I was had planned to do a long post on self-driving cars a quite long time. I was planning to do one this spring, but I might not do that, because it seems that predictions that self-driving cars would be here in 2020 were far too rosy. Five years ago, several companies including Nissan and Toyota promised self-driving cars in 2020. So it may be wise to take any new forecasts with a grain of salt. Hare is a worth to check out article of the current status of self-driving cars:
Surprise! 2020 Is Not the Year for Self-Driving Cars
https://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/self-driving/surprise-2020-is-not-the-year-for-selfdriving-cars
In March, because of the coronavirus, self-driving car companies, including Argo, Aurora, Cruise, Pony, and Waymo, suspended vehicle testing and operations that involved a human driver. Around the same time, Waymo and Ford released open data sets of information collected during autonomous-vehicle tests and challenged developers to use them to come up with faster and smarter self-driving algorithms.
It seems that the self-driving car industry still hopes to make meaningful progress on autonomous vehicles (AVs) this year, but the industry is slowed by the pandemic and facing a set of very hard problems that have gotten no easier to solve over the years.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Electric Drivetrain Conversion Kit Could Change the Economics of E-Trucks
June 28, 2023
Have kit, will travel—once the batteries are hooked up. A look at Evolectric’s path to “mass reproduction” of used, non-electric trucks.
Lee Goldberg
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21268680/electronic-design-electric-drivetrain-conversion-kit-could-change-the-economics-of-etrucks?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230621093&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Yhtiön katto on jo tulessa” – Volkswagenin toimitusjohtaja kertoi alaisilleen, että on viimeinen tilaisuus herätä
https://www.ksml.fi/teemat/6073920?fbclid=IwAR0bUQJmhZ-ihWwikVSaVFMAKh7-o-viX0DcoXma4NGL7VjL-LQ7wVU9YAY
Volkswagen on pyrkinyt nopeassa tahdissa sähköistämään automallistoaan. Tie ei ole ollut helppo. Yhtiö on julkisesti myöntänyt ”liian korkeat” tuotantokustannukset ja useat laatuongelmat. Tänä kesänä myös ilmoitettiin sähköautojen tuotantomäärien laskemisesta ja henkilöstön lomautuksista, vaikka sähköautojen pitäisi periaatteessa tällä hetkellä olla rahantekokone valmistajilleen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://tyyliniekka.fi/omistaja-jarkyttyi-kun-teslan-muovinen-kaasupoljin-katkesi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://news.umich.edu/a-surprisingly-simple-way-to-foil-car-thieves/
Flicking lights or swiping wipers could one day add extra security to vehicles
Skyrocketing vehicle theft rates in some U.S. cities have drawn attention to an inconvenient truth: the increasing amount of technology in our vehicles can make them increasingly vulnerable to hacking or theft.
Now, a solution that leverages perhaps the lowest-tech feature of today’s vehicles—the auxiliary power outlet, known to those of a certain age as the cigarette lighter—has been developed by a University of Michigan-led research team.
With a new $1.2 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation, the team is set to begin large-scale testing of Battery Sleuth, a vehicle security system that can protect against sophisticated wireless hacking, old-school jimmying and everything in between.
Battery Sleuth bypasses both the wireless communication that key fobs depend on and the standardized onboard communication network that’s used in today’s vehicles. Instead, it authenticates drivers by measuring voltage fluctuations in a vehicle’s electrical system. Drivers interact with it through a keypad device plugged into the auxiliary power outlet.
“The great thing about the power outlet is its simplicity—it’s just a wire connected to the battery, so there’s nothing to hack,”
Battery Sleuth delivers a predetermined series of voltage fluctuations—a sort of “voltage fingerprint”—to the car’s electrical system when the driver enters a numerical code into the keypad device. A receiver then recognizes this fingerprint and enables the vehicle to start. Drivers can also deliver the voltage fluctuation manually using auxiliary functions that draw battery power. They might perform some combination of flicking the windshield wipers, turn signal or headlights on and off, or locking and unlocking the doors.
Installed between a vehicle’s battery and the car’s electrical system, Battery Sleuth’s default mode allows the battery to deliver enough current to power systems like electronics and lights, but not enough to power the vehicle’s starter. Only when it detects the pre-set series of voltage fluctuations in the vehicle’s electrical system does it turn up the juice, allowing the battery’s full power through to the starter.
“The idea of measuring fluctuations in a car’s electrical system seems simple, but designing one device that can do it accurately on thousands of different vehicle models in varying environmental conditions gets quite complicated,”
Battery Sleuth also has defenses to guard against hacking or physical attacks on the device itself, including a siren that sounds if illegitimate activity is detected and a resistor that shuts down the vehicle’s electrical system if an unauthorized power source is connected to the vehicle. The system is designed to work as either an add-on to existing vehicles or a permanently installed component on new vehicles.
