Autonomous – Page 2581 – I wish I had more to offer

Velodyne Advancing Lidar Sensor Testing and Validation

April 1, 2019 Matthew Jaster of Power Transmission Engineering spoke with Dr. Mircea Gradu, Velodyne’s Sr. Vice President of Quality and Validation, about Velodyne’s initiative to bring the AV community together to identify requirements and methods for lidar sensor testing and validation. In discussing the initiative, Gradu said: With the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry in… Continue reading Velodyne Advancing Lidar Sensor Testing and Validation

“Was never there, I’m not there”

An electric sports car named Piëch – this model study caused a stir recently at the Geneva Motor Show. The ex-VW super father should not have much left for the project of a son. Julian Stratenschulte / dpa Ex-VW supervisory board boss Ferdinand Piëch Sunday, 31.03.2019 00:06 clock As a patriarch moved to old school… Continue reading “Was never there, I’m not there”

Kia Motors posts global sales of 242,617 vehicles in March

Kia Motors Corporation announced March 2019 global sales figures for passenger cars, recreational vehicles (RVs) and commercial vehicles, which totaled 242,617 units sold. The total sales figure saw a slight increase from the same month last year, when it reached 242,608 units in sales. Kia’s best-selling model in global markets in March was Sportage SUV… Continue reading Kia Motors posts global sales of 242,617 vehicles in March

New advanced vehicle safety features will become mandatory in 2022 across EU

BRUSSELS, 26-Mar-2019 — /EuropaWire/ — Provisional political agreement on the revised General Safety Regulation has just been reached by the EU institutions. Passengers, pedestrians and cyclists will be better protected as new safety technologies will become mandatory across EU in 2022.

Some 90% of all fatalities and injuries on our roads are caused by human errors and new technologies on the market can help reduce that number.

Last year, the Commission proposed things like the dangerous blind spots on trucks and buses and technology that warns the driver in case of drowsiness or distraction to become mandatory as part of vehicle safety measures aimed at helping save lives.

Number of accidents are expected to be reduced due to advanced safety features, which will pave the way towards increasingly connected and automated mobility, and boost the global innovation and competitiveness edge of the European car industry.

The European Parliament and the Council are now expected to approve formally the political agreement reached by the European Parliament, Council and Commission in the so-called trilogue negotiations.

2022 is set for the new safety features to become mandatory in EU. Exception is made for only direct vision for trucks and buses and enlarged head impact zone on cars and vans, which will follow later due to the necessary structural design changes.

The proposed car safety features that will become mandatory in the European Union from 2022:

Advanced emergency braking (cars, vans)
Alcohol interlock installation facilitation (cars,
vans, trucks, buses)
Drowsiness and attention detection (cars, vans,
trucks, buses)
Distraction recognition / prevention (cars, vans,
trucks, buses)
Event (accident) data recorder (cars, vans, trucks,
buses)
Emergency stop signal (cars, vans, trucks, buses)
Full-width frontal occupant protection crash test –
improved seatbelts (cars and vans)
Head impact zone enlargement for pedestrians
and cyclists -safety glass in case of crash (cars and
vans)
Intelligent speed assistance (cars, vans, trucks,
buses)
Lane keeping assist (cars, vans)
Pole side impact occupant protection (cars, vans)
Reversing camera or detection system (cars, vans,
trucks, buses)
Tyre pressure monitoring system (vans, trucks,
buses)
Vulnerable road user detection and warning on
front and side of vehicle (trucks and buses)
Vulnerable road user improved direct vision from
driver’s position (trucks and buses)

Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs:

“Every year, 25,000 people lose their lives on our roads. The vast majority of these accidents are caused by human error. We can and must act to change this. With the new advanced safety features that will become mandatory, we can have the same kind of impact as when the safety belts were first introduced. Many of the new features already exist, in particular in high–end vehicles. Now we raise the safety level across the board, and pave the way for connected and automated mobility of the future.”

The measures proposed will help save over 25,000 lives and avoid at least 140,000 serious injuries by 2038, according to the European Commission and this is expected to contribute to the EU’s long-term goal of moving close to zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050 (“Vision Zero”).

The new advanced safety features in the vehicles will help drivers get gradually used to the new driving assistance. Automation, for instance, offers significant potential to compensate the human errors and will as well offer new mobility solutions for the elderly and physically impaired. Those measures, among others, are expected to enhance public acceptance of and trust in automated cars, supporting the transition towards autonomous driving.

What has been done so far:

Over the past few years, a range of mandatory measures have been introduced by the EU, which have contributed to an estimated reduction of 50,000 fatal traffic casualties per year. Electronic stability control systems on all vehicles, as well as advanced emergency braking systems and lane departure warning systems on trucks and buses are part of those measures.

The public consultation with the stakeholders on potential improvements to current vehicle safety measures has been launched in 2017. In May 2018, the Commission then proposed a review of the General Safety Regulation and the Pedestrian Safety Regulation, under the Third “Europe on the Move” set of actions. The revised General Safety Regulation goes hand in hand with an efficient safety management of road infrastructure, where the Commission’s proposal was agreed in February 2019.

