshiba hopes to advance their cause with its SiPM: a solid-state light sensor employing single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) technology. The Toshiba SiPM contains multiple SPADs, each controlled by an active quenching circuit (AQC). When an SPAD detects a photon, the SPAD cathode voltage is reduced but the AQC resets and reboots the SPAD voltage to the initial value.
“Typical SiPM recovery time is 10 to 20 nanoseconds,” says Tuan Thanh Ta, Toshiba’s project leader for the technology. “We’ve made it 2 to 4 times faster by using this forced or active quenching method.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Investors have shrugged off Tesla’s inconsistent profits, falling revenue, missed goals, and fraud charges to send the stock to record highs.
These 2 charts show how Tesla’s skyrocketing stock has become divorced from the rest of the auto industry
https://trib.al/258hurK
Tesla is worth more than its Detroit competitors combined, despite outputting just a fraction of their production.
The stock price – which continues to hit record highs – has perplexed investors, analysts, and even CEO Elon Musk.
In 2020, investors have shrugged off past deadline flops, federal fraud charges, falling revenue, and inconsistent profits and have seen the stock reach record highs. Tesla is now worth nearly $300 billion compared to Ford’s $26 billion, General Motors’ $38 billion, and Fiat-Chrysler’s $16 billion. In a single day’s trading, Tesla is often able to add or subtract entire market values of its competitors from its own capitalization.
When you look at Tesla’s valuation on a per-car-sold basis, that number becomes even more divorced from the rest of the auto industry. In 2019, Tesla delivered 367,656 cars to customers. For comparison’s sake, Ford sold 5.4 million vehicles worldwide in the same year, while FCA delivered 4.2 million. General Motors, meanwhile, sold 2.8 million in the United States alone.
To simplify things: Tesla was worth more than $200,000 per vehicle it sold in 2019 at the year’s end, compared to Ford’s roughly $6,700 per vehicle sold, back-of-the-envelope calculations show. These comparisons, of course, aren’t the complex valuation ratios or earnings multiples ascribed by investors, but illustrate how the stock’s rise has led some on Wall Street to throw in the towel when it comes to predicting a price. “We’re struggling to play catch-up here with the valuation,” Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas, one of Tesla’s most well-known sell-side analysts, admitted earlier in July.
“It’s hard to see how competitors can catch up,” said Piper Sandler’s Alexander Potter as he slapped the highest ever price target, $2,322, on shares this week. “Tesla’s own capacity is the biggest constraint to share gains.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Q&A: The Masterminds Behind Toyota’s Self-Driving Cars Say AI Still Has a Way to Go
https://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/self-driving/qa-the-masterminds-behind-toyotas-selfdriving-cars-say-ai-still-has-a-way-to-go
Tomi Engdahl says:
The ‘Android Of Self-Driving Cars’ Built A 100,000X Cheaper Way To Train AI For Multiple Trillion-Dollar Markets
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/07/16/the-android-of-self-driving-cars-built-a-100000x-cheaper-way-to-train-ai-for-multiple-trillion-dollar-markets/
How do you beat Tesla, Google, Uber and the entire multi-trillion dollar automotive industry with massive brands like Toyota, General Motors, and Volkswagen to a full self-driving car? Just maybe, by finding a way to train your AI systems that is 100,000 times cheaper.
It’s called Deep Teaching.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it works by taking human effort out of the equation.
And Helm.ai says it’s the key to unlocking autonomous driving. Including cars driving themselves on roads they’ve never seen … using just one camera.
“Our Deep Teaching technology trains without human annotation or simulation,” Helm.ai CEO Vladislav Voroninski told me recently on the TechFirst podcast. “And it’s on a similar level of effectiveness as supervised learning, which allows us to actually achieve a higher levels of accuracy as well as generalization … than the traditional methods.”
“The cost of annotation is about a hundred thousand X more than the cost of simply processing an image through a GPU,” Voroninski says.
And that means that even with budgets of tens of billions of dollars, you’re going to be challenged to drive enough training data through your AI to make it smart enough to approach level five autonomy: full capability to drive anywhere at any time in any conditions.
The other problem with level five?
You pretty much have to invent general artificial intelligence to make it happen.
“If you mean Level five like literally going anywhere in a sense of being able to go off-roading in a jungle or driving on the moon … then I think that an AI system that can do that would be on par with a human in many ways,”
Fortunately, a high-functioning level four self-driving system is pretty much all we need: the ability to drive most places at most times in most conditions.
That will unlock our ability to get driven: to reclaim thousands of hours spent in cars for leisure and work. That will also unlock fractional car ownership and much more cost-effective ride-sharing, plus a host of other applications.
So how does deep teaching work?