“Vehicle theft costs drivers and insurance companies more than $4 billion each year in the United States alone, and that’s partly because today’s vehicles use a hodge-podge of computer systems that were never designed to work together,”
At the end of the three-year project, the team aims to have a commercially viable prototype that can be scaled up to commercial production, first as a theft deterrent device, and potentially later as a complete vehicle entry and control system that could replace traditional keys and fobs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters: Tesla on liioitellut tietoisesti autojensa toimintasädettä
Reutersin lähteen mukaan Elon Musk halusi näyttää todenmukaista suurempaa toimintasädettä saadakseen autoja myytyä helpommin.
https://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000009746743.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Waymo’s announcement blog post tries to put a brave face on things, saying the company is “Doubling down on Waymo One,” its ride-hailing service, but also mentions that the company will “push back the timeline on our commercial and operational efforts on trucking.”
Waymo kills off autonomous trucking program
Ride-hailing will let Waymo focus on “near-term” commercial success.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/waymo-kills-off-autonomous-trucking-program/?utm_social-type=owned&utm_brand=ars&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3GQq3QgdsI900PZzlvb7ZuigIOFaSPtCpNRnU5HkH2YiyqyE7KkE88k4Y
Google’s cost cutters are taking another bite out of Waymo. After being hit by layoffs that cut 8 percent of staff, it now looks like the self-driving truck program—Waymo Via—is dead. Waymo’s announcement blog post tries to put a brave face on things, saying the company is “Doubling down on Waymo One,” its ride-hailing service, but also mentions that the company will “push back the timeline on our commercial and operational efforts on trucking, as well as most of our technical development on that business unit.”
Waymo says it will somehow “continue” its partnership with big rig manufacturer Daimler Truck North America (that’s where the big, blue Waymo Via truck came from), but Waymo’s actions paint a different picture.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pluralistic: Autoenshittification (24 July 2023)
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Konkurssiin menneen it-talon osaajat löysivät heti uusia töitä – ”Olemme iloisia voidessamme tarjota heille tämän kodin”
Aleksi Kolehmainen3.8.202313:58|päivitetty3.8.202314:09TEKOÄLYÄLYKÄS LIIKENNE
Sensible 4:n tuotetiimin ydinjoukko on jo palkattu kasvavan tekoäly-yhtiön palvelukseen.
https://www.tivi.fi/uutiset/konkurssiin-menneen-it-talon-osaajat-loysivat-heti-uusia-toita-olemme-iloisia-voidessamme-tarjota-heille-taman-kodin/4fe126f7-1059-49b1-a57b-25a2cb5b4781
Itseajavien autojen ohjelmistoja kehittänyt startup-yhtiö Sensible 4 hakeutui konkurssiin heinäkuussa. Yhtiö tunnettiin muun muassa japanilaisen Mujin kanssa kehitetystä Gacha-robottibussista.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Discover the automotive power distribution system
The power distribution system as it is today, is based on a wire harness to transport energy, fuses to protect the wire harness, relays/switches to start and stop the energy flow and ECUs to control the energy flow.
The power distribution system is built on three main elements – the primary power distribution, the secondary power distribution and Electronic Control Units (ECUs), e.g., the Body Control Module (BCM).
The primary power distribution is close to the source, often called the pre-fuse box. The secondary power distribution as of today, is the classical relay and fuse box which can be one central box or several distributed boxes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers reveal Tesla jailbreak that could unlock Full Self-Driving for free
The group found a hardware exploit they say would be hard for Tesla to mitigate.
https://www.engadget.com/researchers-reveal-tesla-jailbreak-that-could-unlock-full-self-driving-for-free-190431645.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
First of Tesla’s ‘bulletproof’ Cybertrucks clunks off production line
Wait, so it wasn’t an elaborate joke?
https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/17/first_tesla_cybertrunk/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bugit löysivät sähköautot – buuttaaminen auttaa
Kari Kakkonen14.8.202313:39OHJELMISTOKEHITYSOHJELMOINTI
Sähköautot ovat tämän päivän uusi normi, mutta kuinka moni tietää, mitä niiden takana piilee? Monimutkaiset ohjelmistot ja niiden testaaminen luovat uudenlaisia haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia autoilijoille ja testaajille.
