Ford and Amazon collaborate to integrate Alexa with Ford vehicles | Telematics Wire

This industry-first in-car capability through Ford SYNC 3 AppLink simply requires drivers tap the voice recognition button on the steering wheel, then say “Alexa,” followed by a question or command.

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

Amazon Alexa seems so much more accurate and intuitive than Siri or other voice services. I wonder if the car environment will retain that ease of use.

BlackBerry QNX and Renesas collaborate on autonomous driving technology platform

Customers now have a credible path from the research environment to ISO 26262 safety-certified production systems

Read the full article at: crackberry.com

More than simply a path, this is an architectural blueprint with three layers of redundancy and fail-operational design. It enables a hack proof automated driving system (SAE ADS) capable of SAE level 4/5 automation with ASIL D and low power for the real world.

What if the Autonomous Car Industry Is Wrong?

Since no one knows when or how it will be possible to monetize autonomous cars, they’re investing billions in anything with the words Autonomy or Mobility, catchphrases of a seemingly inevitable future they don’t understand.

Read the full article at: www.thedrive.com

Just like watching a thrilling game of craps in Vegas, with everyone playing side bets and cheering on the high roller, there is excitement in self-driving cars and money will be made. The question is will they be safe-driving cars?

NAVYA and Keolis with the city of Las Vegas launch completely autonomous, fully electric shuttle | Telematics Wire

During the week-long pilot, the public will be invited to take free test rides of the driverless vehicle, which carries up to a dozen passengers and was designed for use by state and local governments and transit agencies and operators as an efficient, clean-energy alternative to the fossil-fuel powered vehicles of today

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas – baby!

AGL’s v3.0 automotive spec is ready for the road

In the ARM world, Renesas recently released several third-generation R-Car starter kits that are optimized for both AGL and the rival GENIVI Alliance spec, which similarly focuses on open source Linux IVI development. The kits, one of which includes a newly announced R-Car H3 SoC, are designed for ADAS, infotainment, reconfigurable digital clusters, and integrated digital cockpits.

Read the full article at: hackerboards.com

The new R-Car starter kit is on every developer’s desk or wish list since it is supported by every popular automotive OS project.

Univ of Waterloo and Renesas developing a reference design for autonomous driving | Telematics Wire

“We are pleased to have the University of Waterloo as a contributing partner to our new autonomous vehicle,” said Amrit Vivekanand, vice president, Automotive Business Unit, Renesas Electronics America. “With Waterloo, we have established a deep working relationship, engaging with them beyond traditional academic levels of collaboration.”

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

Universities are on the cutting edge of autonomous research, it makes sense to collaborate and build a community response to help automakers design these cars to be safe and buildable.

Secure FuSa Autonomous Architecture by Renesas – CES 2017

Watch John McElroy as he learns of the advanced safety engineering underway by Automotive Electronics leader, Renesas. Their focus is not just on self-driving, but rather on safe-driving using a fully balanced architecture with intelligent fail operational redundancy while retaining realistic power/heat specifications.

This is an architecture that can actually be built by carmakers. Six computers in 2 housings consuming a total of  25 watts – that’s about 10% of a typical Intel Xeon server or a couple Nvidia Graphics cards. And leaves room for secure communication overhead to prevent a hacker from taking over the car.

Hyundai showcases its affordable self driving car in Las Vegas | Telematics Wire

The company has used computer with less computational power which relys on less sensory data and  hence built a cheaper car  when compared to its competitors.

Read the full article at: telematicswire.net

Autonomous will only catch on if the costs are low, and expensive, large computer chips will never make the mainstream and deliver the volume safety benefits.