When 'V' meets 'W' ...

Vehicular Ad-hoc Network as a Kind of Cyber Physical Sytem

2011-12-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

Just recently, I noticed the term of Cyber-Physical-System, which matches well my understanding of VANET as a functional network.

The study of VANET distinguishes itself from the research of other communication systems by the fact that the vehicular communication serves as the means of realizing a physical function system, e.g. danger warning for vehicle drivers and cooperative driving. In such a system, each vehicle is an information source as well as an information sink that is organized into a system towards a target function. In this kind of systems, the communication is more closely coupled with the functionality and has a pattern differing from other traditional communication systems, e.g. MANET, where reliably and timely information delivery is the only target of the whole network. An example of the coupling between the communication and functionality in VANET is the wireless danger warning, where the value of information and the requirements of the communication performance vary from one vehicle to other depending on the position and status of the vehicle. Besides, in VANET the information is also processed during its propagation among vehicles. Communication patterns in VANET have to match its purpose too. A notable example of this is the GeoCast communication combining the broadcast and the vehicle position.

Therefore, instead of the highly abstracted metrics like throughput and delay, more interesting topic of VANET would be the information flow pattern for particular function (service), and for this information flow there must be a communication complexity region behind it.

Coming back to the topic of Cyber-physical-system, it's a interesting and promising area due to the evolution of wireless communications, sensor technology, embedded system, and network computing. There are definitely something interesting we can do ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-physical_system

Large field test of VANET from academic research project in Portugal

2011-10-08T02:43:00.000-07:00

here are the interesting research with field test benches developed in Instituto de Telecomunicações:

http://www.av.it.pt/a.cardote/media/

More interestingly, the researchers have planed a large scale field trial of IEEE 802.11p based VANET involving 400+ taxis in Porto ;-) For more details, please their speech on RTCM 2011.

RTCM_1_Jul_11_s4p2.pdf

So long and thanks for all the Macs ...

2011-10-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

NHTSA: The Safety Pilot planned in Ann Arbor, Mich. staring from Aug. 2012

2011-09-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

According to an article from Wired, a field trial involving 3000 vehicles equipped with V2V communication system is planned in Aug. 2012. The trial will take about one year in Ann Arbor, Mich. to collect sufficient data for V2V standardization and to evaluate the safety applications using V2V wireless technologies.

The original article is available at Feds To Begin Testing Connected Vehicles.

US ITS-JPO selected four firms to provide roadside equipments for the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Program

2011-08-12T03:29:00.000-07:00

Those four are

* Kapsch
* ITRI International, Inc
* Cohda Wireless and Cisco Systems Inc.
* Savari Networks

The original news came from: http://www.its.dot.gov/procurements/roadside_safetypilot.htm

From the news last Oct. there are 8 firms participated the test of DSRC equipments organized by US DOT: http://www.its.dot.gov/press/2010/hia_device_award.htm

* AutoTalks Ltd
* Cohda Wireless
* Cohda Wireless/TomTom
* Denso International America, Inc.
* DGE Inc.
* Industrial Technology Research Institute
* Savari
* Siemens Government Solutions.

This list could serve as a good reference but not complete supplier list of DSRC/802.11p equipments.

Embedded and Vehicular Communications

2011-06-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

Since some time, I've being working on a OMAP based embedded system for a vehicular communication related project. It's really exciting to see how ARM based processors are capable for various tasks, e.g. mobile computing, connectivity, and even supercomputer... See the news about how did Canonical build a super computer out of OMAP4 based pandaboards.

At the moment, I just have the feeling the power efficient embedded SoC chips will be one of the fundamental building blocks dealing connectivity and computing in the Intelligent/Electricity cars...

Followups of GCDC

2011-05-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

With the Team AnnieWay from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Winning the first Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC), Jongh's open source 802.11p Linux driver and the FAST protocol stack were proven to be working in at least the scenarios of GCDC.

There is a article (in Dutch) on the GCDC from university Twente worth to read.

More readings:
- Vehicle to Vehicle Communication Basis for Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge
- Can Cars Talk with Each Other?

Cohda is Active in Car2X World

2011-05-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

Trials are planned in South Australia, according to the press release from AAP. This news shows also the involvement of Cohda, the supplier for German field trial project SIM-TD and the potential supplier for the U.S. IntelliDrive project, will be active in the Australian trials of C2X technologies.

Further readings:
- Smart cars trialled in national first
- Connect Safe Project in Australia
- DSRC Interoperability Study
- NXP and Cohda teach cars to communicate with 802.11p, hopes to commercialize tech by 2014

IEEE 802.11p (WAVE) gains public attention on its sucurity issue

2011-01-25T13:35:00.000-08:00

Is it be easy to hack a car? Will it be easier to hack a highway with IEEE 802.11p?

Reported by COMPUTERWORLD, the emerging IEEE 802.11p technology could become the weak point for the highway safety and toll collection system that working on top of it. Rob Havelt, director of penetration testing at security vendor Trustwave's SpiderLabs, pointed out the threats faced by the emerging Car2Car communication technologies in his briefings at Black Hat DC.

This is not the first time that the security issues of Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) or system alike are discussed. Actually, along with the academia research on Car2Car communication, security has been always studied, e.g. SEVECOM project. However, a perfect security solution for Car2Car is very hard to achieve, if it really exists.

Particularly interesting, the experts of the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) have developed the Linux driver module that can easily turn the COTS WiFi radio into IEEE 802.11p complying ITS transceiver on 5.9 GHz ITS band.

IEEE 802.11p is turning cars into trains

2011-01-25T13:10:00.000-08:00

It could be true that when you are "driving" on the highway and reading the newspaper at the same time. See how Volvo and her partners are turning cars into an autonomously formed train on the highway.

The first demonstration from the EU Framework 7 project SARTRE. (Curtsy to Newscientist )

Man can guess what are driving behind the car-train are wireless radios, sensors and positioning sensors. By putting the chaotic traffic into neatly organized platoons, the technologies are saving energy and protecting us.

It's quite interesting to see the well ordered traffic bring efficiency. Think about the chaotic wireless data packets exchanged among the vehicles. There must be better ways to coordinate the "traffic over the air" than the RANDOM IEEE 802.11p, or?

About the SARTRE project: http://www.sartre-project.eu/en/Sidor/default.aspx

VW presented the results from German project AKTIV

2010-10-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

Updates on VW's research regarding C2X communications:

http://www.auto-car-shop.com/18122/vw-presents-the-results-of-the-project-aktiv/

PreDrive-C2X final event

2010-10-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

Plase see the press release below:

http://www.auto-car-shop.com/18391/pre-drive-project-c2x-reaches-its-next-phase/

Will Electric Vehicle be Cheaper?

2010-08-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

Check this news:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/16/a123-systems-spinoff-24m-technologies-raises-16-million/

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Neuer-Energiespeicher-soll-Elektroautos-billiger-machen-1060954.html

A spin-off from ABC123 system, the lithium-ion battery maker for electric vehicles, will focus on new technology for cheaper energy storage.

If the new technology can cut off 85% of the cost of current energy storage device, which costs about $10,000 nowadays, what will happen then to the automotive industry?

Anyway, I am ready for the era of E-Car ;-)

Have fun!

Overview on U.S. IntelliDrive Project

2010-08-09T08:06:00.000-07:00

Just today, I found a very nice overview article from Shelley J. Row about the U.S. IntelliDrive project: (So far, I have no permission granted from the U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration’s “Public Roads”, where the article was originally published. But you can fine the full text through the following link):

IntelliDrive: Safer. Smarter. Greener.

Carnegie Mellon University: Experiments Helping to Understand the LOS Effect in VANET

2010-08-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

By chance I discovered a very interesting web link from Rui Meireles, a PhD stundent from Carnegie Mellon Unisercity and University of Porto.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rmeirele/los/

It's about the experiments that Rui and his colleagues conducted to discover the effect of vehicles as obstacles in VANET. The results were obtained from field test in real traffic environments in downtown and highway. On the web page, vehicles' realtime position and Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) and Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) are shown through animation in together with the cam recording on the sender vehicle.

Following Rui's link I also discovered the research project "DRIVE-IN" at the Information and Communication Technologies Institute (ICTI) and the Carnegie Mellon University - Portugal Program (Carnegie Mellon|PORTUGAL) by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

The DRIVE-IN project focuses on developling geo-optimized VANET protocols, investigating distributed intelligent and collaborative car routing algorithms and exploring more application and services on the VANET platform. As research methodolgies highly efficient software simulation and a real VANET deployment consisting up to 500 texis in the city of Porto are planned.

Have fun! ;-)

U.S. DOT: Research on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Applications for the Environment: Real-Time Information Synthesis (AERIS)

2010-08-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

20th July, 2010, the research program IntelliDrive of U.S. DOT issued a Request for Information (RFI) to obtain information from the public sector, private sector and academic communities, for planning purposes, on
- ITS application that can make use of IntelliDrive data and resource to improve environmental performance;
- capture and management of real-time IntelliDrive data relevant to environmental appliations development and performance measurement;
- evaluation techniques, performance measurement, and technologies to capture environmentally-relevant data.

The following link provides more details on this RFI:
FedBizOpps Request for Information Notice - Research on Applications for the Environment: Real-Time Information Synthesis (AERIS)

U.S. DOT : Request for Quotation - Development and Production of Dedicated Short Range Communications at 5.9 GHz: "Here I Am" Devices

2010-08-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

16th July, 2010, a solicitation from Department of Transportation ot the U.S. (solicitatoin details on FedBizOpps website) reveals the activities of the IntelliDrive program on Safety Pilot.

From the technical Appendix, one can see the intended device is exclusively elabrated for transmitting "Here I am" message (the SAE 2735 Basic Safety Message). From the standardization point of view, the device has to comply with IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11p, IEEE P1609.2, IEEE 1609.3, IEEE 1609.4, SAE J551, SAE J1211, SAE J2945-1 and SAE J2735-200911. To be noticed, the current technical requirements do not include any sentence regarding the positioning precision. However, there are quite stringent requirments on the PER and transmission range: "The overall device shall support vehicle-to-vehicle communication throughout a range of 1m to
500m with a maximum Packet Error Rate of 0.1%, in an open field."

Through this solicitation, the DOT would like to build up a Qualified Product List, which will be the exclusive vendor list that can participate in the procurement of the Safety Pilot.

The price of the initial devices response to the solicitation was limited to $50,000 each.

So far, there are three vendors listed on the FedBizOpps website as interested vendors. They are:
- Denso Internaltion America, INC.
- Bluemont Technilogy & Research, INC.
- Kapsch TrafficCom INC.

For the detailed information regarding the solicitation, please refer to the following links:
The official information page on the U.S. FedBizOpps website;

AKTIV - Final Project Presentation 2010-06-23

2010-06-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

June 23rd, 2010, the four-year German research project "AKTIV" came to the end with the final project presentation on 23rd and 24th of June 2010 in the testfield of TüV Rheinland, Mendig.

Being considered as the most important project at the moment in this aera, this German national project got most of the EU car manufacturers involoved and contributed to the topics from automotive safety to environment friendly traffic management.

Following are some facts of the project:
AKTIV is the acronym used for the research initiative "Adaptive and cooperative technologies for intelligent transport". AKTIV has an overall budget of €60 million, the majority of which is provided by the research partners. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is contributing €25 million, while the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is providing €2.1 million. The research initiative itself is divided into two main projects in which Volkswagen is heavily involved: "Assistance Systems / Active Safety" ("AS") and "Traffic Management" ("VM"). In addition to these main areas, the initiative also includes the project "Cooperative Cars" ("CoCar").

With an investment volume of €37.5 million, "AS" is the largest project within this research initiative. Besides "Integrated Lateral Assistance" ("IQF"), this project also investigates the four topics of "Active Hazard Braking" ("AGB"), "Intersection Assistance" ("KAS"), "Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety" ("SFR") and "Driver Awareness and Safety" ("FSA").

About €18 million are available in the "Traffic Management" project. In addition to other topics, Situation-Responsive Driving ("STAF") is the focus of intensive research in this project.

"The partners of AKTIV are as follows: Adam Opel GmbH, AUDI AG, AZT Automotive GmbH, BMW Group, Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), Continental, Daimler AG, Ericsson, Ford Forschungszentrum Aachen GmbH, Hessian Road and Traffic Authority (HLSV), Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes - University of Applied Sciences, IBEO, ifak e.V. Magdeburg, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, PTV AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens AG, Technische Universität Braunschweig (Braunschweig University of Technology), Technische Universität München (University of Technology, Munich), Tele Atlas Deutschland GmbH, Transver GmbH, Universität Kassel (University of Kassel), Vodafone Group R&D Germany and Volkswagen AG. Many university and research institutes as well as small and medium-sized businesses have also been subcontracted to work on the projects."

For more information about the event, please see the press release from AKTIV official web site, Ford, VW, AUDI and BMW:

Press from AKTIV;
Press from European Ford Research Center;
Press from VW;
Press from Audi;
Press from BMW.