https://www.tivi.fi/blogit/bugit-loysivat-sahkoautot-buuttaaminen-auttaa/baccf5ca-cb79-4ac0-9d95-b2e975887055
Sähköautot ovat erinomainen esimerkki ohjelmistojen ulottumisesta paikkoihin, joissa ne eivät ennen olleet. Ohjelmistot niissä ovat lisäksi niin monimutkaisia, että niiden testaus aiheuttaa uudenlaisia haasteita. Autoilukin on nykyään ohjelmistojen käyttämistä. Pääsin sukeltamaan kunnolla sähköautojen maailmaan saatuani lopulta oman ensimmäisen sähköautoni.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
As San Francisco opens to 24/7 robotaxis, a look at Cruise and Waymo cars causing traffic jams and obstructing emergency vehicles, unraveling the public’s trust
Robotaxis are driving on thin ice
https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/15/23831170/robotaxi-cpuc-sf-waymo-cruise-traffic-halt
/ As San Francisco braces for the onslaught of driverless cars, experts warn that the companies will need to establish trust with cities — or risk backlash
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21270762/electronic-design-new-motor-designs-help-ev-makers-kick-the-rareearth-habit-part-1?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230810127&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21270475/electronic-design-ev-inverter-chipsets-focus-of-infineonsemikron-danfoss-deal?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230810127&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21271502/electronic-design-backlight-led-drivers-enable-independent-control-of-192-zones?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230810116&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.mwrf.com/technologies/communications/wireless/wifi/article/21268173/electronic-design-bringing-wifi-6-to-cars?utm_source=RF+MWRF+Wireless+for+Consumers&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230804064&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2023/08/10/algoritmit-ohjaavat-aanekasta-robottibussia-taiteiden-yossa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2023/08/04/etaohjattavia-vuokra-autoja-helsinkiin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
48-V Systems: What You Need to Know as Automakers Say Goodbye to 12 V
July 21, 2023
Today, 48-V power systems are already helping improve the efficiency and performance of ICE and mild hybrid vehicles, but they will become an essential technology for tomorrow’s EVs.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21269271/electronic-design-48v-systems-what-you-need-to-know-as-automakers-say-goodbye-to-12-v?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230629030&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
What you’ll learn:
Why automakers are finally migrating from 12- to 48-V automotive accessory power systems.
An overview of the technical challenges automakers and their suppliers must overcome.
An introduction to the architectural options and standards that govern 48-V automotive power systems.
The 12-V automotive power system has dominated the industry for over 70 years, but it’s begun to cede that stranglehold to 48-V options. The higher-power versions offer numerous advantages, including the ability to deliver much higher levels of power across thinner, lighter, and lower-cost wiring harnesses. Such systems are also relatively inexpensive to implement because they don’t need to meet the more stringent safety and performance requirements that govern so-called high-voltage systems rated for more than 62 V
Despite these long-term advantages, the short-term level of effort and investments it would take to re-tool vehicle designs, their manufacturing lines, and the supply chains that support them have delayed the widespread adoption of 48-V electrical systems in all but a handful of products.
Lately, though, the balance of this equation has begun to tip in favor of 48 V due to the growing adoption of power-hungry subsystems, such as active suspensions and electrical power steering, and mounting pressure on manufacturers to save weight and cost. Added incentives for the adoption of 48-V power systems are emerging from the greater numbers of electrical vehicles (EVs) in the market, which rely on electrical power for every aspect of their operation.
Fortunately, several architectures support the use of both 12- and 48-V systems in the same vehicle.1 They can make the transition easier by allowing for the use of existing “legacy” electronics wherever needed.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the technical issues designers will face and need to overcome as they transition the next generations of trucks, cars, and other vehicles to 48-V systems.
A Slow Emergence
48-V vehicular power systems have been around for quite some time, mostly used to drive large pumps and actuators in off-road vehicles and other specialized applications. Over the past decade or so, they began to be used to reduce the currents required to drive electric superchargers, active suspension systems, and other power-hungry functions in passenger cars and work vehicles.
More recently, increased regulatory pressure to improve fuel economy has strengthened manufacturers’ interest in using 48 V to reduce direct loads on their vehicles’ internal combustion engines. This has been accomplished by electrifying other high-power accessory functions, such as power steering, air conditioning, and coolant pumps.
At least in theory, migration to a 48-V accessory bus also provided an economical way to produce transitional products in the form of so-called “mild hybrid.” Mild hybrids augment a relatively small conventional engine with a 48-V motor-generator that can be used to provide additional torque during acceleration and regenerative braking, as well as support auto stop/start functionality when the vehicle is coasting or stopped at a light.
A mild-hybrid system’s relatively low levels of assist deliver only offer a fraction of the efficiency improvements offered by a full hybrid drive system. However, they can be easily incorporated into an existing ICE vehicle design and typically add less than $1K to their production cost
While mild hybrids helped expand the demand for 48-V components
Switching to a 48-V electrical system greatly reduces the current levels the vehicle’s wiring harness needs to supply to its high-power subsystems, thereby enabling the use of lighter, smaller-gauge wires that cost considerably less per foot. For example, delivering 950 W of 12-V power (79 A) across a 12-ft. wiring harness requires a 4 AWG cable that weighs roughly 2 kg (4.1 lbs.). In contrast, powering the same 950-W load with 48 V can be accomplished using 10 AWG wire, which weighs 0.24 kg (>0.5 lb.), resulting in an 85% savings in weight (Fig. 3).
In addition to the weight and cost savings, switching to a 48-V power system can dramatically reduce resistive losses that could directly impact an EV’s range.
A Gradual Transition to 48 V
So far, Tesla seems to be the only manufacturer to have fully embraced 48-V power, beginning with its upcoming CyberTruck, followed by design changes that will eliminate the 12-V bus from several of their existing models.
Most other automakers, though, will have to distribute the enormous costs of overhauling their designs, manufacturing lines, and supply chains over a much longer period.
During the expected 10- to 15-year period transition to 48-V power, many vehicles will continue to use existing 12-V accessories and subsystems that work well and would be too costly to re-engineer immediately. This can be accomplished by running a legacy 12-V harness throughout the vehicle.
