SW-defined vehicles; EV big Ohio investment; electronic animated eyes on cars; Polestar’s electric SUV; cybersecurity standards; finding HW vulnerabilities; cyberattacks; Apple’s false alarms; Meta’s mixed reality headset; robot bartender; eFPGA integration
Hyundai announced all of its vehicles will be software-defined vehicles (SDVs) by 2025. The company said all newly launched Hyundai vehicles will be able to receive over-the-air software updates next year, and that it expects to register 20 million vehicles to its Connected Car Services system by 2025. Hyundai also said it will invest the equivalent of more than $12 billion in “software technology to integrate hardware and software technologies and enhance and internalize mobility technology capabilities.”
EV startup Lucid said it is on track to produce 6,000 to 7,000 battery-powered sedans by the end of the year. Lucid announced last year that it aimed to produce 20,000 cars in 2022, but supply chain issues made it difficult for the company to secure the necessary components and Lucid reduced the production target multiple times. EV startups like Lucid and Rivian were expected to wrestle market share away from major automotive OEMs but have so far been unable to do so. Rivian recently recalled nearly all of its vehicles due to a steering defect.
Stanford researchers unveiled an untethered exoskeleton boot that uses machine learning to adapt to the wearer’s movements. The device allows users to walk and run faster with less effort, which could be particularly useful to the elderly and others with mobility impairments, the researchers said.
Honda is coming on strong with big investments in EVs in Ohio, including a $3.5 billion new EV battery plant in Ohio, which is a joint investment with LG Energy Solution. Additionally, $700 million will be invested to retool existing plants in Ohio to produce EVs.
Big electronic animated eyes affixed to the outside of vehicles may cut down on potential traffic accidents, according to this recent study. The eyes are designed to signal to pedestrians whether or not the autonomous system has “seen” the pedestrian. (See fig. 1)
Fig. 1: Jeepers creepers, where’d ya get those peepers? Source: University of Tokyo
Polestar unveiled its electric SUV this week, featuring 517 horsepower, estimated 300 miles of range, and an ~$84k price tag. The SUV will be built in China starting next year, and in the U.S. in 2024.
There’s more to the self-driving world than automobiles. While the industry is heavily invested in the profit-generating and life-saving potential of autonomous cars, there are lessons to be learned from autonomous technology in ships, tractors, delivery robots, and other vehicles. Read more here.
A newly-released fact sheet from the White House includes a system for labeling consumer IoT products based on their cybersecurity standards. The goal is to “help American consumers easily identify secure tech to bring into their homes,” and the program’s initial focus will be routers and home cameras. Among the other measures outlines in the fact sheet: minimum cybersecurity standards for critical infrastructure including rail and pipelines, developing quantum-resistant encryption standards, and strengthening the federal government’s cybersecurity requirements.
Identifying hardware vulnerabilities early in the design process is much less costly. This study looks at how security-specific scanners that operate on Verilog source files could indicate parts of a code that may contain MITRE’s common weakness enumerations (CWEs).
The pro-Russia hacking group Killnet said it was behind a cyberattack that brought down several U.S. airport websites Monday. The DDoS attack affected multiple websites including those for Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago O’Hare but there appeared to be no impact on air travel operations.
A programmable accelerator chip can simplify semiconductor design at the edge, where chips need to be high performance as well as low power, yet developing everything from scratch is too expensive and time-consuming. Programmability allows these systems to stay current with changes in algorithms, which can affect everything from an end device to the system that interoperates with that device.
Apple’s new crash detection feature is creating false alarms on roller coasters, triggering 911 calls.
Meanwhile, Meta’s newly released Quest Pro mixed-reality headset — with 10 advanced VR/MR sensors, spatial audio, 256GB storage, 12GB RAM, and a Snapdragon XR2+ processor — created sticker shock among gamers. It lists for $1,499. Apple is expected to be Meta’s chief competitor in the mixed-reality market, although nothing new has been released yet.
An Estonian company used Siemens’ Solid Edge product development software to design an autonomous robot bartender called Yanu. Yanu is featured prominently in Siemens’ reveal of Solid Edge 2023, which contains several upgrades along with new licensing options. “Alongside our work to bring innovative technology and capability to each release of Solid Edge, covering everything from 3D design through advanced CAM and into technical publications, it’s key that we also evolve how we make these capabilities available to our community,” said John Miller, Senior Vice President, Mainstream Engineering Software, Siemens.
Sony introduced an in-ear hearing aid with a rechargeable battery good for 70 hours of continuous use. The announcement is the first in an expected wave of announcements by electronics companies, which will be sold without a prescription for the first time starting next week.
IoT designers and others could learn something from data center architects, said Flex Logix vice president of sales Andy Jaros. Jaros writes here about integrating eFPGAs into ASIC to increase SoC performance without radically changing a chip’s manufacturing process or hardware/software architecture. “Most SoCs today are not leveraging the power of FPGA based programmable accelerators which means there’s a wealth of opportunity to greatly increase performance in SOCs,” said Jaros.
Oct. 3-21, Samsung Foundry Forum & SAFE Forum, San Jose, EMEA, Japan, Korea, China
Oct. 19-21, Electronic Specialty Gas Conference, Chandler, AZ
Oct. 20-11, IEEE ISICAS: International Symposium on Integrated Circuits, Bordeaux, France
Oct. 24-28, Hardwear.io Security Trainings and Conference, The Hague, Netherlands
Oct. 25-27, PAINE: Physical Assurance & Inspection of Electronics, Huntsville, AL
Oct. 26-27, Arm DevSummit, Online
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