IEEE 802.11p is DONE!

2010-06-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Finally! Congratulations! :-)

"--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Working Group Reflector ---
...
802.11 had one item on the IEEE SA Standards Board agenda which was the request to approve P802.11p for publication.

The recommendation for approval passed in RevCom on Wednesday and was subsequently approved by the Standards Board on Thursday June 17.
... "

IBM to team with Daimler, HTI on ‘smarter’ cars Read more: IBM to team with Daimler, HTI on ‘smarter’ cars - Triangle Business Journal

2010-06-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

IBM partner with Daimler and HTI to develop new pc for cars.

(http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2010/06/07/daily13.html)

In the meanwhile, GM and Ford are dealing with Google Maps to easy the user to transfer the destination to on-board turn-by-turn navigation.

(http://www.freep.com/article/20100609/BUSINESS01/6090364/Telematics-event-aims-to-add-technology-cut-distractions)

Telemetics in China the Prospective from Yaxon Networks (Xiamen, China)

2009-11-22T02:44:00.000-08:00

http://gps.pconline.com.cn/xp/factory/0911/1909677.html

Quoted:
" 2009年，注定会在中国汽车智能信息服务发展的历程上写下浓墨重彩的一笔。

尽管受到2008年经济危机等多重因素的影响，但1-6月份乘用车市场，产销441.89万辆和453.38万辆，同比分别增长20.96%和25.62%的增幅依然力助中国成为全球最大的汽车生产国之一。火爆的车市与汽车消费观念的日趋成熟，共同唤起消费者对汽车相关服务的强烈需求，其关注点开始逐渐从单纯的购买与使用汽车，向对汽车消费后续服务及配套服务转移。

另一组来自公安部的数据显示，至2009年8月底，全国机动车保有量已经达到1.8亿辆，汽车驾驶员超过1.15亿。科技的进步与社会的发展，促使这个庞大群体中的相当一部分人有了一个共同的体会，汽车已经不再像几年前一样仅仅纯粹是从某一点到另一点的运输工具，它在我们的生活中正在扮演起更多的角色。出行方式的彻底改变以及在汽车上度过时间的大幅增加，让人们对“汽车生活”开始有了新的需求。大家渴望在汽车上就可实时接收个人化、个性化、位置化的信息和娱乐服务。正是在这样的背景下，汽车智能信息服务系统——“Telematics”的概念逐渐走进了中国千万寻常百姓的生活。

蓄势终发 Telematics中国时刻即将到来

融合了汽车、通信、IT领域前沿技术的Telematics（汽车远程信息服务），被誉为20世纪汽车业的第三次革命。全球Telematics产业发展早在上世纪90年代就以开始。尤其在欧美、日韩等发达国家及地区获得较快发展。特别是近几年，随着市场急速发展，世界汽车制造企业普遍把开发与普及Telematics作为当务之急，并出现了诸如ATX科技、Mannesmann Passo、 Tegaron和 Trafficmaster等大量专业的Telematics服务商。尤其是北美地区的Telematics产业发展，已经相对成熟。

在我国，汽车智能信息服务刚刚起步，市场也处于导入阶段，尚未形成完整的产业链。但随着汽车与汽车电子行业的发展以及无线传输方式的成熟，使得中国部分汽车信息服务领域，如车载导航业务的发展具备了相当坚实的基础条件，同时形成了颇为可观的市场规模。

早在2002年，丰田在中国市场推出的首款导航车型—威驰，成为中国汽车导航市场发展的始作推动力，并被视为该市场在中国正式启动的标志之一。之后几年间，随着中国汽车与通讯产业巨大市场的高速发展，更是吸引了众多国内先行者与国外巨头们对此领域的共同关注与探索。

2004年12月，一直领跑中国车载GPS领域行业市场的厦门雅迅网路股份有限公司开始了中国“telematics”正真意义上的商用探索，率先组建远程信息服务中心，并推出第一代汽车远程通信信息终端—“哈车宝”。

2008年7月，日产抢在奥运前夕，在北京推出了结合交通信息的中国首个车载Telematics服务--“星翼”；同年8月，奥迪在北京奥运期间在车载前装导航终端上推出基于TMC的交通信息。

2009年3月25日，装备了G-BOOK系统的雷克萨斯第三代RX350登陆中国市场，标志着由汽车厂商主导的Telematics服务在中国正式商用。

2009年6月，作为北美市场之外的首家OnStar信息服务业务机构，上海OnStar公司宣布，将于今年12月正式为上海通用汽车在中国生产、销售的汽车提供OnStar服务，这些服务将包括碰撞自动求助、紧急救援协助、车门远程应急开启、全程音控领航、车况检测报告等。

2009年8月18日，曾经在中国首开“Telematics”探索之路的厦门雅迅网络股份有限公司凭借其在行业市场多年积累的技术领先性和服务的完备性，将基于通信平台的联网功能和中心服务平台的Telematics服务相结合起来，正式推出“雅迅T818”双模车载导航仪。这种能解决地图升级麻烦的差异化产品与服务，填补了目前国内这一汽车信息服务的空白点，极大推动了国内车载导航服务理念的普及进程。
2009年8月26日，中广移动正式更名为中广传播，并正式发布新导航业务品牌“睛彩”。伴随着中广传播“睛彩”业务的推出，动态交通导航业务也正式开始进入商业化运作的实质阶段。

此外，在通用、丰田、日产的推动下，还有另外8家汽车厂商计划于2013年之前在中国推出Telematics服务……

一时间，整车厂商，电信运营商，GPS厂商……已经集体厉兵秣马、蓄势待发，中国车载信息服务在经过了初期阶段的含蓄后，大有一副在今年全面爆发之势。业内普遍预测，未来几年，随着移动运营商3G建设以及国家对ITS（智能交通系统）重视程度的提高，国内Telematics服务必将迎来一个高速发展的机遇期。甚至有更多业内声音都把2009年定位为Telematics的中国元年。

Telematics产业蓝图已然呼之欲出。

双模导航助力Telematics快速发展

在丰田推出G-BOOK系统之前，中国市场上还缺少真正意义上的Telematics系统及服务。取而代之的，是各类单项的Telematics服务，如车载导航、失窃车辆追踪、路边救援等。

消费电子，尤其是手持终端的迅速发展，如PDA、PND等产品，极大推动了这些单项服务的普及，道路导航便是其中受益最大与发展最快的服务项目之一。

而另一个幕后推手，则是汽车保有量迅猛提升的同时，带来的令整个社会困扰的城市交通问题。面对不断恶化的交通现状，动态导航取代传统的静态导航已成为必然趋势，而检验动态交通导航业务成功与否的关键就在于能否给驾驶者提供更及时、有用的交通信息。这是一个无论是行业的硬件生产商还是软件制造商都不能回避的问题。

以今天国内车载导航领域为例，已经有不少厂商正在积极研发和相继推出与此有关的服务内容。长虹WND430、城际高科推出的城际通广达GD200、以及雅迅公司在今年强势推出的雅迅T818等车载导航产品都是其中的代表。据了解，目前的解决方案主要有两种：一种是在原来导航的基础上加入通信模块，采用的WINCE的平台。但这种方案的普遍存在系统速度慢、话音效果差、GPRS和通话的切换速度慢等问题。而另一种则是在手机的平台上加入 GPS模块，完整的引入导航理念的设计。该设计方案能有效克服采用WINCE导致的上述缺陷。但是在系统的通用性上还需要有进一步的突破与完善。厦门雅迅公司和城际高科的产品应该是在后一种解决方案中处理较为理想的佼佼者。

的确，无论是业内人士还是用户，大家越发深刻的共同感受是，今天我们所能体验到的汽车导航服务，已经不能再是目之所及的简单的表面服务了。创造个性化、差异化、舒适化的导航体验以及人性化的服务理念必将成为未来竞争与发展的焦点。

但回顾目前世面上的车载GPS导航产品，还基本是采用本机地图导航的模式。就是先调用拷贝到GPS导航仪内存或者智能存储卡上地图信息，再通过GPS导航仪设备计算并规划出到达目的地的路径，从而达到导航的目的。为了让导航更准确，GPS地图厂商每隔一段时间就会更新一次地图。相应的，GPS导航设备的持有者也必须配合进行一次地图升级操作。这已经成为目前GPS行业的固定模式。

很显然，由于城市规划和道路建设的飞速变化，本机地图导航的模式已经逐渐不能适应市场的需求。由此，“地图实时更新导航”的概念便应运而生。这一功能的应用，让使用者不必再去考虑升级导航仪内存或者存储卡上的地图资料，就能轻松通过互联网接入，实现读取中心地图最新信息并下载，再通过中心服务器计算，迅速规划出要到达目的地的路径信息并下发到设备。

使用者无需改变自己的操作方法；无需害怕遇到偏僻或者新开的道路，GPS设备无法导航；无需考虑每年都要的升级花费，不用升级照样能使用新地图，在免升级的同时，还能有效地避免本机地图因为没升级造成信息点不全的缺点；也可以有效避免驾驶员在驾车忙碌时去点击屏幕，或者根本无暇设定目的地而带来的安全隐患，保证驾乘人员的出行安全。
__箰讆__430__璺拶__

同时所有的GPS用户还将成为地图的实时更新参与者。只要有了GPS用户的参与实践，其所走过的路线信息记录下来后将可以发到服务中心实现与所有GPS用户的共享。这将极大地避免目前专业GPS地图公司每年花费大量人力物力也无法实现地图有效更新的弊端。有效将资源进行合理的重组与利用。

突破传统的固有模式，不仅支持本机地图导航模式，还能实现地图实时更新导航，并能够在两种功能之间进行自由切换，综合了两种导航模式优势的“双模导航”，相比较采用单一的本机地图导航的产品而言，无论从性能还是应用性方面，显然优势明显。

这也印证了雅迅科技公司总经理黄朝阳的观点，GPS的竞争要点在于包括地图在内的后台管理软件，雅迅的GPS产品是基于互联网GPS导航，拥有统一信息中心，利用网络通信的超强实时处理能力，带给GPS实时服务的创新理念。不久前刚刚问市的“雅迅T818”双模导航仪，正是在这一理念的指引下诞生的新一代导航产品。

另据了解，为迎接3G网络业务的推出，雅迅公司已经开始着手推出3G业务产品，届时，车载GPS就真正成为集视频、通话、上网及安保等功能为一体的全能“车辆管家”。

产业合作共谋Telematics未来大局

Telematics的出现是源于汽车消费者对于汽车安全性、效率性、便捷性、舒适性等多方面的、不断增长的需求。同时，无线通讯技术的不断成熟与广泛运用，使得各大汽车厂商有了将汽车与无线通讯技术相结合的想法，从而实现向汽车消费者提供相关服务的目的。

不少业内人士认为，中国汽车市场正渐趋成熟，整车销售也开始由价格竞争转向服务和品牌的竞争，而能够不断延伸扩展的Telematics服务项目，将帮助整车厂商赢得更多客户的青睐。

来自麦肯锡公司的一份研究报告称，在理想情况下，Telematics服务的全球市场总值将高达1000亿美元。这个数字足以坚定Telematics服务提供商的信心，并吸引更多汽车厂商涉足这一领域。事实也的确如此，在国外，目前几乎大部分知名品牌都已经在尝试开拓这一市场。

Telematics所涉及的各个领域的需求，将产业结构中包括：政府、汽车厂商、GPS服务商、电信运营商、TSP业者紧密的串联在一起，并极有望让汽车产业透过Telematics从制造业转型为服务业，成为带动通信、金融、甚至是医疗与餐饮行业……的龙头产业。

随着Telematics服务的广泛应用以及产业链内厂商的推动，在经历了起步时期的蹒跚之后，全球Telematics产业正稳步进入一个较为理性的增长阶段。Telematics产业将逐步壮大。同时，产业链上相关企业之间的合作关系将随着Telematics市场规模的逐步扩大而不断得到加深，正是这样的背景，加快了车载Telematics服务进入中国汽车消费市场的步伐。促进商业模式将不断完善，并最终推动中国Telematics在多领域的应用发展。

汽车终于赶上了马车！”

这是2007年底在接受采访中，东京大学名誉教授山崎弘郎先生开场的感言。言下之意是回顾过去百年汽车产业的发展，汽车虽然在机械指标方面，不断凌驾于马车之上。然而直到最近，在开始利用电子通信技术，以及配备雷达、GPS、无线通信等多种传感器与对外通信能力后，汽车才开始被赋予了真正的生命，具备了马一样的感觉和智慧，并逐渐开始在办公室与住家间，构成一个无缝隙的崭新生活环境。"

Press Release: Successful eCall demonstration by Qualcomm and Hughes Telematics

2009-11-20T03:52:00.000-08:00

Source: http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=108181

"Successful eCall demonstration by Qualcomm and Hughes TelematicsWEBWIRE – Friday, November 20, 2009
First In-vehicle Emergency Calls over Wireless Networks Completed

SAN DIEGO - Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies, products and services, and Hughes Telematics, Inc. (HTI), a leader in providing next generation telematics solutions, have successfully demonstrated the data transmission technology of the upcoming pan-European, in-vehicle emergency call (eCall) standard over commercial wireless networks at the 12th eSafety Forum Plenary meeting, “eCall Summit”, held in Brussels, Belgium on October 29, 2009.