However, the more practical method is to implement a distributed power-delivery architecture, such as the one developed by Vicor (Fig. 4). In a distributed system, the vehicle’s 48 V is derived from the vehicle’s primary 400/800-V battery and then sent to 12-V power converters located close to the load points. Redundant power for braking, steering, and other ASIL D safety-critical functions can be derived by feeding them with two or more independent, isolated voltage converters.
Transitioning to a 48-V power architecture also raises the question about where the 48 V will come from. In the case of Tesla, the company has chosen to power the 48-V bus via a small standalone lithium-ion auxiliary battery that’s charged from the vehicle’s main battery pack.
Alternatively, some manufacturers may choose to eliminate the need for a separate 48-V battery by creating a “virtual” battery consisting of a low-impedance converter, regulator, and small storage devices, such as supercapacitors. This would provide hold-up power for the door lock and other systems that must remain active while the main battery is disconnected.
Getting Started
The details of a particular manufacturer’s transition to 48 V will vary greatly depending on their products, their technical maturity, and the requirements of the customers they serve. But nearly anyone beginning the journey can benefit from a solid grounding in the basic standards and design practices related to the technologies they will be using. This includes:
ISO 217804 covers requirements and tests for the electric and electronic components in road vehicles equipped with an electrical system operating at a nominal voltage of 48 V dc. This includes general requirements on 48-V dc electrical systems, voltage ranges, and slow voltage transients and fluctuations (not including EMC).
The VDA Recommendation 3205 is published and maintained by the ZVEI-German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association. It covers a wide range of specifications and test requirements for electric and electronic components in motor vehicles for the development of a 48-V power supply. ZVEI’s document “48-Volt Electrical Systems – A Key Technology Paving to the Road to Electric Mobility”6 provides practical insights about the requirements posed by VDA 320 and their fulfillment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
V2X Vision: Collaboration Focuses on Low-Cost, Next-Gen Solutions
June 27, 2023
Infineon will supply its automotive-grade HYPERRAM 3.0 memory for Autotalks’ TEKTON3 and SECTON3 V2X reference designs.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21268584/electronic-design-v2x-vision-collaboration-focuses-on-lowcost-nextgen-solutions?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230713179&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is the Automotive Industry Ready for Modular Powertrains and 48-V Batteries?
July 18, 2023
Increasing usage of high-density modular power and the adoption of 48-V battery technology will drive the race by automotive manufacturers to electrify their fleets.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/power/article/21269740/vicor-is-the-automotive-industry-ready-for-modular-powertrains-and-48v-batteries?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230713170&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software-Defined Vehicles Require an Automotive OS
Aug. 3, 2023
Automotive operating systems need to be very robust to address multiple safety, security, and reliability requirements.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21270872/electronic-design-softwaredefined-vehicles-require-an-automotive-os?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230810129&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G autoon? Lisenssi maksaa 32 dollaria
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/15217-5g-autoon-lisenssi-maksaa-32-dollaria
Patenttiyhteisö Avanci, johon kuuluvat Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, Interdigital, Huawei ja 53 muuta yritystä, on julkaissut hinnan ajoneuvon yhdistämisestä 5G:hen. Lisenssin saa 32 dollarilla eli hieman alle 30 eurolla. Jos tekee lisenssisopimuksen nopeasti, säästä 3 dollaria autoa kohti.
Mercedes on Avancin uuden lisenssiohjelman ensimmäinen virallinen asiakas, joka kattaa 5G:n mutta myös vanhemmat standardit 4G, 3G ja 2G. Lisenssiin sisältyy ns. essentiaalipatentteja 58 yritykseltä.
Ericssonin veteraani Kasim Alfalahi perusti Avancin vuonna 2016. Hitaan alun jälkeen yritys on saavuttanut menestystä sekä IoT-sovelluksissa että ajoneuvoissa. Yhtiö kertoo, että 130 miljoonalla ajoneuvolla on Avancin myöntämät lisenssit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Näin paljon maksaa wattitunti sähköauton akustossa
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/15213-naein-paljon-maksaa-wattitunti-saehkoeauton-akustossa
Sähköautojen hinnat tulevat pikkuhiljaa alas, vaikka tahti on monen mielestä liian verkkainen. Myös akustojen hinta laskee tasaisesti, mutta kuinka palon maksaa wattitunnin kapasiteetti? Trendforce on selvittänyt tämänkin.
Akustojen kysyntä jatkaa tasaista kasvuaan, mutta kesäkuusta heinäkuuhun akustojen hinta laksi vain prosentilla, TrendForce kertoo. Keskimäärin yksi wattitunti maksaa 0,66 renmimbiä. Euroissa hinta asettuu nykykurssilla noin 8 senttiin.