The European Commission has also presented a Communication on Connected and Automated Mobility to make Europe a world leader for autonomous and safe mobility systems. As a first deliverable for connected mobility the Commission had adopted new rules that step up the deployment of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) on roads in Europe. The C-ITS allow vehicles to ‘talk’ to each other, to the road infrastructure, and to other road users – for instance about dangerous situations, road works and the timing of traffic lights, making road transport safer, cleaner and more efficient.

SOURCE: European Commission

MORE ON VEHICLE SAFETY FEATURES, CAR SAFETY TECHNOLOGIES, ROAD SAFETY:

2025AD.com: database of recent studies relating to artificial intelligence, urban mobility, road safety, legal matters and ethics – To start with, there are 20 surveys concerning the categories of technology, artificial intelligence, acceptance, emissions, urban mobility, road safety, legal matters and ethics, market analysis, human-machine dialogue (human machine interface, HMI), as well as mobility services…

CLAAS and BMW create the Large Vehicle Alert System to promote road safety – The company is teaming up with BMW AG at Agritechnica, the world’s leading trade fair for agricultural machinery, to show how, in future, car drivers and motorcyclists can be given advance warning of the presence of large machines on the road ahead…

Telefónica I+D introduces an app to encourage good driving habits and road safety – Drivies – The app, available free of charge on the most recent iOS and Android smartphones and created using TID technology, detects speeding, distractions due to the use of mobile phones while at the wheel and abrupt driving behaviours…

Continental’s Road Condition Observer increases active driving safety by detecting road conditions – The international technology company Continental is developing a new solution called Road Condition Observer in response to this threat…

ZF TRW demonstrates automated driving concept and advanced occupant safety technology on Rinspeed’s new ‘Etos’ at CES 2016 – ZF TRW, the Active and Passive Safety Technology Division of ZF Friedrichshafen AG, is highlighting an automated driving concept and advanced occupant safety technology on Rinspeed’s new ‘Etos’…

Bosch launches new generation of inertial sensors SMI7xy for increased safety in vehicles – The SMI7xy sensor platform is designed specifically for use in active and passive safety systems and in driver assistance systems…

New BMW i8 Coupe Safety Car unveiled at the Mexico City E-Prix – The livery of the new safety car is designed by Michael Scully, Head of Design BMW Motorsport and is meant to show the close relationship between this special BMW i8 Coupe and the BMW iFE.18 race cars…

Mercedes-AMG introduces the new official high-performance cars for maximum safety in the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship™ – Baptism of fire on the race track: The GT S and the C 63 S – the new high-performance cars from Mercedes-AMG – provide for maximum safety in the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship™…

Volkswagen and Siemens to further improve road safety especially at crossroads – To achieve this, new functionalities have been developed for the local exchange of information between vehicles and digital transport infrastructure. The overall system uses the Car2X technology WLANp (ITS-G5) and is currently undergoing tests on Wolfsburg roads…

Hyundai Mobis Secures the First Deep Learning Image Recognition Camera Sensor in Korea

SEOUL, South Korea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–On March 31, Hyundai Mobis (KRX:012330), announced during its meeting at the KINTEX Seoul Motor Show that the company would be the first in Korea to secure the global-caliber ‘deep learning-based high-performance image recognition technology’ for recognizing vehicles, pedestrians and geographical features of the road by the end of the year, and… Continue reading Hyundai Mobis Secures the First Deep Learning Image Recognition Camera Sensor in Korea

Subaru Corporation Announces Organizational Changes (Effective April 1, 2019)

April 1, 2019

Subaru Corporation Announces Organizational Changes (Effective April 1, 2019)

Tokyo, April 1, 2019 – Subaru Corporation announces the following organizational changes with effect from today.

[ Overseas Sales & Marketing Division 2 ]

Both departments have been renamed to clearly identify the regions and markets for which they are responsible.

To clearly identify the regions and markets for which it is responsible, Sales & Marketing Department 2 has been divided into the China Business Department and the Asia Business Department.
The Asia CKD Business Department, which is responsible for work relating to CKD production in Malaysia and Thailand, has been integrated into the Asia Business Department.

[ Engineering Division 1 ]

In response to changing automotive product values, units responsible for infotainment and telematics development and evaluation of cooperative vehicle control systems, which belonged to the 2nd and 3rd Vehicle Research & Experiment Departments, have been combined to form a new department.

[ Purchasing Division ]

A unit responsible for purchasing advanced technology components, which belonged to the 2nd Purchasing Department, has been made independent to form a new department.

The 4th Purchasing Department, which is responsible for purchasing interior and exterior parts, has been integrated into the 1st Purchasing Department.

[ Aerospace Company ]

With a view to business in fields such as optionally piloted vehicles, the Unmanned Aircraft System Design Department has been renamed the Autonomous System Design Department.