The use of eCall to deploy emergency assistance will save lives and reduce the social burden of road accidents. The creation of eCall standards and requirements has been triggered by the eSaftety Forum, an initiative of the relevant stakeholders, brought together by the European Commission. An eCall is generated either manually by vehicle occupants, or automatically via activation of in-vehicle sensors, in the case when an accident occurs. When activated, the eCall-enabled, in-vehicle system establishes a 112-voice connection directly with the relevant Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). At the same time, a Minimum Set of Data- including key information about the accident such as time, location and vehicle description - is sent to the PSAP operator receiving the voice call.

Technology provided by HTI and Qualcomm, including an eCall in-band modem, was used to make a call to a prototype of an eCall-enabled PSAP located in Germany. Once the voice call was established, the eCall in-band modem protocol was used to transmit the Minimum Set of Data to the PSAP. The eCall modem was fully integrated on the Qualcomm QSC6270™ chipset embedded in the demonstration unit.

“Safety and security is the cornerstone of our telematics offering,” said Erik Goldman, president of Hughes Telematics, Inc. “Working with Qualcomm to support this initiative in Europe confirms our commitment to the global industry to enhance driver safety and provide a timely and efficient response during emergency situations.”

“Qualcomm has spent the last several years developing eCall technology and standards to further the public objective of helping to save lives on roads,” explains Ed Tiedemann, senior vice president of engineering at Qualcomm. “We are pleased to collaborate with Hughes Telematics on developing and demonstrating an eCall solution that will ultimately enable automakers to integrate this capability in all vehicles"

About Hughes Telematics, Inc.
Hughes Telematics, Inc. (NYSE Amex: HTC) is a leader in implementing the next generation of connected services for the automobile. Centered on a core platform of safety and security offerings, the company develops and manages vehicle- and driver-centric solutions to enhance the driving and ownership experience. Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Hughes Telematics offers a portfolio of consumer, manufacturer, fleet and dealer services provided through two-way connectivity to the vehicle. Networkfleet, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Telematics located in San Diego, Ca., offers remote vehicle diagnostics, an integrated GPS tracking and emissions monitoring system for wireless fleet vehicle management. Additional information about Hughes Telematics can be found at www.Hughestelematics.com.

About Qualcomm
Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Qualcomm is included in the S&P 100 Index, the S&P 500 Index and is a 2009 FORTUNE 500® company. For more information, please visit www.qualcomm.com.
WebWireID108181"

New 802.11p/DSRC mini/PCI module DCMA-86P2 from Unex

2009-11-16T00:48:00.000-08:00

Unex announce their first WiFi mini PCI module to comply with IEEE 802.11p/DSRC standard for V2V, V2R communication applications.

According to the data sheet of DCMA-86P2, it can work with 40, 20, 10 and 5MHz bandwith and support up to 24dBm average power. Supported security schemes include
•64-bit, 128-bit and 152-bit WEP encryption
•802.1x authentication
•AES-CCM & TKIP encryption
•CCX3.0

The module could work with MADWiFi Linux as well as Windows.

I would be intereting to see how the IEEE 1609 protocol stack is supported by this WiFi module. But so far I have no information on hand about this :-(

For more information and the data sheet of DCMA-86P2, please see:
http://www.unex.com.tw/product/dcma-86p2

Third C2C-CC forum at Volkswagen

2009-11-04T15:30:00.000-08:00

3-4, Nov. 2009, the third C2C-CC forum of this year was held in Wolfsburg, the headquarter of VW.

From the program , it can be seen that the focus of C2C-CC's work is current no the standardzation and the SI-TD project is gainning high public awareness. Technical researches are seen in the areas of overall system archtecture involving in multi-system interoperation and scalable VANET through transmit power control.

Source: Car-2-Car Communication Consortium.

An Interesting Report on Automotive Telematics Industry

2009-10-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

The report "Analyzing Automotive Telematics" from Aruvians Research and Markets has been added to their offer list.

Even I have no access to this commercial report, but from the news release it looks this is a quite comprehensive survey on the technologies, the market perspectives, as well as the roles of car manufacturers. There are the key topics covered in the report according to the news release:

"Executive Summary

Introduction to the Industry

* Looking at the Automobile Industry
* Major Technologies in the Automobile Industry

Introduction to Telematics

* Utilization of Telematics
* Telematics Market Segments
* Critics' View on Telematics
* Deployment Expectations from Automotive Telematics

The Impact of Telematics on the Automobile Industry

The Global Telematics Industry

* Industry Overview
* Growth Drivers
* Market Statistics
* Analyzing Market Trends

Analyzing the Failure of the Subscription-based Telematics Model

* Rise & Fall of the Model
* Beyond Subscription Services
* Vehicle Relationship Management
* Customer Relationship Management
* Brand Building
* Value of Telematics
* Conclusion

Looking at the European Telematics Market

* Industry Segments
* In-Car Telematics Terminals Market
* Major Telematics Service Providers
* Future Outlook

Looking at the US Telematics Market

Looking at the Asian Telematics Market

Applications of Automotive Telematics

* Emergency Applications & Security Booster
* Applications in Communication Technologies
* Applications in Entertainment
* Applications in Navigating Traffic
* Applications in Vehicle Telemetry
* Miscellaneous Applications

Analyzing the Performance of Telematics Systems

Trends in Technology

Major Car Manufacturers Active in the Industry

* BMW
* Daimler Chrysler
* Fiat
* Ford
* General Motors
* Honda
* Jaguar
* Mazda
* Mercedes Benz
* Nissan Motors

Judgmental Analysis on Automotive Telematics

* Viability of Industry Growth Projections
* Looking at the Compatibility of Terrestrial Cellular Systems & Satellites
* The Telematics Revolution

Future Perspective of the Industry

* Forecast of the Global Telematics Market
* Forecast of the Automotive Telematics Market"

Link to the report:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d3367e/analyzing_automoti

High Tech Goggles from Ford Helping Driving Safety

2009-10-20T07:41:00.000-07:00

Ford researchers at the company's Human Machine Interface Verification laboratory - or "Distraction Lab" - use state-of-the-art occlusion goggles to help reduce driver distraction.

The original Article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS37904+20-Oct-2009+PRN20091020

Honda's New Electronik Powered Bicycle

2009-10-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

At the 41st Motor Show in Tokyo, Honda will show the green two-wheel lineup includes the much-anticipated EV-Cub electric motorcycle. the EVE-neo electric scooter and the PCX global scooter—which boasts of being the first two-wheeler to employ an “idling stop system.”

The EV-Cub is fitted with the company’s “car2car” and “car2driver” communication system that’s called HELLO! (Honda ELectric mobility LOop) as well as a LOOP hand-held, portable communication tool.

...

Read the original news release.

Renesas Technology Announced the World's First Commercial ITS Verification Test inChangchun City, China

2009-09-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

The Japanese automotive semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Technology announced the world first commercial ITS verification test using WAVE technology in ChangChun City, China.

The verification consists of three buses, eight bus stops and an intersection in equipped with WAVE terminals, developed by Renesas. The WAVE system is used for the information exchange between buses and stops for the applications of bus arrival time prediction, video stream transmission between intersection and buses, as well as onboard surveillance.

For more information, please read the news release from Renesas. (PDF)

ITRI WAVE/DSRC Communication Unit (IWCU) Platform in Taiwan

2009-09-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan released the first IWCU (ITRI WAVE/DSRC Communication Unit) in Taiwan. The IWCU serial products are meant to provide V2V V2R communciatio enabling ITS applications ranging from Safety to Infortainment, as reported in :

http://www.mem.com.tw/article_content.asp?sn=0909250006

GM's V2V Vision on EXPO 2010 and OnStar Service Launched in Shanghai

2009-09-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

By launching the interactive website "www.gmexpo2010.com", GM kicked off its "Drive to 2030" campaign on Expo 2010, where GM will also present its vision on the V2V communication technologies.

News link:
http://media.gm.com/content/media/cn/en/news/news_detail.brand_gm.html/content/Pages/news/cn/en/2009/090924_GM_EXPO

OnStar services from GM and SAIC are announced to be launched in Shanghai, China, on Dec. 6, 2009.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS82214+29-Oct-2009+PRN20091029

Another kick on 5.9GHz DSRC Technology in the U.S.

2009-06-08T05:46:00.001-07:00

according to the attendees at the ITS America annual conference at National Harbor Maryland, Obama administration officials are very interested in road pricing and other ITS technologies. Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) / road used charges are the major topics being discussed. Candidate technologies for such ITS programms include RFID, 5.9GHz DSRC, passive techonolgies, tec.

See the original article:
US officials very interested in VMT/road use charges - ITSA people

and the statement from Turnock, the CTO of Mark IV:
http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/Turnock.pdf

The U.S. GPS may have difficulty from 2010 on

2009-05-22T01:47:00.000-07:00

"It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption. If not, some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected." stated in a report released on April 7, 2009, by US Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to GAO's report the reason is the failure of the US Air Force to successfully complete the GPS IIF satellite program that is three years behind schedule now. It's likely to have old satellites starting to fail and service quality of GPS degrading in 2010.

Well, it sounds like a tragedy to the current GPS navigator users and all business using GPS based location information. But, on the other hand, it's also a positive news for other global positioning systems, like the European Galileo and the Chinese Compass projects, to come into the play.

An AMULETT for Pedestrian Safety with C2X Communication

2009-04-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

The research project AMULETT funded by Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs focuses on the personal safety of pedestrian using C2X communication. That is realized through the cooperative sensor system between the car and the transponder carried by the pedestrian.

This three year research project was led by BMW Research and Technology in together with Continental Safety Engineering International GmBH, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, TUM and ZENTEC GmbH. On 6th of May 2009, AMULETT will presentes the results to the public.

Source: http://www.bmwblog.com/2009/04/22/bmw-car-2-x-communication-improves-pedestrian-safety/

Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Platform Demostrated by European CVIS Project

2009-04-27T03:54:00.000-07:00

11th Dec. 2008, Berlin, a large amount of participants have witnessed the live demonstration of the universal Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communication platform developed by the European Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems (CVIS) project. The demonstration was performed at the test site of German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin-Adlershof.

Two cars communicating with each other and with the road infrastructure have been demonstrated using a mobile router with multiple communication interfaces and innovative positioning techniques. The demonstration showed a seamless connection was maintained the communication interface switching between 3G/UMTS cellular network to WLAN, as well as a smooth handover between infrared and 3G cellular systems. Besides, the denonstration covered also the enhanced positing, real-time maps and location referencing, with precesion higher than one meter.

*Pictures from CVIS project

Orignal news release

Photo courtesy to CVIS Project

The Vehicle Infrastrcture Integration (VII) Program Adopted A New Name: IntelliDrive(SM )

2009-04-27T03:06:00.000-07:00

The well know initiative of Research Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) , Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) program, adopted a new name and logo for attracting growing interest and excitement across the global transportation research community.

The newly adopted name, according to the announcement from RITA on Jan. 9, 2009, is IntelliDrive^SM. And the new logo can be found at: http://www.its.dot.gov/intellidrive/index.htm. According to the announcement, "Though its name has changed, the IntelliDrive^SM program's focus remains: to develop a networked environment supporting very high speed transactions among vehicles (V2V), and between vehicles and infrastructure components (V2I) or hand held devices (V2D) to enable numerous safety and mobility applications."

The original version of this announcement
IntelliDriveSM - Q&A

ITS Research at Tongji University, China

2009-04-06T01:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Google web alert, I got a chance to learn the research performed at Broadband Wireless Communication and Multimedia Laboratory, Tongji University, China. There are some very impressive demonstrations showing their researches on Dedicated Short Range Communication system, Pedestrian and Vehicle Detection based on Video and Autonomous Driving Vehicle.

For the for information and the demonstration videos clips can be found at:
http://wm.tongji.edu.cn/research_areas.aspx

Have fun! :-)

Wireless Wolfsburg and Auto@web on CeBIT 09

2009-03-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

Hannover, 6 Mar., 2009. Volkswagen showcased the projects "Autp@web" and wireless Wolfsburg on CeBIT 2009.

A Tiguan provided wireless internet access was shown to be able to provide the driver with up-to-date information about the environment and surroundings, e.g., the city's event calender, with a litst of local attractions and veneus. This vehicle was build by Volkswagen Group Research within the project "auto@web" and the wireless infrastructure in the city Wolfsburg, one of the biggest connected WiFi city-wide networks in Germany, was deploimented by the project Wireless Wolfsburg.