Niinpä yhden kilowattitunnin hinta on 80 euroa. Kun keskimäärin auton akussa on kapasiteettia 50 kilowattitunnin akusto, sillä on hintaa 4000 euroa. 50 kilowattitunnin akustolla ajelee normaalioloissa ja normaalivauhdeilla sellaisen 350-400 kilometriä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unohda latausahdistus! Teslan akkutoimittaja ratkaisi ongelman
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/15212-unohda-latausahdistus-teslan-akkutoimittaja-ratkaisi-ongelman
Yksi sähköautojen suurimpia haasteita on se, että akun lataaminen kestää liian kauan. Jos kantama ei riitä maaseudulle kertalatauksella ja lataaminen kestää yön yli, tämä hidastaa merkittävästi autoilun sähköistymistä. Nyt kiinalainen CATL on ratkaissut ongelman.
Akun pystyy CATL:n sähköautoryhmän teknologiajohtaja Gao Hanin mukaan lataamaan täyteen 10 minuutissa. Sillä saa käyttöönsä 400 kilometrin kantaman.
Tämä tarkoittaa, että 10 minuutin latausen jälkeen voisi ajaa Helsingistä Tampereelle ja takaisin, tai Helsingistä Jyväskylään. Akun massatuotannon odotetaan alkavan vuoden 2023 loppuun mennessä, ja toimitukset alkavat vuonna 2024.
CATL:n mukaan Shenxing on maailman ensimmäinen supernopeasti ladattava LFP-akku. LFP viittaa litiumrautafosfaattiin, johon Tesla siirtyi vuonna 2021 lyhyemmän kantaman autoissaan korvaten aiemmin nikkeli-koboltti-alumiini -kemian.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mihin autoilu on menossa? Digikeyn videosarja kertoo
https://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15220&via=n&datum=2023-08-18_15:11:09&mottagare=30929
Komponenttien verkkokaupan raskaaseen sarjaan kuuluva DigiKey on julkistanut kolmannen kauden City Digital -videosarjastaan. Nyt keskiössä on sähköistyvä ja verkkoturva autoilu. Analog Devicesin sponsoroima kolmen jakson sarja sukeltaa syvälle autotekniikan tulevaisuuteen.
Digikeyllä IoT-kumppaniiksista vastaava Kelsie McMillin sanoo, että IoT:n ja autoteollisuuden välinen keskinäinen riippuvuus on edennyt viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana, ja ajoneuvoissa on joka vuosi enemmän elektronisia ominaisuuksia, kuten mobiililiitettävyys, ympäristötunnistin ja tutka. – Yhteistyömme Analog Devicesin kaltaisten toimittajien kanssa antaa meille mahdollisuuden tuoda insinööreille ja suunnittelijoille tuotteet ja työkalut, joita he tarvitsevat vauhdittaakseen autoteollisuutta.
ADI:n Yasmine King muistuttaa, että auto on todennäköisimmin ostos, jossa on eniten teknologiaa. – Teemme paljon töitä yrittäessämme ratkaista autoteollisuuden haastavimpia ongelmia, kuten autonominen ajaminen ja sähköistetty liikkuvuus.
https://www.digikey.fi/en/resources/iot-resource-center/city-digital/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=pressrelease&utm_campaign=pressrelease#VTabs3
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amsterdam to use “noise cameras” against too loud cars
https://nltimes.nl/2023/08/11/amsterdam-use-noise-cameras-loud-cars
Amsterdam has started the fight against noisy motorcycles and cars. On Friday, the city placed electric road signs in two places to warn road users if their vehicles are too loud. The warnings will eventually be replaced by “noise cameras,” which, like speed cameras, automatically send a fine to the offending driver, Parool reports.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/15222-robottiauto-paeaetti-juuttua-sementtiin
Tavallaan Friscon tapaus on surkuhupaisa. Jo viime vuonna raportoitiin, että autonomisten ajoneuvojen kehittämiseen oli investoitu yli 200 miljardia dollaria ja summa kasvoi ja on kasvanut kohisten. Silti ongelmia voivat aiheuttaa erikoistilanteet kuten liikenteen ohjaus tietäiden ohessa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://r-bus.fi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Case for FPGAs in Automotive Applications
Aug. 8, 2023
As vehicles become more advanced and software-centric, automakers should embrace using FPGA chips throughout the design and production phases.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21271326/guardknox-the-case-for-fpgas-in-automotive-applications?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230817092&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
48-V Systems: What You Need to Know as Automakers Say Goodbye to 12 V
July 21, 2023
Today, 48-V power systems are already helping improve the efficiency and performance of ICE and mild hybrid vehicles, but they will become an essential technology for tomorrow’s EVs.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21269271/electronic-design-48v-systems-what-you-need-to-know-as-automakers-say-goodbye-to-12-v?utm_source=EG+ED+Update:+Power+and+Analog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230817131&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
More miles, fewer wires in future electric vehicles
https://news.ti.com/blog/2021/01/06/more-miles-fewer-wires-in-future-electric-vehicles?HQS=null-null-ve-autobrand_ve22_fewer_wires-asset-blog-ElectronicDesign_psfi_bms_l1-wwe_int&DCM=yes&dclid=CJPYp_nf9IADFcVGkQUd5z0KGw
Going wireless with the next generation of battery management systems (BMS) removes heavy communications cabling from inside EVs to help improve driving range and reliability
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/15162-saehkoeautojen-kysyntae-hiipui-heinaekuussa
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters:
Tesla faces its first trials over Autopilot allegedly causing crashes that killed the car’s owner, in California court in September and Florida court in October
Focus: Tesla braces for its first trial involving Autopilot fatality
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-braces-its-first-trial-involving-autopilot-fatality-2023-08-28/
Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is set to defend itself for the first time at trial against allegations that failure of its Autopilot driver assistant feature led to death, in what will likely be a major test of Chief Executive Elon Musk’s assertions about the technology.
