With CES 2018 in full swing, the Disruptive.Asia inboxes are being deluged with press releases. Many of them are about cars, whether connected, autonomous or both. And all of them essentially offer bright shiny utopias in which cars will be transformed into mobile self-driving personalized entertainment kiosks that can also deliver pizzas.
I’m exaggerating. I think. In any case, there’s an awful lot of press releases about it, so for your edification, here is an incomplete* compendium of car-related announcements at CES 2018.
Intel wants to drive your car
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s keynote included a slew of announcements, from the unveiling of Intel’s first autonomous vehicle in its 100-car test fleet to news that 2 million vehicles from BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen will use Mobileye’z Road Experience Management (REM) technology to crowdsource data to build and rapidly update low-cost, scalable high-definition maps throughout this year. Meanwhile, SAIC will develop Level 3, 4 and 5 autonomous cars in China based on Mobileye technology.
Krzanich also disclosed details for the company’s new automated driving platform, which combines automotive-grade Intel Atom processors with Mobileye EyeQ5 chips to deliver a scalabie and versatile platform for Level 3) to Level 5 autonomous driving.
For the record, Krzanich also managed to throw in announcements regarding VR, AI, neuromorphic computing, quantum computing, and a new Guinness World Records* title for the most UAVs airborne simultaneously from a single computer. Read the details here …
What Samsung’s been doing with Harman
Samsung made its own long list of automotive announcements at CES via its recently acquired subsidiary Harman International, starting with a reinvented digital cockpit platform for all vehicle segments that enables drivers to personalize their dashboards using their profiles from mobile devices and the cloud – which also means you can personalize the car even if it’s a rental or borrowed from a friend.
Samsung and Harman also unveiled a new telematics solution, an automotive-grade 5G-ready connectivity solution (which has already been purchased by “a leading European automaker”), the new “DRVLINE” open and modular platform for autonomous driving designed to scale from Level 3 automation up to Levels 4 and 5, and an ecosystem of partners and solutions to further build out Samsung’s open autonomous car platform.
Samsung also said its first Harman-developed ADAS product will be a forward-facing camera featuring lane-departure warning, adaptive cruise control, collision warning and pedestrian warning algorithms, which will begin shipping this year. To the very long press release …
Ford wants to build a transportation mobility cloud …
Ford CEO Jim Hackett and Marcy Klevorn, Ford’s executive vice president for mobility, took the stage to announce Ford’s vision of a “transportation mobility cloud” that would allow cities, fleet operators and others to use a shared platform to manage vehicles and connect people to different types of transportation. Ford is working with Autonomic to develop this open cloud-based platform that can manage information flow and basic transactions between various components in the transportation ecosystem — service providers, personal vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, mass transit systems and city infrastructure, including traffic lights and parking locations. This blog post goes on about it | As does this one …
… And a self-driving delivery network
Ford also talked up its plans to test autonomous vehicles for ride-hailing and delivery services – the latter of which now includes Postmates, which has joined Ford’s self-driving program.
Postmates – creator of an on-demand ‘anything’ delivery app – said the first phase of the pilot will evaluate and measure the merchant and customer experience in self-driving deliveries (both in terms of what it should be and what the technology can realistically deliver) as well as the hardware requirements in terms of integrating with the on-demand network. The pilot will also evaluate how to reach new customer bases in less accessible areas. The Ford version… | The Postmates version …
Toyota’s self-driving delivery concept vehicle (three different ones)
Toyota Motor Corp is also targeting the self-driving service business. To that end, the car-maker announced that its’s developing a self-driving electric concept vehicle designed for tasks like ride hailing and package delivery. The “e‐Palette” concept vehicle comes in three sizes: bus, shuttle and a small delivery vehicle for sidewalks. Toyota said it’s working with companies such as Amazon, Didi Chuxing, Pizza Hut, Mazda and Uber to build the vehicle and related hardware/software, as well as developing services for it. Testing starts in various regions in the early 2020s. Reuters reports …
Qualcomm is very, very busy inside your car
Qualcomm – which has released a whopping fourteen (14!) press releases during CES 2018 (so far) – had plenty of car-related announcements, starting with its partnership with Ford to develop C-V2X technologies for its vehicles. Qualcomm said its first C-V2X commercial solution, the Qualcomm® 9150 C-V2X chipset, is expected to be commercially available the second half of 2018.
Qualcomm also announced that the 2018 Honda Accord features a Snapdragon Automotive Platform to power apps for its in-vehicle infotainment and navigation system, as well as a Qualcomm 4G LTE modem to support the Hondalink vehicle connectivity system. Qualcomm also announced Snapdragon automotive platform deals with Jaguar Land Rover and Chinese company BYD. It’s all here …
Cisco and Hyundai invent “hyperconnected car”
Cisco and Hyundai announced the production of a next-generation, “hyperconnected” car that features a new software-based platform powered by Gigabit Ethernet that will “drive innovation inside the car”. The in-vehicle network features a “Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) architecture” (see what they did there?) that supports over-the-air updates and sets the stage for adaptive technologies, enabling “true sensor integration” and new, high-speed services through an integration layer between software and legacy hardware. Hyundai will feature this new in-vehicle network in their premium 2019 vehicles. The press release explains all …
Also, look at this infographic. Look at it.
BONUS TRACK: Hitachi and Clarion can remember your parking spaces
Technically this wasn’t announced at CES, but it was announced while CES was in session, so we’ll count it – Hitachi Automotive Systems and Clarion announced the development of “Park-by-Memory” autonomous parking technology that remembers the environment surrounding the driver’s home parking spaces. Vehicles equipped with Park-by-Memory can notify drivers that it is possible to park when the vehicle approaches memorized parking spaces. Drivers can initiate autonomous parking by simply pressing a button in the vehicle, or by using their smartphone app. Details here …
*Note: it’s an incomplete list because CES has three more days to go at post time, and because we’ve got deadlines to meet here.
Be the first to comment