News This Week: Autonomous Vehicles, Connected Vehicles, Micromobility, Clean Mobility, India, and Research

These are the news that made headlines this week in the fields of Autonomous Vehicles, Connected Vehicles, Micromobility, Clean Mobility, India, and Research:

Autonomous Vehicles

IVEX and Siemens partner

IVEX and Siemens Digital Industries Software (SISW) have partnered to improve the validation and verification of autonomous vehicles (AV) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). This strategic alliance benefits AV/ADAS developers in their simulation, validation and verification efforts.

IVEX is a software technology company that validates the high-level safety-critical decisions taken by autonomous systems. Its formal model based technology to implement and test complex decision-making systems to make them safe-by-construction and certifiable while shortening the developing cycle. With Simcenter Prescan360, Siemens delivers a solution for virtual validation and verification of automated driving functions.

Siemens and IVEX are collaborating to create the a streamlined toolset available in the market. The companies believe that integration of a trustworthy simulation environment from Siemens and the smartness of the qualitative safety metrics from IVEX will make engineers working on AV/ADAS achieve even better results in their work and ultimately enable customers to get better products faster to market.

Nuro raises $500 million

A self-driving delivery company Nuro, known for R2 unit that has no pedals or steering wheel and only room for packages, has raised $500 million. Early last year also Nuro raised $940 million from SoftBank and a source close to the company said the valuation doubled from that last funding round to $5 billion. This round was led by T. Rowe Price Associates and includes new investors Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC. and Baillie Gifford. Existing investors SoftBank and Greylock also participated.

Walmart teams up with Cruise on all-electric self-driving delivery

Walmart is expanding its pickup and delivery services, so customers can get the items they need quickly and safely.  It is working on a new pilot with self-driving car company, Cruise. The Self-driving car company operates an entire fleet of all-electric vehicles powered with 100% renewable energy. As part of the pilot, which begins early next year, customers can place an order from their local store and have it delivered, contact-free, via one of Cruise’s all-electric self-driving cars.

 Connected Vehicles

All new models from Hyundai Motor Group brands to feature NVIDIA DRIVE platform as standard

Hyundai Motor Group and NVIDIA announced the roll-out of the NVIDIA DRIVE ‘connected car’ platform across all new models from Hyundai, Kia and Genesis from 2022 onwards.

The technical cooperation with NVIDIA will enable Hyundai Motor Group to develop high-performance ‘connected car’ computing systems for its next-generation models.

From entry-level to premium vehicles, all future models will feature in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems powered by NVIDIA DRIVE as standard, said the company in a release. NVIDIA DRIVE includes a hardware and software stack, enabling Hyundai Motor Group’s IVI systems to combine audio, video, navigation, connectivity and artificial intelligence (AI)-based ‘connected car’ services.

The partnership with NVIDIA will also enable Hyundai Motor Group to roll out its next ‘connected car operating system’ (ccOS) in future models. Developed in-house, the new ccOS will bring together the large amount of data generated by the vehicle and its network of sensors, as well as external connected car data centers, providing a more pleasurable and convenient experience for the driver and occupants.

UL Ventures invests in AuroraLabs

UL Ventures has made an investment in Aurora Labs, a developer of an embedded software management platform for connected vehicles and the Internet of Things (IoT). UL Ventures is the venture investment and acceleration arm of UL, a premier global independent safety science company that offers expertise across key strategic businesses.

The UL Ventures investment was part of a $23 million Series B funding round that also included LG Technology Ventures, Marius Nacht, Porsche SE and Toyota Tsusho.

Modern vehicles have up to 150 electronic control units and 100 million lines of software code that are expected to increase to 300 million lines of code by 2030. Aurora Labs offers technology that according to the company, has the ability automatically to detect bugs in car codebases – key to the security of today’s connected cars.

FLIR launches intelligent traffic system cameras

FLIR Systems has announced two intelligent traffic system cameras, the FLIR ThermiCam AI with thermal imaging and the FLIR TrafiCam AI visible camera. Both the products with artificial intelligence (AI) is aimed to optimize traffic flow on roadways and at intersections. The company claims when combined with the FLIR Acyclica cloud platform, cities can apply the AI-camera data to predict traffic, prevent congestion and potential accidents, and create safer roads for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians 24 hours a day.

 The AI-enabled cameras help control traffic dynamically at the edge through real-time data capture and processing, and provide input to traffic signal controllers at intersections, which improves traffic flow and safety in the moment. With the ability to capture heat energy data through a thermal sensor within the ThermiCam AI, and a visible low-light, high-definition sensor within the TrafiCam AI, cities’ traffic signals have complete continuous monitoring, in all weather conditions and even through smoke for tunnel monitoring.