Self-driving capability is central to Tesla’s financial future, according to Musk, whose own reputation as an engineering leader is being challenged with allegations by plaintiffs in one of two lawsuits that he personally leads the group behind technology that failed. Wins by Tesla could raise confidence and sales for the software, which costs up to $15,000 per vehicle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Työkalut vaihtuvat tietokoneisiin auton huollossa
https://etn.fi/index.php/tekniset-artikkelit/15250-tyoekalut-vaihtuvat-tietokoneisiin-auton-huollossa
Mene mihin tahansa ajoneuvohuoltoon ja näet todennäköisesti paljon työkaluja, joita olet aina yhdistänyt mekaanisten ongelmien korjaamiseen. Mutta tämä tulee muuttumaan merkittävästi tulevina vuosina. Sähköajoneuvojen kasvun myötä kiintoavaimet tulevat vaihtumaan tietokoneisiin.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21272244/electronic-design-new-motor-designs-help-ev-makers-kick-the-rareearth-habit-part-2?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230824100&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yiwen Lu / New York Times:
The San Francisco Fire Department says two Cruise driverless taxis blocked an ambulance carrying a patient who later died at a hospital; Cruise denies any fault — Two Cruise taxis delayed an ambulance carrying a car accident victim to a hospital, a department report said. The company said it was not at fault.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/02/technology/driverless-cars-cruise-san-francisco.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Developing Advanced 3D Object Detection for Autonomous Vehicles
Aug. 23, 2023
1
Real-world vision systems rely on 3D object detection, which is critical in developing perception capabilities for AVs and mobile autonomous robots. But what’s the best approach to achieve the best quality data for the most accurate detection?
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded/software/article/21272293/recogni-developing-advanced-3d-object-detection-for-autonomous-vehicles?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230831087&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/teaching-a-mini-tesla-to-steer-itself/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21273164/electronic-design-new-motor-designs-help-ev-makers-kick-the-rareearth-habit-part-3?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230831078&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
Design Connectors to Meet Emerging Automotive Trends
Aug. 17, 2023
Circular connectors suit harsh environment applications but new automotive designs are calling for connectors to meet limited space requirements.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/components/interconnects/article/21271944/design-connectors-to-meet-emerging-automotive-trends?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230831088&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Manufacturers are continuously developing new connector designs and technologies to keep pace with automotive demands. As a result, they offer a variety of off-the-shelf and custom connector solutions to meet application requirements.
Recent changes in consumer trends have steered automotive manufacturers away from producing large SUVs and toward smaller, more compact, more fuel-efficient vehicles powered by electric or hybrid engines.
With this shift in consumer culture, manufacturers are facing new challenges to meet fuel-efficient vehicle specifications, including reduced size, weight, and component count, combined with increased performance, functionality, and ruggedness.
Not only must circular connectors be miniature, then, they also require sealing to IP69K specifications and the ability to withstand the intense shock and vibration conditions common to these environments.
Manufacturers have expanded their circular connector product range to include miniature, 22-mm diameter plug devices with pin counts ranging from two to seven contacts, meeting the needs of these specialized automotive applications. These connectors are highly reliable, direct in-line, multi-pin solutions.
Because they specifically target the harsh environments found in commercial vehicle and industrial applications, the bayonet coupling connectors feature complete sealing to IP67 and IP69K specs to resist engine, transmission, fuel, motor oil, gear-box oil, and brake fluids.
For increased versatility, miniature circular connectors are available with various housings, including plug, flange receptacle, sensor receptacle, splitter (CAN J1939), and wire-to-wire. All versions are designed to meet ISO15170 (formerly DIN 72585) and ISO16750 standards for transmission and engine applications.
In addition to offering high reliability and ruggedness, circular connectors are easy to assemble and disassemble. Many circular connector designs offer a secondary locking mechanism for increased security and typically require no special contact removal tools to unlock the secondary contact insert, resulting in a user-friendly device. With no tools other than a screwdriver necessary to unlock the contact insert in the field, users have a simpler means of correcting any problems that may arise.
Miniature circular connectors may also feature audible and visual indication when mating and locking, along with up to four different mechanical/key and color codings to avoid mis-mating.
Reducing Component Count
To reduce costs and minimize designs, manufacturers have sought components that increase functionality and reduce component count on the printed-circuit board (PCB).
Advanced interconnect devices have emerged to protect electronic systems from electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), electromagnetic interference (EMI), and electromagnetic pulses (EMPs). To protect electronic systems, it is paramount to maintain the integrity of electronic signals and thus ensure the overall performance of the device.