Related source:
Volkswagen to showcase the "auto@web" project at CeBIT
Wolfsburg, Germany and Volkswagen launch Wi-Fi test bed
Volkswagen’s Internet car talks to citywide Wi-Fi network
The City of Wolfsburg, Germany and Volkswagen Launch 'Wireless Wolfsburg' Using Tropos Networks.
"Wireless Wolfsburg" – Forschungsprojekt auf der Internationalen Zuliefererbörse (IZB) vorgestellt

Car-2-Car Communication System from University of Sourth Australia

2009-02-19T05:26:00.000-08:00

Sydney, 13 Feb. 2009 -- A active safety system using Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology has been developed by a team from University of South Australia. The system use DSRC combining GPS for car communication aiming at safety applications like danger warning. The field trails of this system developed by Cohda Wireless and University of SA have been conducted in the US and Europe, and a large-scale trial is planned for Adelaide, according to the news.

News sources:
- Talking cars alert to danger and may avert crashes at www.news.com.au
- Soon, cars will talk to each other to avert accidents at sindhtoday
- University Of South Australia Says Inter-Car Communication Could Be A Reality By 2012 at www.themotorreport.com.au
- Getting cars talking to reduce accidents at www.australianit.news.com.au
- Cars to become wireless nodes with DSRC radio tech at www.geek.com
- The Next Node on the Net: Your Car! at www.readwriteweb.com

Electronic Nervous System for the Modern Vehicle

2009-02-19T04:09:00.000-08:00

Driver assistance system using cameras and sensors is about to have dramatic effect on the automobile. The article by Christoph Hammerschmidt from EETimes Europe provided a glance on the state of the art on CMOS image sensors and DSP technologies applied in driver assistance systems. As an outlook, the article also revealed that driver assistance systems are evolving to a kind of electronic nervous system for the modern car, which is able to perform lane maintaining, traffic sign recognition, pedestrian recognition and even virtual situation imaging using car-to-car communication.

The article is available at: The thinking car sees a clear road ahead @ EETimes Dec. 2008

"Active Safety Car" Project in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany

2009-02-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

09, Jan. 2009 -- A consortium of six companies led by Delphi Deutschland has launched the research project, namely Active Safety Car, working towards the automotive-based system that utilizes on-board cameras and sensors, as well as car-to-car communication to improve the traffic safety. The project is partly founded by the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state government.

The aim of the project is to develop a system that uses cameras, radars and sensors not only to recognize, but also share and exchange the information with other vehicles about hazards. Therefore, the focuses of research will be real-time image processing, pattern recognition, on-board real-time information processing, and car-to-car communication.

* Figure from allesueberautotechnik.de

* Figure from allesueberautotechnik.de

The consortium consists of Delphi Deutschland, Wuppertal University, Ceteq GmbH & Co KG,
Riedel Communications, and Volkswagen AG. The research tasks cover the following ares:
* Pedestrian safety through pedestrian detection and warning
* Vehicle detection and warning,
* Accident prediction and warning of critical situations,
* Prototype implementation
* Camera based pedestrian and vehicle recognition
* Car-to-Car or Car-to-Infrastructure communication

Source and figure courtesy:
allesueberautotechnik: Active Safety Car
EEtimes: Cars share cameras, radar sensors
www.elektroniknet.de: Projekt »Active Safety Car« gestartet

Intelligent In-Vehicle Road Management Boosts Hybrid-Car Efficiency

2009-02-10T02:18:00.000-08:00

Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is believed to be effective in improving transportation safety and efficiency. For a driver, the most concerned benefits are time saving and fuel efficiency. An article from Peter Fairley, IEEE Spectrum Online, reports the research by Yaoyu Li, an mechatronics expert in University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, which has developed control algorithms that use route and traffic data to allow hybrid vehicles to plan how and when to use stored battery power so as to burn as little gasoline as possible.

PHOTO: David Lewis/iStockphoto (source IEEE Spectrum on-line)

"The idea has merit, according to Tom Robinson, senior manager, control and electronics, at automotive-systems supplier Ricardo, in Shoreham-by-Sea, England. “If you know what’s forthcoming, you can inform vehicle systems to operate more effectively,” says Robinson, whose company has worked on similar algorithms for conventional hybrids. "

The foreseeable effective ITS would consist not only the infrastructure and solutions providing the real-time information from environments, but also mechanisms that use such information and turn the information into real profits for users. Li's research exactly addressed and revealed the potential of the latter.

Article source and photo courtesy: Software Looks at the Road Ahead to Boost Hybrid-Car Efficiency, by Peter Fairley First Published February 2009

Demonstration of Inter-vehicle Communication with Dedicated Moniter in Japan

2009-02-04T15:57:00.000-08:00

Japan, 4th Feb, 2009 -- In the field test of an inter-vehicle communication system, which was conduced by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism in late January 2009, Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) Ltd and Mitsubishi Motors Corp employed a on-board system with dedicated monitor for warning the driver about the approaching risks. Whereas, other carmakers use the navigation screen to alert the driver in their systems, e.g., Honda Motor Co Ltd, Mazda Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co Ltd.
The dedicated monitor overpermes the navigation screen due to the fact that drivers can check the dedicated monitor with less eye movenment.

As illustrated in the following pictures, the dedicated monitor provide warnings by changing the color, indicating the kind and the direttion of dangers with large icons, which are all easy to identifiy for drivers.

"A dedicated monitor is installed on the car navigation monitor. When no vehicle is approaching, the color of the screen is blue. The driver can see the blue color with little eye movement, without looking at the car navigation screen."

"The color of the dedicated monitor turns yellow when there is a vehicle approaching. And the monitor displays an icon corresponding to the type of the approaching vehicle and the possible accident type."

"Mitsubishi's test vehicle. A dedicated monitor is installed on the car navigation system."

"Icons are displayed on the monitor when there is a high risk of collision. The icons in the photo are indicating that a bicycle is moving in the opposite lane when the car is making a right turn at an intersection."

"There is a vehicle approaching in the opposite lane at a right turn."

"The dedicated monitor shows a direction (such as "E" and "W") when there is no vehicle with equipment for inter-vehicle communications in the vicinity."

"Upon the detection of a vehicle with the equipment, the monitor displays the letters "IVC." As long as there is no risk of collision, the monitor continues displaying the letters."

Source and photo courtesy techon.nikkeibp.co.jp

AutoNet -- "From academic literature to the mainstream press"

2009-02-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

The recent media attention to researches on vehicle-to-vehicle communication and autonomous traffic-information system triggered an interesting discussion on the evolution of "Autonet" technology from researchers at UC Irvine’s Institute of Transportation Studies:

"Autonet: the time is now"

Source and photo courtesy : Transportation Project Attracts Media Interest

Test Center for "Connected Vehicle" Technology in Detroit

2009-02-03T06:17:00.000-08:00

Detroit - Jan. 26, 2009. -- The vehicle communication technology is there, and now requires to be implemented and tested and put into production.

The Michigan International Speedway offered its track, which is know for NASCAR events, to the "Connacted Vehicles"initiative as a neutral testing ground for active safety applications using vehicular communication technology. It is said by MDOT's Krueger that the U.S. Department of Transportation pledged $100 million to this effort for a five-year period starting from 2005.

Source: The Detroit News

Fully Integrated 5.8GHz Transmitter from RFMD(R) to Comply with China's Electronic Toll Collection Standard

2009-01-27T06:48:00.000-08:00

Products targeting at Chinese Electronic Toll Collection market emerge... ...

Greensboro, N.C., Jan 20, 2009. RFMD(R) released industry's first fully integrated 5.8GHz transmitter to comply with China's electronic toll collection standard: "GB/T 20851.1-2007: Electronic Toll Collection - Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) PartI: Physical Layer".

The transmitter from RFMD(R), ML5830, uses Amplitude Shift Key (ASK) and Frequency Shift Key (FSK) modulation schemes and operating on 5.8GHz ISM band for ETC applications including On Board Unit (OBU) and Road Side Unit (RSU). The FSK mode provides selectable data rates of 1 and 2 Mb/s.

Alastair Upton, general manager of RFMD's Broadband and Consumer Business Unit, said, "As the industry's first fully integrated 5.8GHz transmitter to comply with China's ETC standard, the ML5830 significantly accelerates time-to-market for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) while allowing RFMD(R) to participate in a growing market segment for wireless data. Also, with the implementation of our proprietary FastWave(TM) microcontroller technology, the ML5830 delivers incremental benefits to designers and OEMs in time savings and simplified design."

The ML5830 is priced at $5.00 each in quantities of 10,000 units and is packaged in a 6 x 6 x 1 mm, 40-pin QFN package. Samples and pre-production quantities are available immediately, and volume production is expected to commence in the June 2009 quarter.

The original article is located at:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=95468&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1246252

Traffic Information Center in Bangkok

2009-01-19T13:45:00.000-08:00

The intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Thailand Association and National Electronic and Computer Technology Center (Nectec) is going to implement a pilot project, namely the Traffic Information Center. The Traffic Information Center is to offer travelers real-time traffic information so they can choose the best routes for city journeys. The center pools, analyzes and sells the traffic-related information supplied by partner organizations, including Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT), Don Mueang Tollway, the Traffic Police, and the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP).

The processed real-time information will be disseminated by a group of organizations acting as traffic information distributors.

"For example, Taxi radio stations can be one traffic information distributor. Instead of collecting data and developing their own traffic-information systems, taxi radio stations can partner with ITS Thailand to distribute information to their networks of taxi drivers," Passakon said.

Mobile phone operators are also expected to become partners of the new centre, to provide traffic information via cellphones, and newly-established companies providing paid services to drivers with in-car navigation systems are also expected to join the new system.

as stated in the original report: Real-time traffic information to be pooled, analysed and sold

Dash Selects NAVTEQ Traffic (TM) for Dash's Connected Navigation Service

2009-01-19T12:38:00.000-08:00

Dash Navigation selected NAVTEQ Traffic(TM) to power the real time traffic application available to current customers of its connected navigator device, the Dash Express(TM).

"Dash Express customers will be able to access NAVTEQ's live traffic data on their devices and receive continuously updated real-time traffic information in more than 75 cities across the U.S., including visual notification of congestion that allows drivers to see potential traffic delays and avoid traffic problems. NAVTEQ Traffic(TM) offers a comprehensive array of proprietary data sources, including probe, sensor, historical, and combined incident and flow information. NAVTEQ Traffic is the recognized leader in real-time traffic, delivering comprehensive, up-to-the minute accurate information to millions of consumers in North America."

Dash Navigation, who introduced the world's first Internet-connected personal navigation device last year, decided in Nov. 2008 to shift its focus from delivering connected navigation devices directly to consumers to licensing its application and service to run on platforms such as onboard navigation systems, smartphones, PDA, and other consumer electronics.

The original release is available at:
http://www.navteq.com/webapps/NewsUserServlet?action=NewsDetail&newsId=690&lang=en&englishonly=false

21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles

2009-01-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

The 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) is scheduled on June 15-18, 2009, in Stuttgart, Germany.
http://www.esv2009.com/

WLAN-based RFID and Vehicular Communication Solutions from ARADA System

2009-01-18T05:45:00.000-08:00

Arada's solution shows that the hardware solutions for vehicular communication have been very well developed and are flexible enough for both safety critical and intertainment applications.

SUNNYVALE, CA - Jan. 7, 2009 - Arada System announced complete WLAN-based RFID solution featuring Atheros ROCm® Technology.

The Loc-Air complete hardware and software solution from Arada Systems is the world's first RFID 802.11a/b/g solution, which leverages Atheros' ROCm technology for mobile WLAN and delivers the breakthrough low-power. It can deliver up to 10 years of operation on a standard double AA battery, stated by Arada. The design features Atheros' 802.11a/b/g WLAN technology with a tuning range of 2.3-2.7GHz and 4.9-5.95GHz, as well as Atheros' single-chip GPS technology, an accelerometer, and a temperature sensor that can be customized to meet the demands of various market segments.

"Arada Systems' Loc-Air technology platform is enabling a new class of applications that require extraordinarily low power consumption and enable a host of new applications and markets that extend beyond more traditional WLAN applications such as routers and laptops," said Praveen Singh, president and CEO of Arada Systems. "We are pleased to be the first to offer an RFID solution that delivers the benefits of the full spectrum of both the 2.4 and 5GHz wireless bands. With Atheros' market-proven, cost-effective mobile WLAN solution behind us, I am confident that we will deliver a highly reliable technology to satisfy even the most demanding industrial requirements for high-performance RFID." "Arada's entry into the RFID market with its innovative wireless-enabled Loc-Air technology should expand the adoption of WLAN-based locationing applications in a wide array of markets including healthcare, transportation and security," said Amir Faintuch, vice president and general manager of the mobile business unit for Atheros. "We are pleased that Atheros' ROCm technologies for WLAN and GPS will support Arada's RFID platform with unmatched wireless performance and versatility, with a cost structure that meets the requirements of the emerging, low-power, Wi-Fi sensor and location markets."

