Behold the Perfect Solution for Passing Big Rigs

Can’t see whether another car is coming? Just check the TV.

Source: www.popularmechanics.com

This is a fantastic idea, and a great way to sell lots of LCD monitors in a safety setting. I wonder how many truckers will implement and both confuse and entertain the drivers behind them. Reminds me of the transparent Bond car with a fully LED projection paint job (http://jamesbond.wikia.com/wiki/Aston_Martin_V12_Vanquish):

The V12 Vanquish rose to fame after being featured as the officialJames Bond car in Die Another Day, the twentieth James Bond film. In the film, the Vanquish has the usual Bond film embellishments, including adaptive camouflage which rendered the vehicle virtually invisible.

Local Motors: Building a community, and cars, in the cloud – Thoughts On Cloud

A new kind of car manufacturer relies on the cloud to keep its virtual community of designers in sync If you’ve heard of Local Motors, it may be because of an audacious stunt the company pulled at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show in January, using a giant 3-D printer to print a car called …

Source: www.thoughtsoncloud.com

Local Motors may never have a large production line, but they can certainly teach some lessons that are no less significant than Tesla has. The auto industry is starting to understand how leveraging the community is better than leveraging the suppliers.


The news from Ford which aligns nicely is a testament to this kind of innovative thinking. https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2015/06/23/ford-collaborates-with-silicon-valley-innovation-ecosystem.html


Connected Cars: Circling The Wagons – Joe Barkai

The connected cars space continues to mature, driven by non-traditional product and service companies. OEMs should take heed or miss the opportunity!

Source: joebarkai.com

I can’t figure out who is inside the wagons, or the inner circle. Is it the OEMs or the customers? In the car business the OEMs often leverage the customers into buying bundles of features they might otherwise not want, whereas CE buyers pick and choose more. When these things really open up I’m not sure the OEMs will be prepared for that complex feature assortment, or will finally settle on just a few that “just work”.

BlackBerry’s Software Growth Takes Hold as Smartphone Sales Fall

“The results showed that Chief Executive Officer John Chen is moving the company closer to his goal of doubling yearly software revenue to $500 million by March 2016. Software revenue soared 153 percent to $137 million last quarter. Still, the company has a long way to go before businesses like security-focused software make up for the slump in smartphone sales. BlackBerry, which sold just 1.1 million devices last quarter, has partnered with manufacturers to cut costs and try to turn the shrinking handset unit back to profit.”

Source: www.bloomberg.com

Looks like BB is doing what they said they would, improve performance through software. With such a strong legacy in security tech and reliability, their software is a great fit for not only infotainment systems in cars, but safety systems that improve driving. This is the growth area for software and BB may be the one to capture a large share.

Video: Nokia HERE confirms Jaguar XJ is using its guidance

“Jaguar’s new flagship XJ is the second vehicle in the Jaguar family, following the XF, to pack in the latest InControl Touch Pro infotainment technology, powered by HERE.

As the first brand to fully incorporate HERE Auto, Jaguar is leading the way with the most advanced guidance system on the market – taking full advantage of being deeply embedded within vehicles and offering a mobile and web companion application for when drivers step out of their cars.”

Source: telematicsnews.info

Many would think Google Maps would overtake the embedded navigation by now, but this collaboration shows there is still a lot of innovation options. I like the deep personalization and “Approach Mode” with parking integration. This system delivers a great experience and uses Linux as its OS and blends Open Source with commercial code elegantly.

Uber hires ex-Google Maps chief for driverless car project

Uber is getting serious about maps, and it has poached the former head of Google Maps to lead the charge. Brian McClendon, a Google engineering VP and 10-year company veteran, will be overseeing Ub…

Source: safecarnews.com

Google Maps + Uber = Autonomous taxi service? In Uber’s case I wonder where the savings will be, perhaps their drivers are the largest cost in their service. If you did not have drivers though, Uber will have to own the self-driving cars.  See labor analysis: http://time.com/money/3678389/uber-drivers-wages/. The real money is in the high resolution maps that all the geo mapping servers want. Uber drivers could help build and maintain that database with their cars I suppose.

JLR invests millions to make entire fleet connected

Jaguar Land Rover aims to have all its new vehicles connected by the end of this year and has spent millions to acheive this. Mike Bell, who was appointed global connected car director in 2012, told Automotive News Europe why this is so important to the carmaker.

Source: europe.autonews.com

100% of the new vehicle fleet connected is a pretty big goal. I wonder who else besides GM could make that claim?

Toyota to explore Ford’s SDL in-car smartphone app interface

(Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp said it reached an agreement with Ford Motor to explore collaboration for the implementation of Ford’s SmartDeviceLink (SDL) technology in future Toyota and Lexus vehicles. SDL is an open source platform that integrates smartphones apps with vehicles through dashboard buttons, display screens and voice recognition technology.

Source: www.automotiveitnews.org

This update includes comments from both Ford and Toyota. If these companies can collaborate on the smartphone topic and further develop a solution, the majority of cars could have the same technology.

“Getting cross-department cooperation is critical.” Functional Safety at Jaguar Land Rover by Roger Rivett

“Getting cross-department cooperation is critical.” Functional Safety at Jaguar Land Rover by Roger Rivett – Roger Rivett works as Functional Safety Technical Specialist at Jaguar Land Rover, UK and is a long-time member of the International ISO 26262 Committee. During this year’s 5th International

Source: www.automotive-iq.com

It is not a trivial task to move up to functional safety (ISO262) as IVI developers will soon learn. It affects the entire organization including the OEM supply chain. This process is now being accelerated as OEMs are being compelled to demand ASIL A-D certification, not on the components of a system only, but the entire product. An ADAS rich vehicle that cooperates internally between the systems become a very complex and expensive platform if not pre-integrated to some extend. Departments inside and outside the carmaker need to cooperate, this is also known as the COMMUNITY. Borrowing methodologies from Open Source will help greatly here.

Driving The Connected Car onto the Open Road