Traditional methods of EMI and EMP protection include mounting additional devices to the circuit board. Yet such solutions can be costly and less effective, and they often do not conform to increasing real estate constraints.
Alternatively, developments have been made in EMI and EMP protection through mounting chip capacitors and transient voltage suppressor (TVS) devices to flex circuits within a connector, as opposed to the circuit board, providing protection against lightning-induced transients, voltage surges, electromagnetic interference, and ESD pulses, all while conforming to the cost and size limitations of automotive applications.
Traditional EMI/EMP Protection
Designers traditionally have protected their electronic systems from voltage surges, EMP, and EMI by using one of two methodologies, both of which involve attaching a transorb to every contact in the interface connector.
The first method involves physically attaching a device to the side of each contact within the connector and grounding it to the connector shell. This solution incorporates processes that solder the device and then over-mold it to isolate and insulate the poles of the device from each other.
Surge and leakage current testing of the contact assembly is mandatory, since the processing significantly affects the performance of the system. The small physical size of the device required to use this method minimizes its power dissipation capabilities and results in a longer connector due to transient voltage surge suppression (TVSS) and filtering components.
The second approach requires attaching a pre-tested JANTX-certified (Joint Army-Navy Technical Exchange) device with leads to the contact via circuit boards or other similar techniques, with the other end connecting to the shell.
Alternative Protection Methods
Both of these methods are labor-intensive and costly. To provide a more cost-effective solution, connector manufacturers developed new methodologies for shielding and filtering inside the connectors themselves.
As an alternative, state-of-the-art flexible circuits where individual chip capacitors are surface-mounted on a pad adjacent to the feed-through contact are replacing fragile ceramic planar array block capacitors. Since the feed-through contacts are not soldered directly to the capacitor, stress points impacted by thermal shock and vibration are virtually eliminated.
The resulting design is a robust filter connector with superior mechanical performance and better reliability. These advanced connectors provide standard filtering capabilities, including individual isolated pin filtering of high-frequency noise, built-in ground plane barriers in the connector inserts, and filtering at the face of system boxes.
One example, ITT Interconnects’ Chip-on-Flex (CoF) technology, employs off-the-shelf chip capacitors based on the connector’s dielectric withstanding voltage rating (see the figure). The chip capacitors are mounted on flex circuits to provide the necessary filtering. TVS protection can be accomplished utilizing the CoF technology by simply surface-mounting devices on one of the flex layers or adding a separate layer with Zener diodes or metal oxide varistors (MOVs).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobileye Launches First Camera-Only ISA System to Meet New EU Standards
Aug. 24, 2023
2
Addressing an EU mandate stating that from July 7, 2024, all vehicles be equipped with intelligent-speed-assist (ISA) systems, Intel’s Mobileye developed a speed-sign-recognition video camera system—claimed as the first of its kind.
Murray Slovick
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21272423/electronic-design-mobileye-launches-first-cameraonly-isa-system-to-meet-new-eu-standards?utm_source=EG+ED+Auto+Electronics&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230831088&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
What you’ll learn:
What is an intelligent-speed-assistance system?
Details about Mobileye’s new ISA all-camera system.
Technologies to upgrade traffic-sign recognition.
Of the close to 23,000 fatalities in 2019 on EU roads, it’s estimated that 10% to 15% of all crashes and 30% of all fatal crashes were the direct result of speeding. [Source: report from EC Service Contract MOVE/C2/SER/2019-100/SI2.822066 with Vias institute (BE) and SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (NL).] Technical solutions assisting drivers in reducing driving speed thus should have a profound impact on accident outcome and reduction of injury levels.
Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 of the European Parliament mandates motor vehicles to be equipped with intelligent-speed-assistance (ISA) systems from July 7, 2024, for all new models.
As of that date, passenger vehicles sold in the EU must meet specific requirements such as being able to detect static and dynamic message speed-limit signage across hundreds of signs, with thousands of country-specific variants, and in harsh weather and adverse lighting conditions. The vehicles must also understand temporary speed limits for construction, accidents, or other issues, often given by digital signage, and implicit speed limits such as when at a city entrance.
According to the European Road Safety Observatory, the new regulations could reduce collisions by as much as 30% and fatalities by up to 20%. Under the new regulation, all systems will be required to let drivers know what speed limits are in effect either actively, in which a vehicle automatically slows down gently toward a posted limit, or passively, in which the ISA system alerts drivers when they exceed posted limits.
First Vision-Only ISA
Following testing and certification across Europe, Intel’s Mobileye has introduced what’s claimed to be the world’s first vision-only ISA solution for automakers.
ISA is a system that prompts and encourages drivers to slow down when they’re over the speed limit. It works with the driver as an assisting function, through the accelerator control, or through other dedicated and appropriate feedback, while the driver is always in full control of the driving speed of the vehicle. It’s an effective safety measure because even a slightly reduced driving speed has a significant beneficial effect on accident avoidance or mitigation of the accident outcome.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BMW earned a degree of consumer distrust after making Apple CarPlay a subscription-only feature for a while before backtracking, and in 2020 the company did the same for factory-installed hardware features like heated seats or adaptive cruise control in markets like Korea and the UK.