To be noticed, by adding expanded frequency support, Arada's LocAir system enables 2.3-2.7GHz, 4.9-5.95GHz, channelization from 20Mhz, 10MHz and 5MHz, which covers the Wi-Fi®, WiMAX, Public Safety, Automotive (802.11p) and all proprietary bands all over the world.

The white paper from Arada on High Bandwidth Application over Wi-Fi Connection with IEEE 802.11p, and IEEE P1609 (WAVE) Protocols (pdf) reveals Arada's solutin on solving the chanllenges in physical layer, and MAC layer with special focuses on channel utilization efficiency and synchronization between multiple wireless nodes. More specifically, the strengths of Arada's solution include:

Wi-Fi Radio tuning for FCC Class C Spectral mask
Consistent channel switching time of less than 3msec
Efficient time synchronization between nodes
Low propagation delay from transmit application to receive application
Less than 2% loss in broadcast messages used for safety
Efficient channel utilization, with high TCP/UDP data throughput used in infotainment applications.

"About Arada Systems

Arada Systems is a leader in advanced software solutions based on Atheros' world-class Wi-Fi chipsets. Arada Systems offers a wide array of products, services, testing solutions licensing solutions. Arada Systems provides solutions to customers that are developing leading-edge applications of Wi-Fi in the enterprise, outdoor, automotive, industrial and consumer electronics market segments. Consisting of a versatile team of leading wireless experts from Atheros Communications as well as other Wi-Fi companies, Arada Systems has the expertise to solve complex issues regarding the use of WLAN technology in a variety of applications. Arada Systems is headquartered in Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale, CA with development centers in India's Silicon Valley in Bangalore. For more information, please visit: http://www.aradasystems.com."

Orignial release: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Arada-Systems-935209.html

Potential of Electronic Toll Collection Market in China

2009-01-17T15:27:00.000-08:00

It is undoubted that there will be a huge market potential in China considering the growing vehicle population. According to Mr. Wang, from ISO Chinese secretary office, China started the investigation on the ETC technologies and deployed experimental spots at Beijing and Guangdong Province. However, due to the lack of coordination there is a requirement on a national wide standard for the Chinese ETC market. It is also addressed by Mr. Wang that the 5.8GHz European DSRC standard has been proposed as the basis of the national ETC standard since 1998. Currently, China is working on evolution from passive ETC towards active ETC system. [1]

[1]: Xiaojing Wang, Yi Guo, Strategy of Chinese ETC Standardization. 2009

OKI's World's First DSRC Inter-Vehicle Communication Attachment to Mobile Phone for Pedestrain Safety

2009-01-14T02:25:00.000-08:00

TOKYO, Jan. 8, 2009 OKI announced the development of the world's first Dedicate Short Range Communication (DSRC) inter-vehicle communication attachment for mobile phones to connect the pedestrian and vehicles for road safety.

* Picture from OKI

The so named SPAN (Safety Personal Area Network) System utilizing the DSRC inter-vehicle communication with support of cellular system is aiming at improving road safety for the vulnerable road users, e.g. pedestrian and bicycle riders.

* Picture from OKI

* Picture from OKI

Althrough it is the penetration rate of DSRC equippment on market for both automotive users and cellular phone users that determines the performance of the SPAN system, it is a very promissing technology by exploring the way to combine communication sysetm and transportation system, as well as reveal the potential of wireless communication in inter-connecting machines instead of only people.

The original press from OKI can be found at:
http://www.oki.com/en/press/2009/01/z08113e.html

Vision on Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications from Delphi

2009-01-07T03:53:00.000-08:00

An article from Mike Trudel, expresses the vision on Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication technologies from Delphi:

"Using a combination of global positioning navigation devices, short-distance radio communication and input from existing in-vehicle sensors, which is also referred to as Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), cars equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle communications (V2V) can tell each other where they are and calculate whether danger threatens. ..."

15th ITS World Congress 2008 New York

2008-12-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

To demonstrate the cutting edge achievements of Intelligent Transportation System technologies in improving safety and efficiency of road traffics, the 15th ITS world congress official closed five blocks of 11th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

Highlights from the demonstrations:

Volkswagen Group of America showed autonomous driving vehicle with a Passat, which was jointly developed by VW's Palo Alto-based Electronics Research Lad and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Audi's demonstration concentrated on the emission reduction using connected, intelligent vehicles and environment friendly navigation, which have been developed by its Clean Air initiative.

Nissan Motor Co. displayed Signal Violation Warning, Cross Traffic Notification, Oncoming Traffic Notification, and Cooperative Intelligent Cruise Control systems, which is currently in development. These systems are developed by Nissan as part of the U.S. DOT Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) project and they use the DSRC technology for inter-vehicle communication and vehicle-to-raodside communication.

Toyota's Smart Car showed the DSRC technology for car-to-car and car-to-roadside communication can be used for pedestrian and vehicle collision avoidance, and in traffic congestion monitoring and control system.

Raytheon Company's proof-of-concept demonstration shows the ability of 5.9GHz DSRC technology in cooperative pedestrian warning system, which is announced as the first system focusing on warning the endangered pedestrian.

INRIX, a traffic information provider, announced at ITS that it's providing traffic information to DOT and other agencies in 11 states versus only one state.

The Best of ITS Awards this year went to Visteon for its Light Vehicle Integrated Vehicle Based Safety System (IVBSS), which integrates forward collision warning, road departure warning, lane change merge alerts, and blind spot detection.

DENSO exhibited its 5.9GHz DSRC wireless devices enabling the car-to-car and car-to-roadside communications. Besides, DENSO also demonstrated its gaze detection system and adaptive front lighting technologies.

Kapsch TrafficCom Inc. introduced the 5.9GHz DSRC based R155Multiband Configurable Networking Unit (MNCU) whose pre-version has been used in VII test beds in California, Michigan, and New York.

Mark IV presented its electronic toll collection system.

EarthCam, the international leader in intelligent network technology, unveiled its latest webcam advances at the congress.

Intelligent Transpotation System -- Development in the U.S.

2008-12-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

"Smart Highway Lab" in Michigan
11-18-2008 -- The Michigan Department of Transportation has announced to deploy advanced technology along the Telegraph Road corridor in Oakland Country for the sake of next generation vehicle safety and mobility applications. In this plan, the DSRC radios will be used to broadcast traffic signal information.

"The connected vehicle concept gives us the unique opportunity to shape the future of transportation by improving safety and mobility on heavily traveled highways and permitting countless other applications that can help us all spend more time with our families and less time on the road," said MDOT director Kirk T. Steudle.

"Smart Way" in Tennessee
11-18-2008, advanced information technologies are used for improving the safety and operation of highway and public transit in the TDOT SmartWay project. The components of SmartWay include roadway traffic sensor, camera video surveillance, dynamic message signs, hellp freeway service patrols, transportation management centers, incident management, construction information, TDOT Smartway Information System (TSIS), and Information on Weather-Related Road Conditions.

Tyco Electronics' WiMAX Based System will Serve for Pennsylvania Highway Administration

2008-12-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

Lowell, Mass., U.S., - Nov, 17th - Announce by Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems, VIDA (Voice, Interoperability, Data, Access) broadband communication network from Tyco has been selected by Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) for improving the public safety and helping reduce the roadway congestion. The VIDA system will support the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) by transmitting real-tiomoe video to the PTC's traffic operations center in Harrisburg.

The selected VIDA broadband systems are based on the IEEE 802.16 (or WiMAX) technologies, which can provide better QoS and avoid the interference problem as suffered by those systems that work on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz license free band., e.g. WiFi. Besides, this system provides also easy of management and good scalability based on the full IP network solution.

ABOUT TYCO ELECTRONITC
"Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems is a leading supplier of critical communications systems and equipment for public safety, utility, federal and select commercial markets. Tyco Electronics Wireless System’s products range from some of the most advanced IP-based voice and data networks, to traditional wireless systems that offer customers the highest levels of reliability, interoperability, scalability and security. More information about Tyco Electronics Wireless System’s solutions can be found on the Web at http://www.tycoelectronics.com."

Kapsch Launched 5.9 GHz Module for On-Board Communication Systems

2008-11-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

"Interoperable platform supports wide range commercial, safety and mobility applications.
New York, NY November 17, 2008 -- Kapsch TrafficCom Inc., international supplier of innovative road traffic telematics solutions, today launched its eWAVE Embedded WAVE module, a compact 5.9 GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) wireless module designed for integration into on-board and roadside 5.9GHz DSRC communication systems."

Smart transport comes to New York

2008-11-25T13:55:00.000-08:00

Report on New York ITS world congress.

Sirit Demonstrates 5.9GHz Broadband Wireless DSRC Packet Sniffer

2008-11-25T13:48:00.000-08:00

"11/17/08 - Sirit Inc. (TSX: SI) announced during the ITS World Congress show in New York City that they will demonstrate a Dedicated Short Range Communications ("DSRC") Packet Sniffer at the ITS World Congress using the event's "11th Avenue Theatre" Vehicle Infrastructure Integration ("VII") technology demonstration area."

IEEE 1609 family gets a new member...

2008-11-25T13:04:00.000-08:00

The IEEE 1609 project begun to review the existing standards covering Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) towards Full Use standards. The project agreed in spring 2008 to address additional trial use lessons learned during the field tests.

A new standard was started, namely IEEE 1609.5 "Standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) - Communication Manager". As introduced by Thomas Kurihara, Chair of the Dedicated Short Range Communication Working Group, "IEEE P1609.5 defines communicaiton management service in support of wireless connectivity among vehicle-based devices, and between fixed roadside devices and vehicle-based devices for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments".

According Kurihara, IEEE P1609.5 collects the communication management services previously defined in IEEE 1609.3 and IEEE 1609.4 and provides a more clear guidance to user of the entire family of standards.

More concretely, contents in IEEE 1609.5 may include:

new WAVE Short Message Protocol (WAMP) features like: Repetitive message generation by the stack; message relay for increased coverage; Duplicate filtering.
Location aware service
Different channel timing schemes for increased efficiency and quality of service
Standardized Application Program Interface(s) for data, control, and test
More flexible communications service management

Interesting Blogs on Traffic...

2008-11-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks marycash, I got a very interesting blog from Tom Vanderbilt on "Traffic" and "HowWeDriver" ;-)

Here is the URL:

http://www.howwedrive.com/

GM & Opel Develop Vehicles with a Sixth Sense

2008-11-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

On the second international forum of CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium, GM and Opel demonstrated their vehicular communication systems.

(News from: Infibeam. The original article can be found at http://news.infibeam.com/blog/news/2008/11/03/gm_opel_develop_vehicles_with_a_sixth_sense.html)

"In its second international forum, the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium (C2C-CC) is demonstrating for the first time worldwide vehicle-to-X communication independent of manufacturer or vehicle-type. Opel is hosting the event at the GM Dudenhofen Test Center in

Germany

Preventing accidents by warning drivers about potential danger from other vehicles was a major goal during the development of the new General Motors/Opel C2C (car-to-car or vehicle-to-vehicle) communication systems. Vehicles equipped with this technology can communicate with each other and exchange information such as location and speed. Drivers can then be warned in advance if another vehicle is stopped in an area that is difficult or impossible to see, or about to enter the same intersection as they are.

“Driving is a very complex task. Knowing where the other guy is and where he’s headed can be as critical as being in control of your own vehicle,” said Hans-Georg Frischkorn, Executive Director, Global Electrical Systems, Controls and Software. “With C2C technology, we intensify the driver’s awareness of his environment to improve road safety, without any distraction to him and certainly without reducing his level of control. This sixth sense lets drivers know what’s going on around them to help avoid accidents and improve traffic flow.”

For these systems, GM/Opel uses proven, reliable components that are part of everyday life. The hardware consists of a microprocessor, GPS receivers (Global Positioning System) and Wireless LAN modules. The vehicles establish communication within a few hundred meters of one another and exchange information such as location, speed, acceleration and direction of travel.

Today, vehicles can be equipped with multiple safety sensors, including radar-based sensors connected with speed control devices, lane change assistance systems or sensors to detect objects in a car’s blind spot. GM/Opel can increase the operating range and coverage of individual sensors significantly with its comprehensive technology - a more effective and affordable way to provide extensive observation and assessment of the surrounding traffic conditions.

Demonstration with typical driving situations
GM/Opel engineers demonstrate the new technology’s advantages with a range of practical exercises. Several functions help prevent the rear-end collisions that occur on a daily basis due to poor visibility, twisty roads or short lapses in driver concentration. For example, the system warns of a stationary vehicle on the road even before the driver behind can see it, for example around a corner. Depending on the situation, the system transmits these warnings visually, acoustically or through vibrations in the driver’s seat.

In another scenario, a collision warning system improves safety while approaching intersections. Even if there is no visual contact between the drivers of two vehicles, the system detects any collision danger in advance and alerts both drivers if they need to intervene, for example by braking. Work zones or emergency vehicles can also transmit signals to drivers if a lane is closed or a path needs to be cleared.