The cameras are also Wi-Fi enabled for travel time calculations and other origin-destination applications. In the future, the cameras can be retrofitted with 5G cellular antennas to support vehicle-to-everything (V2X) connectivity, which will further improve road safety.

Micromobility

TIER raises $250 million

TIER, a European micro-mobility company, announced the completion of a $250 million Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund. Existing investors including Mubadala Investment Company’s financial investment arm, Mubadala Capital, Northzone, Goodwater Capital, White Star Capital, Novator and RTP Global also participated in the round.

TIER, launched in 2018, has deployed 60.000 e-scooters across 80 cities in ten countries. The company is ‘revolutionising’ urban transport with innovative new technologies and micro-mobility solutions that significantly reduce car traffic and free cities from emissions and congestion.

The focus of this new funding will be to significantly extend the company’s coverage in Europe, to accelerate its expansion into strategic growth markets and to fast track its TIER Energy Network; a network of thousands of charging stations installed in cities across Europe.

CCC Introduces Vehicle-Level ADAS Insights

CCC Information Services has announced the availability of CCC VIN Connect – ADAS, the latest in a series of innovations that support underwriting precision at the point-of-quote. CCC VIN Connect – ADAS claims to provide a vehicle-level view of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), providing underwriters with an easy way to understand available safety features to assess risk more accurately. It also connects underwriters to ADAS and driving behavior data via a single API. CCC Quick View is a mobile app that can be presented within an insurer’s own policyholder app experience.

Clean Mobility

BP with Ørsted to produce Green Hydrogen

In Germany, BP and Ørsted will work together for the ‘Lingen Green Hydrogen’ project in which they will jointly develop a 50 MW electrolyser. The mega electrolyser project is expected to produce one tonne an hour of green ‎hydrogen.

The companies have also recently signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for the same. It is being considered as a significant step in developing ‎BP’s hydrogen business. Green hydrogen is made by the electrolysis of water using ‎renewable power, producing zero emissions.

Electrolysis splits water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. When powered by renewable ‎energy, this produces ‘green’ hydrogen, without generating direct carbon emissions. ‎Hydrogen is widely used in refinery processes where – as in Lingen – it is now typically ‎produced by reforming natural gas, which does result in CO2 emissions. This is also known ‎as ‘grey’ hydrogen.‎

Hyundai Motor joins IONITY

Hyundai Motor Group has joined IONITY, Europe’s  high-power charging network, as a strategic partner and shareholder. Through its participation in this joint venture, Hyundai Motor Group – including Hyundai and Kia brands – will drive the expansion of the high-power charging network along Europe’s highways, promoting the further adoption of zero-emission mobility.

The IONITY charging network uses the European CCS (Combined Charging System) charging standard. Since the network uses 100 percent renewable energies, thanks to IONITY, drivers of electric vehicles are not only able to travel emission-free, but also CO2-neutral.

India

Hero Electric and CredR partner

Hero Electric, one of India’s leading electric mobility OEMs, has partnered up with CredR, an omnichannel used two-wheeler consumer brand. The two companies have come up with an exchange program allowing people to exchange any petrol-powered two-wheeler for a brand-new Hero Electric scooter.

Hero MotoCorp and Sachin Bansal invest in Ather

E-scooter Company, Ather Energy raised an investment of $35 million in its latest round of Series D. The investment was led by Sachin Bansal’s investment of $23 million. Other investor being Hero MotoCorp that invested $12 million. The company known for its two main products  Ather 450X and 450 Plus, and is expanding quickly.

Research

SwRI researching cybersecurity weaknesses in transportation management systems

Southwest Research Institute received a $750,000 contract award from the Transportation Research Board to help state and local agencies address cyber-attack risks on current transportation systems and those posed by future connected vehicles. TRB is part of the private, nonprofit National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

SwRI will lead the two-year project with support from Praetorian, a leading cybersecurity assessment and advisory firm. The team will conduct a security audit of traffic management systems and develop a web-based guide to help transportation agencies learn to safeguard equipment.

SwRI’s assessment will include “white hat” hacking, or penetration testing, to assess vulnerabilities and recommend mitigation strategies. The recommendations will also consider how agencies with limited resources can implement cybersecurity measures. For the future, SwRI’s research will also evaluate potential access points where hackers might exploit connected vehicles.

 

 

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