* Related past news release:
https://www.subaru.co.jp/press/news-en/2019_03_01_6952/

[PDF/181 KB]

Aptiv to share its self-driving car data to help other researchers – CNET

Aptiv operates self-driving vehicles in partnership with Lyft in Las Vegas. Aptiv Automotive technology company Aptiv wants to help advanced research into computer vision and autonomous-driving technologies by sharing some of the information it has already gathered in the real world. Aptiv announced this week it will share what it’s calling the largest public dataset… Continue reading Aptiv to share its self-driving car data to help other researchers – CNET

Berlin-based automotive AI startup Teraki raises €2 million and launches DevCenter for customers

Berlin-based automotive AI startup Teraki has developed a platform that promises to bring a more than tenfold increase in efficiency to components used in automotive electronics, a €350 billion industry. Founded in 2014, the startup has now raised €2 million from Hong Kong-based Horizon Ventures and American Family Ventures, bringing its total funding to €4.7 million.

Teraki’s software allows for the scaling of insurance, predictive maintenance, and autonomous driving applications by providing access to more qualitative data. When embedded in automotive electronic systems, the software enables hardware to process more than 10 times more data – without loss of information to train – and run machine learning methods of its customers.

By applying techniques originally developed for quantum computing, Teraki is able to condense data to as little as two percent of its original size. This means that with Teraki pre-processing, applications run more than 10 times faster than implementations..

As Lyft goes public, profitability is a long-term goal, not a near-term likelihood

Lyft beat Uber to the punch on Friday — the number-two ride hailing service in the U.S. was the first to go public, pricing shares ahead of the IPO at $72. The stock popped as much as 20% in the first minutes of trading, valuing the company at nearly $25 billion.

But Lyft is deeply in the red today, with a net loss of $911 million in 2018. During its road show, Lyft told investors that eventually, it expects to hit twenty-percent margins. The company just didn't say when.

A fierce competition

Uber, which is expected to go public next month, still commands greater market share than Lyft.

It offers rides on-demand in 65 countries and has a stake in Didi and Careem, which operate in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, respectively.

Lyft is far behind Uber when it comes to coverage. In 2018, its geographic expansion focused on coverage in 95 percent of the U.S., and some new locations in Canada, filings ahead of its IPO disclosed.

Uber was also the first ride-hailing company to expand into services like food delivery and bike-sharing (via its acquisition of Jump in April 2018) which provide it with different revenue streams.

Lyft has been slower to diversify, although it has invested in other modes of transit as well. It bought Motivate in 2018, a bike-sharing company after Uber bought Jump, for example. It also offers scooters to riders looking for options beyond the car.

Lyft
Lyft has invested in other modes of transit including scooters and bike-sharing.

Uber is making plays in logistics with Uber Freight, short-hop air travel with Uber Air, and driverless taxis with its own autonomous vehicle division, Uber Advanced Technology Group.

Lyft is more focused, although it is starting book passengers into self-driving vehicles via a partnership with Aptiv. It hasn't talked about any plans for air taxis.

The race to profit

The next race will pit these ride-hailing players against each other in a quest for profitability, and the confidence of the public market investor.

D.A. Davidson senior vice president and research analyst Tom White says Lyft is doing well with some traditional sales and marketing efforts, and incentives that keep drivers and riders loyal to their platform.

Long term, he says, “There's the potential for autonomous vehicles and autonomous technology to basically reduce the amount of times Lyft has to pay a driver. And that could be a big, big lever for profitability.”

Uber's costly ambitions and lack of focus could challenge its path to profitability, he suggested. “One of the things we like about Lyft being a little smaller than Uber is the fact that they are more focused,” he said.

Lyft
Lyft says it has facilitated 35,000 rides in autonomous vehicles like this one

Head of research at Manhattan Venture Partners, Santosh Rao, told CNBC: “The macro market is good, IPO sentiment is good, so I think this is the right time to get out and they're doing the right thing.”

Others look at Amazon, which lost money for the first several years it operated as a public company, and Tesla, which has yet to record a profitable year, as examples of growth stocks that didn't always prioritize profits.

For those holding out to see an end to Lyft's losses before buying shares, one recent SIG report forecasts the company will become profitable…but it may take seven years.

WATCH:
Lyft begins trading on the Nasdaq at $87.24 a share

Watch the moment Lyft begins trading on the Nasdaq at $87.24 a share
1 Hour Ago | 02:20

Sigit Automotive invests 12 million in its plastics injection plant for vehicles in Calatayud

Published 3/29/2019 2:50 PM: 06CET CALATAYUD (ZARAGOZA), 29 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) – The factory of Sigit Automotive of Calatayud – auxiliary company of the automobile, dedicated to the injection of plastics for different vehicles – has invested 12 million euros in expanding its facilities to give way to new contracts. In this context, the company… Continue reading Sigit Automotive invests 12 million in its plastics injection plant for vehicles in Calatayud