Goal: Wide availability for as many vehicles as possible
GM/Opel has deliberately based this technology on inexpensive, proven components, giving it the potential to become standard equipment in many vehicles. The alternative would be to offer extremely expensive high-tech systems for just a few cars, but as Hans-Georg Frischkorn says: “GM/Opel has always been committed to democratizing innovations. Our C2C systems are affordable and could potentially be used in every vehicle class. That’s especially important because cooperative systems like these become more effective when many vehicles are equipped with them.”

Courtesy: General Motors"

Volkswagen's Car-2-Car system begins testing

2008-11-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

A field test of Car-2-Car communication system was performed by Volkswagen.

According to the message from Motor Authority:

(The origional news can be found at http://www.motorauthority.com/volkswagens-car-2-car-system-begins-testing.html)

"

Volkswagen's new GTI, along with a Passat Variant, were used for the technical demonstration

Volkswagen is claiming to have reached an automotive milestone today as tests begin on its Car-2-Car communications system. The system aims to increase the levels of communications between cars of all makes and models eventually, and to hopefully improve road safety.

The enlistment of a number of different manufacturers means that research regarding the "Car-2-Car" communication is being conducted to define a universal standard for communication between vehicles. This will allow vehicles to communicate potential hazards and other important information to nearby vehicles. For example, if a vehicle encounters an adverse condition such as a traffic jam, fog, an icy road surface or an accident, it will transmit this information to all potentially affected vehicles in the area. Approaching traffic is alerted, allowing drivers to adjust their driving to the upcoming situation.

The tests are being conducted at Volkswagen's testing grounds in Dudehofen. Currently the test are being conducted in two Volkswagen vehicles, the Passat and the Golf, which both act as a sender, receiver and transmitter. 'Ad-hoc networks' based on wireless LAN technology are used to exchange data between the vehicles. The tests conducted simulated a variety of situations, including the presence of a motorcycle at an intersection, a stationary vehicle, a construction site and a police car in action.

Data access was provided by a 'CarGate' which creates an abstract of the vehicle data, thus allowing simple access to a multitude of information, such as road speed, engine speed, wheel speeds or status of the hazard flashers. This data can then be processed and transmitted in a useful manner to the driver, to help him or her to avoid adverse situations.

Volkswagen first mentioned Car-2-Car communication around 4 years ago, when it headed up a consortium of European manufacturers in order to make the technology a reality. In 2004, the consortium consisted of Audi, the BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Renault and Volkswagen.

Also displayed this week were similar communications-based safety systems by Nissan and General Motors. Europe's Intelligent Car Initiative is beginning to have a direct influence on these sorts of projects as it calls for the use of Information and communication technologies to reduce road accidents and ease traffic congestion."

Relataed readings:

From Vision To Reality: "Car-2-Car" Communication Put To The First Road Test;

EU Project EVITA on Intrusion Protected Vehicular Applications

2008-11-06T02:47:00.000-08:00

Trusted Cars

The newly launched EU-Project EVITA aims at the information security in vehicular communications, e.g. for the toll collection or safety applications.

In the future, vehicles would be able to warning the driver about approaching dangers by using wireless coommunication technologies. However, to have these application running available on the market, the probelm of information security has to be solved. The goal of EU-Project EVITA is "a system that can protect both safety relevant componets in the car and the communications among different units from manipulation", as stated by the project coordinator Dr. Olaf Henniger.

The EU funds this 3-year project with 3.8 Million euro, and other cost are from the project partners. The participants include: BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG, escrypt GmbH, EURECOM, Fraunhofer ISI, Fujitsu Services AB, Infineon Technologies AG, die Universität Löwen, MIRA Ltd., Institut TELECOM/ParisTech und TRIALOG.

Original release (in German): : http://www.sit.fraunhofer.de/pressedownloads/pressemitteilungen/20080819.jsp

EVITA poject Website:

http://evita-project.org/

Freescale for Auto Electornics

2008-11-03T04:40:00.000-08:00

Freescale progressed as the supplier for automotive electornics:

(The original article from John Day's Auto Electronics Blog )

"Freescale at Convergence 2008 Strategy Analytics’ report,”Automotive Microcontrollers: Market Demand and Product Directions,” predicts that 32-bit devices will account for 58% of the $7.6 billion automotive MCU market by 2015 and that high-end MCUs will be key enablers of future emissions-controlling powertrain technology, advanced safety and driver assistance systems, and multimedia entertainment products. So that’s what Freescale focused on at Convergence 2008:Freescale FlexRay and BMW

Freescale’s FlexRay controller technology was first implemented last year in the BMW X5 Sports Activity Vehicle, which was the first standard-production vehicle to use the FlexRay protocol. The Integrated Chassis Management (ICM) system in the BMW X6 Sports Activity Coupe, which manages the vehicle’s drivetrain and suspension functions, uses two 32-bit Freescale Power Architecture MCUs. As with the X5, Freescale FlexRay controller technology is used in BMW’s optional Adaptive Drive, which allows drivers to select a sporting or a more comfortable ride with the press of a button. Sensors in the vehicle continuously monitor vehicle speed, steering-wheel position, and the pitch and yaw forces acting on the BMW chassis. The FlexRay network carries that sensor data to the chassis control system, which automatically adjusts the vehicle’s stabilizers and dampers, changing their settings to counteract forces that might cause the body to roll or sway.Mobile web connectivity – and DSRC

Freescale and software developer G4 Apps unveiled a jointly developed, production-ready automotive platform for safety and telematics applications with mobile Web connectivity options including cellular, Wi-Fi, and DSRC (dedicated short-range communications), the protocol and radio interface used in the United States Department of Transportation’s VII (vehicle infrastructure integration) program for vehicle safety. The platform, based on Freescale’s MPC5121e multicore microprocessor, supports the mobility applications in the U.S. DOT’s SAFE TRIP 21 initiative and similar initiatives elsewhere. Freescale said it provides a reference design that OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers can use to develop higher volume products. i.MX35 multimedia

Richard Robinson, principal automotive electronics analyst for iSuppli Corp., predicts that the infotainment application processor market will more than double over the next six years, reaching $1.2 billion in 2014, up from $580 Million in 2007.Freescale said its new i.MX35 family of infotainment application processors, based on the ARM1136JF-S core, will enable OEMs to offer navigation capabilities and hands-free control of in-car audio as affordable options on all vehicles - not just on luxury models. The i.MX35 builds on the i.MX31, which powers Ford’s SYNC. Consumers can choose songs, retrieve text messages and get directions, all with simple voice commands.There are three pin-compatible devices in the i.MX35 family. The i.MX351 is for audio connectivity platforms, the i.MX355 for “cost-effective display-based systems,” and the i.MX356, which integrates an OpenVG 1.1-compliant graphics processing unit, for navigation services and other applications that call for higher levels of graphics content. The i.MX356’s OpenVG technology also supports applications like personal navigation devices, which require connectivity as well as high performance graphics.Connectivity options include two CAN modules, a Media Local Bus (MLB) to connect to MOST INIC transceivers, Ethernet, two MMC/SD/SDIO ports, a CE-ATA/SDIO port for external wireless modules, two integrated USB PHYs, and a 3.3V general purpose I/O interface. Freescale said the processors support lower cost memories like DDR2 and multi-level cell NAND.The i.MX35 family supports the Microsoft Auto platform and works with QNX Software’s Aviage family of middleware products and its Neutrino OS. An i.MX35 product development kit (PDK) is available as are board support packages for Windows Embedded CE and Linux operating systems, plus optimized audio and video codecs and digital rights management libraries. Samples are available now to tier one customers. Others will have to wait until Q1 2009. Volume production is planned for Q3 2009. Suggested resale prices for 2010 in 100K quantities range from $10 to $13.MPC5674F for “green” engine design

For engine control in mainstream, high-volume automobiles, Freescale’s 32-bit MPC5674F powertrain MCU, built on 90 nm Power Architecture technology, offers 264 MHz clock speed and more than 600 million Dhrystone instructions per second (DMIPS) performance, which the firm claims is about 10 times better than conventional engine controllers. The chip includes on-chip digital signal processing, four A/D converters, 4 MB of on-chip flash, 256K data RAM, 64 and 32-channel DMA controllers, and a variety of interfaces, including four that support FlexCAN. Target applications include common rail diesel injection systems, gasoline direct injection engines, homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) systems, and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).Kevin Klein, global manager of automotive MCUs at Freescale, said the MPC5674F went from concept to sampling in just 12 months, and that on-chip integration and virtual sensing capabilities reduce the need for external components, helping to reduce system cost by nearly 30% over conventional systems. Klein noted that precise fuel control in common rail diesel injection systems requires complex calculations to determine fuel injection timing, air volume and pressure, engine temperature and battery voltage. The MPC5674F offers 64-channel dual enhanced timing units with 30K dedicated RAM to handle complex engine timing events. Tuning gasoline engines for maximum fuel efficiency requires precise control of spark and fuel, using advanced calculations to govern spray timing, air volume and temperature. Running engines leaner – with less fuel and more air – can help improve mileage but also can generate more knocking, especially when the engine is not producing torque. Knock detection techniques include in-cylinder pressure sensing, vibration sensors, and spark plug ionization, all of which require extensive digital filtering and calculations. Klein said pressure sensing, in particular, requires multiple A/Ds and large RAM and flash arrays to handle large quantities of data and complex algorithms.Klein said the MPC5674F’s high level of integration enables engine designers to implement virtual sensors and avoid using separate knock detection ASICs, further reducing system cost. Government standards and regulations, such as the Euro IV, V and VI emissions standards, require cleaner burning engines that curb greenhouse gas emissions. Higher-precision tuning calls for a higher number of calibration tables and diagnostic information, which results in a need for larger memory.

Klein said 4 MB of on-chip flash provides sufficient non-volatile memory to support computationally intensive modeling environments and auto code generation, eliminating the need for off-chip memory.The MPC5674F is packaged in a 416-pin PBGA. Pricing wasn’t available.Chrysler adopts Freescale VA tool suite

Chrysler is using VA-Harness and VA-Complexity Management, the first two commercialized components of Freescale’s Virtual Architect (VA) tool suite. Chrysler and Freescale will work together on other components of the suite expected to be released over the next 12 months from Freescale’s Virtual Garage program www.freescale.com/virtualgarage.
Freescale said the VA tools help to ensure synchronization of design data and product planning data to reduce complexity, reduce errors, improve accuracy of service diagnostics, and lower warranty costs. VA-Harness and VA-Complexity Management (VA-CM) enable a complexity driven wire harness design process to help ensure that every orderable vehicle has the required set of wire harnesses. Freescale senior VP Henri Richard noted that in the typical design environment, each domain – sensors, wiring harnesses, communications busses, electronic control units, actuators, etc. – operates semi-autonomously, thus a change in the architectural design of a component in one domain typically requires time-consuming manual coordination between engineers of different domains.As car companies add more electronic features for differentiation, they face not only system complexity but also product complexity, according to Richard. “This transition has put automobile manufacturers increasingly in the role of system integrator,” and the tool suite enables smoother systems integration.The VA tool suite lets system engineers specify vehicle level EE performance requirements, communicate and collaborate with other EE engineering design domains, and conduct performance requirement validations. “This helps to ensure synchronization of design specifications (harness, network and ECU) for the vehicle, reducing the likelihood of costly errors,” Richard said."

Big success with field performance evaluation of 5.9GHz DSRC based eToll collection system by Kapsch

2008-11-03T03:17:00.000-08:00

An "extraordinary success" in a field evaluation of their 5.9GHz electronic toll system in trials on E470 in Colorado was reported by Kapsch. It was announced that the system successfully collected 100% of more than 10,500 DSRC sample passes during the evaluation test, which was conducted by an American nationally known, independent R&D laboratory.

Source: TOLLROADSnews 2008-10-28

"Kapsch report accuracy of 100% in electronic toll tests with 5.9GHz - SwRI tests

Posted Tue, 2008-10-28 21:44

The American offices of Kapsch are reporting "extraordinary success" in a performance evaluation of their 5.9GHz electronic toll system in trials on E470 in Colorado recently. In a press statement they say a nationally known, independent R&D laboratory evaluated the system and determined that it collected "100%" of more than 10,500 DSRC sample passes.

The transponder/reader or DSRC system was tested by a fleet of 27 vehicles which made approximately 11,000 passes under the Kapsch readers. Comparing the transponder reads with a count of vehicle passes using a separate GPS system the independent laboratory concluded that the system obtained 100% accuracy.

On request Kapsch provided us a copy of the report of the testing by the independent laboratory minus the cover page, and with the name of the laboratory blacked out. They said the laboratory demanded a non-disclosure agreement.

We discovered independently of Kapsch that the laboratory was the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio Texas, so we'll refer to the report as the SwRI report.