Deep teaching uses “compressive sensing” and “sophisticated priors” to scale limited information into deep insights. It’s essentially a shortcut to a form of intelligence. Similar technologies helped us drop the cost of mapping the human genome massively, discover the structure of DNA, and have been used to speed up MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) by a factor of ten.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Navistar teams up with TuSimple to produce self-driving trucks by 2024
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/15/navistar-teams-up-with-tusimple-to-produce-self-driving-trucks-by-2024/?tpcc=ECFB2020
Navistar and TuSimple deepened their two-year relationship on Wednesday, announcing plans to develop and begin producing autonomous semi trucks by 2024.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ford takes cues from Tesla’s playbook with 1,400 HP electric Mustang Mach-E
https://tcrn.ch/2WHhcyo
Ford today unveiled a special edition of its forthcoming four-door electric Mustang. It’s fast because, as mentioned above, speed sells. Seven electric motors produce a total of 1,400 HP, which to put into layman’s terms, is a shit-ton of power.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Camera Startup Light Give Autonomous Vehicles Better Vision than Lidar?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/transportation/sensors/will-camera-startup-light-give-autonomous-vehicles-better-vision-than-lidar
The technology is built around using an array of inexpensive lenses of varying focal lengths and advanced digital signal processing. Light showcased its approach by releasing a standalone camera—the 16-lens L16—in 2017, and sold out of its initial production run; the number of units was never made public.
Part of the magic of Light’s images is the ability to select or change the point of focus after the fact. The multiple camera modules, set slightly apart, also mean that Light cameras can determine a depth value for each pixel in the scene allowing the software to create a three-dimensional map of the objects in the image.
And in 2019, the first cellphone camera using Light’s technology hit the market, the five-module Nokia 9 PureView. It didn’t exactly take the world by storm.
“I think our timing was bad,” Grannan says. “In 2019 smartphone sales started to shrink, the product became commoditized, and there was a shift from differentiating on quality and features to competing on price. We had a premium solution, involving extra cameras and an ASIC, and that was not going to work in that environment.”
Son suggested that, in his view, because Light’s technology could effectively allow cameras to see in three dimensions, it could challenge Lidar—which uses pulses of laser light to gauge distances—in the autonomous car market.
“We were intrigued by that,” Grannan says. “We had envisioned multiple vertical markets, but auto wasn’t one of them.”
though co-founder and CTO Laroia realized it was theoretically possible to scale the abilities of the company’s depth mapping technology so it could work over the hundreds of meters of range needed by autonomous
cameras were separated far enough to make the longer range possible.
“We can cover a longer range—up to 1000 meters, compared with 200 or so for lidar,” says Grannan. “The systems we are building can cost a few thousand dollars instead of tens of thousands of dollars. And our systems use less power, a key feature for electric vehicles.”
At the moment, Light’s engineers are testing the first complete prototypes of the system, using an unmarked white van that they are driving around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Computation happens on a field-programmable gate array; Light’s engineers expect to have moved the circuitry to an ASIC by early 2021.
The prototype is still in stealth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Estonia’s self-driving vehicle producer Auve Tech and Finland’s leading operator of autonomous vehicles Roboride will start operating in #Finland’s city of #Tampere. According to the producer, operations in #Greece will follow.
Estonian-built self-driving buses going international: starting work in Finland, Greece to follow
https://investinestonia.com/estonian-built-self-driving-buses-going-international-starting-work-in-finland-greece-to-follow/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=socialmedia&utm_content=estonian-built-self-driving-buses-going-international-starting-work-in-finland-greece-to-follow
Estonia’s self-driving vehicle producer Auve Tech and Finland’s leading operator of autonomous vehicles Roboride will start operating in Finland’s city of Tampere. According to the producer, operations in Greece will follow.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Develop System That Monitors Tire Wear in Real-Time
The radar system also detects and localizes harmful objects, like nails
https://www.hackster.io/news/researchers-develop-system-that-monitors-tire-wear-in-real-time-4ff4d9c738f3
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/08/13/robottiautoja-testattiin-myos-etahallintana/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Impact of Autonomous Driving on Connected Cars
https://www.eetimes.com/the-impact-of-autonomous-driving-on-connected-cars/
Autonomous vehicle technology is expected to greatly impact connected cars, as much more data will come from an AV, and much more data and content will transfer to each AV. The graphic below shows my perspectives of how AVs will impact connected car data flow. It is a big-picture view showing key connected car segments. The figure looks at the major AV use-cases (even if the deployment timing has large uncertainties). The timeline at the bottom of the figure I believe is optimistic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/11023-usb-3-1-sujuvasti-kayttoon-ajoneuvoissa
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electropages.com/blog/2020/07/self-driving-hospital-beds?utm_campaign=2020-07-21-Latest-Product-News&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=article&utm_content=Self-Driving+Hospital+Beds
Tomi Engdahl says:
Easy Mile Autonomous Shuttle Employs V2X Communication
Operating an autonomous shuttle on public roads provides an opportunity to master new skills for the Easy Mile EZ10 shuttle.
https://www.designnews.com/automotive-engineering/easy-mile-autonomous-shuttle-employs-v2x-communication
Tomi Engdahl says:
Close Connected-Car Security Gaps with Safe FOTA Processes
Malicious car hackings now routinely make headlines. But the rise in cyberattacks isn’t surprising as more automakers incorporate wireless interfaces designed to exchange data externally. Firmware over-the-air updates can help solve the problem.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21136541/close-connectedcar-security-gaps-with-safe-fota-processes?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS200710070&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
Automotive Tech is Off to the Races
COVID-19 may reduce the number of races, but not the amount of new technology for competitions like IndyCar and Formula E.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21136932/automotive-tech-is-off-to-the-races?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS200716070&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R