Sensor Fusion Challenges In Cars


The automotive industry is zeroing in on sensor fusion as the best option for dealing with the complexity and reliability needed for increasingly autonomous vehicles, setting the stage for yet another shift in how data from multiple devices is managed and utilized inside a vehicle. The move toward greater autonomy has proved significantly more complicated than anyone expected at first. There... » read more

Software-Defined Vehicles


Automobiles long ago stopped being purely mechanical systems. But as more components are electrified — and, in particular, as the drivetrain is electrified — cars are becoming software-defined vehicles. Some think of such cars as computers on wheels. But as these systems continue to evolve, adding in more assisted and semi-autonomous capabilities, that comparison is looking increasingly ... » read more

Bridging The Gap Between Driven And Driverless Cars


Today, 91% of car accidents worldwide are caused by some form of human error. Moving to ADAS functions, such as Automatic Emergency Braking or Lane Keep Assist, and autonomous vehicles (AVs) will significantly improve road safety and reduce costs associated with accidents, such as car and highway repair, police, ambulance, and insurance. However, to be fully autonomous will take many years, if ... » read more

AAA’s Evaluation Of Active Driving Assistance Systems


Source: AAA (American Automobile Association) AAA conducted closed-course testing and naturalistic driving on 2019 BMW X7 with “Active Driving Assistant Professional”, 2019 Cadillac CT6 with “Super Cruise™”, 2019 Ford Edge with “Ford Co-Pilot360™”, 2020 Kia Telluride with “Highway Driving Assist” and 2020 Subaru Outback with “EyeSight®”. For technical pa... » read more

The Very Long Road To Autonomous Vehicles


It may be a long wait before fully autonomous vehicles hit the road. Even semi-autonomous vehicles aren't doing so well. The American Automobile Association drove 4,000 miles in cars equipped with active driver assistance, averaging problems every 8 miles. AAA cited a host of problems, including driving too close to other cars or guardrails, aggressive braking, and automated steering that wo... » read more

Virtualization In The Car


As the automotive industry grapples with complexity due to electrification and increasing autonomy of vehicles, consolidation of ECUs within vehicles, more stringent safety and security requirements, automotive ecosystem players are looking to virtualization concepts in a number of ways to realize the vehicles of tomorrow. One way is with hardware virtualization; the ability of a device such... » read more

Semicon West Day Three


It’s day three at Semicon West. (In case you missed it, here’s the day one/two recap of Semicon.) Day three was fairly lively, featuring several keynotes, panels and technical presentations. It’s difficult to write about everything. So I decided to only focus on a few items. Keynote--What happen to automotive? For years, automotive has been a bright spot in the semiconductor i... » read more

Designing For Extreme Low Power


There are several techniques available for low power design, but whenever a nanowatt or picojoule matters, all available methods must be used. Some of the necessary techniques are different from those used for high-end designs. Others have been lost over time because their impact was considered too small, or not worth the additional design effort. But for devices that last a lifetime on a si... » read more

Using Fab Sensors To Reduce Auto Defects


The semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem has begun collaborating on ways to effectively use wafer data to meet the stringent quality and reliability requirements for automotive ICs. Silicon manufacturing companies are now leveraging equipment and inspection monitors to proactively identify impactful defects prior to electrical test. Using machine learning techniques, they combine the monitor ... » read more

Data Strategy Shifting Again In Cars


Carmakers are modifying their data processing strategies to include more processing at or near the source of data, reducing the amount of data that needs to be moved around within a vehicle to both improve response time and free up compute resources. These moves are a world away from the initial idea that terabytes of streaming data would be processed in the cloud and sent back to the vehicl... » read more

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