E470 Public Highway Authority allowed them to mount their readers, vehicle detection and classification lasers, cameras, and lights on a beam over one set of open road toll lanes at the Parker Road or Toll Plaza A on the far southern end of tollroad. Their equipment was set up without interference to the 915MHz Title 21 toll system that takes tolls routinely there. The plaza services about 17k vehicles/day.

SwRI says the tests were also of the Kapsch laser vehicle detection and classification (LVADC) compared to loop-based VDAC, a Kapsch automatic license plate reader as well as the 5.9GHz reader/transponder communications. Test specifications are to be published separately.

Tests were conducted weekdays over two weeks Aug 25-29 and Sept 1-5, 8am to 6pm. During the first week the test drivers drove only in lanes, but in the second week they did straddles of lanes, including the shoulder lane.

Kapsch personnel mounted the transponders in the test vehicles. They used mounting brackets with two different angles for differently angled windshields.

In some tests three transponders were fitted to the one vehicle to simulate closely spaced vehicles.

10,000 passes were the target sample size, SwRI says because Kapsch believed they could meet a 99.9% accuracy.

SwRI mention in several places in their report that the test drivers were under strict instructions to drive safely and a proper distance from other vehicles. For example: "The safety and security of the drivers and equipment... was given the highest priority. Drivers were instructed to stop if hazardous weather conditions occurred."

SwRI indeed reports 100% read results for all 27 drivers in both single tag and triple tag (called "Over Equipped") tests for a total of around 11,000 passes.

COMMENT: 100% is an extraordinary read rate! Perfection. We've heard claims of 99.95% and above in tests, but never 100%, at least not in test samples this large.

97 or 98% is considered good for transponders in actual use, and some do only 95 to 96%.

The SwRI test had the advantage of transponders mounted in cars by Kapsch staff, versus the norm of customer mounted transponders in the real world of electronic tolling, at least in the US. Customers make mistakes in mounting transponders. Some end up just holding them to the windshield and storing them in the glove box the rest of the time.

Also on real roads a proportion of drivers don't obey the safety rules of the kind SwRI laid down for their test drivers. Some tail-gate and get close to high trailers whose metallic mass can scramble the RF signals.

Real drivers keep driving in nasty weather where SwRI testers called it a day.

How far the three tag per vehicle set-up simulates close-spaced vehicles, we're unsure.

5.9GHz transponders are designed to be factory installed whether made by Kapsch or any other manufacturer so all brands would have a mounting advantage over present models.

All that said 100% accuracy for transponder reads in nearly 11k passes can't be beat.

VDAC detection accuracy of 99.74%, classification 88.62%

SwRI reports the Kapsch laser vehicle detection and classification system (LVDAC) in the same 11k+ test drives had a 99.74% rate. Only 31 out of 11,912 vehicle passes were not detected.

The detection rate plays into all the other operations since it is usually a 'trigger' for the reader, for classification, and the camera. Tou don't read if you don't first detect.

Loops, apparently Idris loops, in use by E470 had a tad better detection rate, SwRI reports - 99.76% But the difference, 99.76 and 99.74 is probably not statistically meaningful.

SwRI did two sets of classification tests of the Kapsch LVDAC units. The more stringent test required separation of Class 2 and 3 vehicles, the less stringent accepted them grouped as one class. Results were 88.62% accuracy and 96.86%. (FHWA F-series classification)

The loops do better in FHWA-F classification than the LVDAC - 92.32% and 98.07%. This is not surprising since the vehicle classes are based on axle count, and loops located where they are in the roadway seem inherently more suited to counting axles than any kind of overhead equipment which has real problems getting a useful angle of view of the wheel set.

LVDAC are usually used - as in 407ETR Toronto - for classing based on vehicle dimensions and size and distinguishing cars, straightbody trucks, and articulated or combination vehicles.

License plate reads 93.84% rear, 91.28% frontal

The Kapsch automatic optical character recognition expressed as a percentage correct of humanly readable plates with roughly the same 10k+ passes got results of 91.26% accuracy for frontal reads and 93.84% for rear camera reads.

SwRI make the unexceptionable assessment that results in use of the Kapsch gear should be similar in similar traffic conditions, on similar roads, using similar equipment, under similar environmental conditions.

BACKGROUND: Kapsch is a leading supplier of 5.8GHz European standard transponder/reader systems in Europe, Australia and South America. Headquartered in Vienna Austria it is a public company traded on the Vienna stock exchange and has grown in part by acquiring leading Swedish and Germany toll systems companies.

In June Kapsch bought up the Mobility Solutions division of TechnoCom Corp of Encino Califoprnia which has been a leader in 5.9GHz communications for the federal government supported Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) program aimed at using the most modern technology for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-roadside for a whole range of safety, convenience and commercial applications, including tolling.

Kapsch reports it has 200 projects working in over 30 countries with over 13 million transponders and other on-board units and over 11,000 equipped lanes. This includes parking payment lanes, access control lanes, special telematics lanes as well as toll lanes.

Kapsch TrafficCom US Corp, the American operation now has establishments in Sterling VA near Washington Dulles Airport and in California. They seem to be making a major push for business and represent a strong competitor for Raytheon, TransCore, ETC/Autostrade, Telvent/Caseta and other established US groups.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-10-28"

ITS America Announces Finalists for the 2008 Best of ITS Awards

2008-11-03T03:14:00.001-08:00

To best review the activities of American ITS society in year 2008 before the ITS world conference 2008 in New York, this might be a good reference:

(Original released can be found at http://www.itsa.org/press_release_content/c217_d2541/News/Newsroom/Press_Releases_.html)

ITS America Announces Finalists for the 2008 Best of ITS Awards

"The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) announces the finalists for the 2008 Best of ITS Awards.

Presented by ITS America, the Best of ITS Awards is the only program in the world that honors the most innovative, effective, and influential achievements in the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) industry. This highly competitive program recognizes the organizations whose projects have demonstrated specific and measurable outcomes and exemplified innovation by establishing a “new dimension” of performance.

The finalists were selected from among more than 40 entries by an expert panel of judges. The categories and finalists are:

Best New Innovative Product or Service:

• IdaTech - iGen Power System

• CalTrans - Sensys Wireless Vehicle Detection System

• CalTrans District 7 - Route 210 Conjestion Relief Project

• Florida DOT - iVEDDS: Inter-Agency Video and Event Data Distribution System

• CATT at the University of Maryland - Operations Academy Senior Management

• Kapsch - Multiband Configurable Networking Unit (MCNU)

• Nissan North America - Nissan Safety Shield 2007

• Visteon Corporation - The Visteon Light Vehicle Integrated Vehicle Based Safety System

• MTC and SAIC - San Francisco Bay Area 511

• San Diego Association of Governments/ California DOT - San Diego Region's 511 Advanced Traveler Information System

Best New Innovative Practices:

• New York City DOT - The Applied Solid-state Traffic Controller

• CalTrans - The VII California Program

• CalTrans - Infotek Demonstration Project

• Kapsch - ITS World Congress 2008 VII Partnership

• NAVTEQ - NAVTEQ- Missouri DOT Advanced Traveler Information Services Project

• Utah DOT - Partnership with Utah's Telecommunications Companies

• BMW of North America - The Next Generation Telematics Protocol (NGTP)

• Delcan - Lake County Passage Project

• Telegra Inc - Fuel Cell-Powered Trailer-Mounted LED Signs

• Michigan DOT- MDOT VII Model Deployment

• CalTrans District 7 - District 7 Adaptive Traffic Signal Project

• Mississippi DOT - Reconnecting Mississippi's Coastal Communities Through ITS

• Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University- Partnerships for Deploying Animal Vehicle Crash Mitigation Strategies

• CalTrans - Mobile Century: A Novel Approach to Traffic Data Collection from GPS-Equipped Mobile Phones

• ITS Midwest - Safety Assistance for Freeway Emergencies Patrol

• CalTrans District 4 - Commuter Travel Time Information System

Outstanding ITS America State Chapter:

• ITS California

• ITS Florida

• ITS Georgia

• ITS Minnesota

• ITS Virginia

Awards will be presented in each category on Monday, Nov. 17 in a special ceremony during at ITS America’s 2008 Annual Meeting & Exposition held in conjunction with the 15th World Congress on ITS in New York City.

More information on the award programs and ITS America’s 2008 Annual Meeting & Exposition and the 15th World Congress on ITS is available at www.itsa.org.

About the Intelligent Transportation Society of America:

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) is the leading advocate for ITS development and deployment in the United States. ITS America was established in 1991 as a not-for-profit organization to foster the use of advanced technologies in surface transportation systems. Members include corporations, public interest groups, universities and research laboratories, and government agencies at all levels. ITS America works closely with the U.S. Department of Transportation in support of the National ITS Program and serves as an invaluable resource to its members in the areas of technology, domestic public policy, international relations, and business development. For more information, visit www.itsa.org."

KPIT Launches Vehicular Communication Platform

2008-10-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

KPIT Launches Vehicular Communication Platform, Car2X

"Car2X enables development of emerging applications requiring communication between car to car (C2C) and between cars to roadside (C2I) infrastructure.

Thursday, October 23, 2008: KPIT Cummins has launched the Car2X platform to enable communication solutions in vehicular environments. The platform is based on Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) technology and involves platform software solution by KPIT Cummins on Freescale's MPC5121e processor for telematics applications.

Car2X enables development of emerging applications requiring communication between car to car (C2C) and between cars to roadside infrastructure (C2I). DSRC is a Wi-Fi based technology exclusively for the automotive industry.

"The Car2x platform will enable car manufacturers and Tier-1 suppliers to develop diverse automotive communication applications for the 'connected car' of the future. The launch reiterates our commitment towards creating cutting-edge technology solutions for our customers," said Kishor Patil, chief executive officer and managing director, KPIT Cummins.

Supporting the industry common protocols for vehicle communication, the platform is compliant with IEEE DSRC and Wireless Access in a Vehicular Environment (WAVE) set of standards designed for the transportation and automotive industries, including 802.11p, 1609.3, and 1609.4. It enables position and location based services using GPS and in-vehicle networking services using CAN.

"Car2X provides an affordable embedded computing platform needed to support ongoing automotive industry development of emerging safety and telematics applications that will help reduce intersection and rear-end collisions, improve energy efficiency and address mobility issues such as urban congestion," said Mike Bryars, manager, global telematics operations, Freescale Semiconductor."

On KPIT:
http://www.kpitcummins.com/index.htm

C2C communication with MIMO...

2008-10-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

Berkeley tested the MIMO system (from LitePoint) in vehicular environments.

See the original article:
"
Berkeley Researchers Exploring DSRC Channel with LitePoint MIMO Test System

They're using IQnxn^plus to better understand channel characteristics and to test innovations

BERKELEY, CA — October 22, 2008 — Using one of the first LitePoint IQnxn^plus units to be shipped, Connectivity Lab researchers at University of California, Berkeley, are delving deeper into the channel characteristics of vehicles in motion communicating via dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) based on IEEE 802.11p. Using a 4x4 MIMO configuration, the team is now able to "see" multiple incoming waves, their directions and angles, and their interactions.

"Before, we were looking at the composite effects of the multipath signals but had no way to examine the various wave contributions. IQnxn^plus, using separate antennas, VSAs, and VSGs lets us better understand what’s going on in the physical channel," explained Ian Tan, a Berkeley graduate student and team member.

In addition, Tan said, the IQnxn^plus is being developed into a software-defined-radio (SDR) test bed. "It will provide a hardware platform for rapid prototyping of any improved communications schemes or beam-forming algorithms our group proposes. Naturally, seeing performance improvements with real hardware and software is much better than just simulations."

About DSRC

DSRC refers to one-way or two-way, short- to medium-range wireless communications methods intended specifically for automotive applications. Some applications envisioned using DSRC include: emergency warning system for vehicles, cooperative adaptive cruise control, cooperative forward collision warning, and intersection collision avoidance.

IEEE 802.11p is associated with DSRC. It is a draft amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard that adds wireless access targeted for the vehicular environment, and defines enhancements to 802.11 aimed at supporting Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. This includes data exchange between high-speed vehicles and between the vehicles and the roadside infrastructure in the licensed ITS band of 5.9 GHz (5.85-5.925 GHz).

Prior DSRC Work by Berkeley

The Connectivity Lab, working under the guidance of Professor Ahmad Bahai, had completed an earlier phase of DSRC exploration that looked at the effect of channel impairments on communications efficiency. "A lot of 802.11p specifications are based on 802.11a, which, in turn, targets primarily indoor wireless applications with stationary or slowly-moving radios," Tan explained. "At highway speeds, with multipath signals under both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight conditions, it is possible that 802.11p specifications could fall short on avoiding inter-carrier interference. Our work, using IQview VSAs and omni-directional antennas produced data from over 200 locations and required 50 GBs of storage. We found that, for the most part, 802.11p was suitable to the DSRC automotive environment for short packets. However, with longer packets, channel variance over the longer transmission times will exacerbate inter-carrier interference. As a result, we believe there are opportunities for enhanced performance with improved processing."

Current DSRC Work

The next phase of the Connectivity Lab’s research is to explore innovations, such as multi-antenna beamforming, that increase the communications robustness of 802.11p in environments with increased RF congestion, harsher multipath, and greater inter-vehicle distances "Here is where the MIMO tools of IQnxn^plus, and its use as an SDR test bed, will help us propose ways to improve DSRC communications," Tan concluded.

About LitePoint Corporation

LitePoint Corporation, based in Sunnyvale California, designs, develops, markets, and supports advanced wireless test solutions for: developers and marketers of branded wireless products; consumer electronics and contract manufacturers; and wireless IC designers. Through its in-house expertise in the design of wireless systems and ICs, LitePoint has developed innovative test solutions to assure products conform to specifications, interoperate with other compliant products, and perform as described. LitePoint's test products address both development and high-volume production, providing its customers with superior return on investment, accelerated time-to-market, improved manufacturing yields, improved product quality, and increased profitability. For more information, visit LitePoint at www.litepoint.com. "

As well, see here:
Berkeley Researchers Exploring DSRC Channel with LitePoint MIMO Test System
(Business News & Technology News, 23 Oct 2008)

Honda demonstrates V2V communication system for motorcyclists

2008-10-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

Honda's C2C solution covers also motorcycles ...

The original article
"
Honda demonstrates V2V communication system for motorcyclists

October 23, 2008 No matter what your skill level, being aware of what's going on around you is THE most critical safety factor for all road users - if you don't see it coming, you are in big trouble. For motorcyclists, who are simply less visible on the roads and face a much greater risk of death or serious injury in the event that an accident does occur, this factor becomes even more important. In the past, the technology dedicated to inter-vehicle communication has been limited to blowing the horn or perhaps catching a radio report of an accident up ahead, but things are changing fast. This brings us to Honda's latest innovation in the field. The company has debuted a new Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication (V2V) system aimed at reducing road casualties of both motorcyclists and car drivers which links vehicles within a defined radio range via a wireless LAN network to provide immediate access to data on vehicle location, accidents, congestion or other potential threats that lie ahead.

The system monitors the position, speed, distance and direction of surrounding road users and the collected data is centralized before being sent to drivers and motorcyclists. For the latter, the information can be accessed on their navigation system display or relayed by means of an in-helmet audio system.

The HMI (Human Machine Interface) concept developed by Honda provides both a visual and an audible warning in safety critical situations. The visual element is located close to the rider's lin-of-sight on the upper edge of the motorcycle dashboard and uses changes in color and intensity to intuitively communicate the nature of the threat. This is backed by an audible warning delivered through a Bluetooth link to an in-helmet speaker.

Developed within the ASV (Advanced Safety Vehicle) program in Japan, Honda demonstrated the system for the first time at the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium event at the Opel Test Track in Dudenhofen, Germany. The consortium brings together a number of vehicle manufacturers with the goal of bringing greater awareness and therefore safety to our roads.

Although there is no room to doubt the premise that greater awareness equals greater safety, the statistics cited by Honda to underpin their commitment to developing this technology make interesting reading.

EU funded research project (Motorcycle Accident In-Depth Study or MAIDS) collected in 1999 looked at data from 921 motorcycle accidents in 5 European countries. It was found that 88% of the accidents were mainly caused by human error, while 8% were due to external environmental factors such as weather conditions or road infrastructure. In 37 per cent of cases the motorcyclist was the cause of the accident, while in 50 per cent of cases the driver of the other vehicle was responsible. Of this 50 per cent, 72 per cent were so-called 'perception' failures, where the driver failed to see the motorcycle, three per cent were 'comprehension' failures (they saw the motorcycle but the brain did not recognize it as such), and 20 per cent were 'decision' failures (they saw the motorcycle but decided to continue with the intended manoeuvre anyway)... i.e. drivers tend not to see motorcyclists.

It's hoped systems like V2V will have an impact in particular problem areas such as accidents at an intersections and left-turn accidents (right-turn in the UK, Ireland, Australia etc) where a other vehicle cuts across the path of an oncoming motorcycle. Work is continuing into extending the scope of the system to assist more difficult situations. This includes identifying when are motorcyclists hidden in "blind-spots" or pinpointing the location of emergency services vehicles when a siren is sounding.

The Car 2 Car Consortium’s research and work, coupled with Honda’s latest safety innovation will result in a new era of road safety for all road users, where vehicle communication systems share vital information with the aim of helping to reduce the number of casualties on the roads," said General Manager of Honda (UK) Motorcycles, Steve Martindale. "Honda fully supports the EU targets for traffic fatality reduction and we’re pleased to be able to further our commitment under the European Road Safety Charter with this latest vehicle communication safety system.”

Road test for vehicle-to-vehicle communication

2008-10-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

Here comes the news from an academia partner of C2C-CC, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt DLR, on the demonstration of vehicle-to-vehicle communication on 22 and 23 of Oct. 2008 in Germany.

The orignal release:

Road test for vehicle-to-vehicle communication

"

22 October 2008

Car-to-car communication

A large-scale demonstration of inter-vehicle communication will take place on 22 and 23 October 2008. At the Opel proving ground in Dudenhofen near Frankfurt am Main, the new car-to-car (C2C) communication technology is demonstrated in real life. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is one of the parties involved in this project. On both days of the event, demonstrations will be given of the synergy between the separate technical components made by the partners in the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium (C2C-CC). DLR is joined in the consortium by almost all European automakers, several suppliers, and Fraunhofer and university institutes. The main contributions made by DLR scientists to this major project are the CODAR technology (Cooperative Object Detection And Ranging) and DLR's simulation expertise.

DLR operates a camera system transmitting large-scale image data

During the live demonstration, the audience, consisting of representatives from the automotive industry as well as journalists, will experience the state of the art in innovative C2C technology "live", allowing them to familiarise themselves with the new possibilities created by this technology. The demonstration will revolve around five selected case studies. DLR is responsible for one of these. The task assigned to DLR is to create an almost real-time representation of the traffic situation at the proving ground and all the communication links involved. The idea is to consolidate all the spontaneous, self-organising and short-lived communication links between the vehicles into a traffic situation display showing their precise geographic locations in such a way as to be insightful to laypersons as well. Other case studies will show how C2C technology can be used to prevent collisions between motorcycles and cars or to warn a driver of the presence of a breakdown van hidden from their view behind a curve in the road.

The C2C technology is considered to be a key technology for preventive road safety. The DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation (DLR-Institut für Kommunikation und Navigation) and the DLR Institute of Transportation Systems (DLR-Institut für Verkehrssystemtechnik) have made important contributions to this field over the past months, for instance by developing new methods for cooperative driver assistance based on vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

DLR is using this occasion to showcase its rather unique expertise in another way as well: During several overflights of the proving ground by a specially equipped research aircraft, high-resolution aerial images are recorded and analysed practically in real time to enable large-scale traffic situation assessment. For this purpose, DLR operates a camera system capable of transmitting large-scale image data (48 megapixels per photo, five by ten kilometres in two minutes) to a ground station. This system can record several images per second, enabling observation of dynamic processes such as road traffic. Parameters such as vehicle speeds, vehicle density and length of queues can be determined in this way. The system can improve traffic management during major events and calamities.

Companies join for advance automotive safety platform

2008-10-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

G4App cooperates with Freescale on active vehicle safety product with emphases on 3D image processing and mobile communications:

Original article:

Companies join for advance automotive safety platform

"Joint platform brings dedicated short-range communications with Web connectivity to mainstream vehicles.

Freescale Semiconductor and G4 Apps are soon to announce availability of a jointly developed, production-ready automotive platform for safety and telematics applications. Designed to support a full range of mobile Web connectivity options including cellular and WiFi, the platform features an industry-proven module for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC).

DSRC is the protocol and radio interface used in the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) VII program for vehicle safety, using bandwidth set aside by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) exclusively for use in real-time vehicle safety and mobility applications. The platform’s cellular and WiFi connectivity and software services enable general-purpose mobile Web connectivity and support the mobility applications underway in the USDOT SAFE TRIP 21 initiative, as well as similar safety and mobility initiatives around the world.

Based on Freescale’s MPC5121e multicore microprocessor, the production-ready automotive safety and telematics platform enables a full-featured solution designed for implementation in volume trials under continuous use. The platform provides a comprehensive reference design that automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers can use to develop higher volume products. “Multiple wireless technologies and exceptional processing power are available today to improve vehicle mobility and safety systems,” said Mike Bryars, manager of Freescale’s Infotainment, Multimedia and Telematics Operation. “Our goal with this platform is to enable automotive manufacturers and suppliers to immediately undertake large-scale trials in everyday use and fine-tune their applications for ubiquitous roll out. The platform is based on the an automotive processor for telematics, enabling fast time to volume production of automotive-grade systems.”

The MPC5121e device provides an ideal processing platform for a wide range of automotive telematics and safety applications. Based on Power Architecture technology, the MPC5121e includes an advanced graphics accelerator required for high-resolution 3D processing, along with sufficient capability to support personal device and Web-based infotainment applications and real-time safety capabilities.

“The reduction of traffic fatalities through passive safety systems, such as passenger restraints and air bags, seems to have reached its limits,” said Bob Burrows, CEO of G4 Apps. “To help reduce fatalities even more, the automotive industry is moving to minimise accidents through the use of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications and real-time collision warnings. These same technologies enable us to streamline drive time, improve fuel economy and reduce emissions. With DSRC-based safety applications already running and a host of proven mobility and navigation products now available, our jointly developed platform is designed to provide a visible, reliable and cost-effective solution for the auto industry.”"

Other expresses:
Freescale and G4 Apps Jointly Develop Automotive Safety and Telematics Platform [October 16, 2008]

Car-2-Car communications demonstrated by BMW, VW, Nissan and GM

2008-10-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Considered as the following up activities from the spectrum regulation of 30MHz ITS frequency band at 5.9GHz in EU, BMW, VW, Nissan, and GM have demonstrated their active safety systems based on vehicle-to-vehicle communication technologies:

BMW announces Car-2-Car communications development

*Picture from motorauthority

The Car-2-Car Communication Consortium (C2C-CC) consisting of various European manufacturers, including BMW, Daimler, Renault, Fiat, VW, Honda, Opel, Volvo and Audi has been working on the European Car-2-Car (C2C) communication system that has standard interface agreed by all carmakers and a uniform frequency radio frequency enable the cars to communication effectively.

The recently approved the 5.9 GHz frequency band specifically for C2C communications in Europe marked a key milestone in the standardiyation process for C2C industry.

BMW's C2C system enables vehicles to communicate with other vehicles in the vicinity for the purpose of danger warning, and traffic information exchange. The communication is performed using the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, which organizes vehicles into ad-hoc wireless network on the road.

Similar system has been developed not only by the partners from C2C-CC, e.g. VW, but also by carmakers outside of the initiative, such as Nissan and General Motors. The systems have to be compatible with each other for being truely effective.

Source and picture courtesy: motorauthority

Volkswagen's Car-2-Car system begins testing

Volkswagen performed a test of its Car-2-Car communication system with a Passat and a Golf, which both use the WLAN technology for information exchange between the cars. Each vehicle can access to the car bus throught the "Car Gate" and get a abstract of car data, such as speed, wheel speeds or status of the hazard flashers, and exchange the information with adjacent vehicles in order to help drivers to aviod adverse situations.

For more information and photo courtesy: motorauthority

Related readings:
Nissan to pilot pedestrian collision avoidance system
GM develops second-generation car-to-car communications system

EU Takes the First Major Step to Establish the Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication System

2008-10-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

Aug. 8th, 2008 -- The European Union passed a motion today to reserve an EU-wide frequency band for vehicle applications. The target of the motion is to reduce road accidents by enabling co-operative information technology systems between automotive OEMs.

An EU-wide frequency band was allocated for ‘immediate and reliable communications between cars, and between cars and roadside infrastructure.’ 30MHz frequency bandwidth within the 5.9GHz band are going to be reserved within the next six months by national authorities purely for road safety applications. The similar frequency bands have been reserved both in the U.S. and in Japan for future vehicle communications systems.

Potential applications running on this frequency band include local danger warning, traffic jam warning, as well as other infotainment services. German car manufacturers are expected to perform extensive field trial for vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems later this year as reported by motorauthority.

Big Step Forward for 5.9 GHz Tolling - MARK IV

2008-10-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

A successful story from MARK IV IVHS about their solution of electronic toll collection (ETC), in North America. (pdf)

MARK IV IVHS is an important player in North America ITS market. OTTO is its new generation of technology based on 5.9GHz DSRC that is also the near term viability of VII.

Nov. 19, 2008, New York -- MRRK IV IVHS, the largest supplier of electronic toll collection equipment in northeastern U.S., stated that mileage-based user fee is possible through 5.9GHz DSRC technology. (pdf)