BMW decides heated seat subscriptions are a bust
The option was never offered to US customers anyway
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/bmw-ditches-subscriptions-for-heated-seats-other-hardware-features/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_brand=ars&fbclid=IwAR3g2u6-wxqZ_i78JkrRjr2Y-ITNqBMqFVWaWO_2FQF9vmB1Xit37cYwBmU
BMW’s experiment with offering in-car subscriptions for hardware features installed at the factory is over. Earlier this week, a BMW board member told Autocar that while it will still pursue some subscription features in the future, those will only be software-based services.
The last decade or so has seen the auto industry get tech fever. Wide-eyed executives and shareholders looked at the profit margins and market value of software companies and their “recurring revenue streams” and decided they wanted a slice of that, particularly since a modern car is just so many computers on wheels now. But it turns out—surprise, surprise—that consumers don’t really want any more monthly payments attached to their vehicles.
Indeed, in 2019 BMW earned a degree of consumer distrust after making Apple CarPlay a subscription-only feature for a while before backtracking.
Perhaps more egregious than charging a monthly fee for an in-car data service has been the practice of installing equipment at the factory and then later charging an owner a fee to unlock its use. It’s a practice that Tesla has used both in the past and now, once again, artificially restricting the useable storage capacity in some of its electric vehicle batteries.
Again, BMW became far better known for this practice than Tesla when, in 2020, it started offering subscriptions for factory-installed hardware features like heated seats or adaptive cruise control in markets like Korea and the UK.
For example, a British BMW owner could opt to specify their car with adaptive cruise control and lane keeping (Driving Assistant Plus in BMW-speak) for $937 (£750) when ordering it or not tick that option but later decide to try the feature as a free three-month trial, then either buy it outright for that same price or for a month ($43/£35), a year ($437/£350), or three years ($628/£550).
“We actually are now focusing with those ‘functions on demand’ on software and service-related products, like driving assistance and parking assistance, which you can add later after purchasing the car, or for certain functions that require data transmission that customers are used to paying for in other areas,” BMW board member Pieter Nota told Autocar.
“What we don’t do anymore—and that is a very well-known example—is offer seat heating by this way. It’s either in or out. We offer it by the factory and you either have it or you don’t have it,” Nota said. The reason? Low uptake as a result of unhappy customers. “People feel that they paid double—which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
”Painajaisia pyörien päällä” – Kaikki suuret autovalmistajat reputtivat yksityisyydensuojatestin
https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/painajaisia-pyorien-paalla-kaikki-suuret-autovalmistajat-reputtivat-yksityisyydensuojatestin/
‘Modern cars are a privacy nightmare,’ the worst Mozilla’s seen / A new study from the Mozilla Foundation found that all 25 of the car brands it reviewed had glaring privacy concerns, even compared to the makers of sex toys and mental health apps.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/6/23861047/car-user-privacy-report-mozilla-foundation-data-collection
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gartner: vuonna 2027 sähköauto maksaa saman verran kuin polttomoottoriauto
https://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15299&via=n&datum=2023-09-08_15:28:44&mottagare=31202
Tutkimuslaitos Gartnerin analyytikot odottavat, että vuoteen 2027 mennessä täyssähköisten ajoneuvojen keskihinta on samalla tasolla kuin kooltaan ja muilta ominaisuuksiltaan vastaavan polttomoottorilla varustetun uuden auton hinta. Tämä tulee nopeuttamaan sähköautojen maailmanlaajuista käyttöönottoa.
Vuoteen 2030 mennessä sähköntuotanto ja verkkokapasiteetti voivat kuitenkin toimia esteinä sähköajoneuvojen massakäyttöön hinnasta riippumatta. – Elleivät maat ryhdy toimiin kannustaakseen sähköajoneuvojen kuljettajia lataamaan autonsa öiseen aikaan, sähköautoihin siirtyminen voi aiheuttaa lisärasitusta sekä sähkön tuotantokapasiteetille että jakeluverkoille, arvioi analyytikko Jonathan Davenport.
Gartner arvioi, että tänä vuonna sähköautoja – täyssähköisiä ja ladattavia hybridejä – myydään globaalisti lähes 15 miljoonaa kappaletta. Kun ennuste autojen kokonaismarkkinoista on 86-87 miljoonaa, tarkoittaa tämä, että lähes joka viides uusi auto kulkee sähköllä.
Gartner arvioi nyt, että vuonna 2030 yli 50 prosenttia myydyistä autoista kulkee sähköllä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.pickeringtest.com/resources/success-stories/designing-a-hils-test-system-for-ev-startup?utm_campaign=PIL%20-%20Electronic%20Design%20-%202023&utm_source=electronic-design-sept23-HIL-cs&utm_medium=electronic-design-ad&utm_content=cs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Walter Isaacson / CNBC:
How Tesla’s Autopilot team moved away from a rules-based approach for the upcoming FSD 12 to a “neural network planner” trained on 10M+ Tesla car video clips — The following is adapted from Walter Isaacson’s biography “Elon Musk,” publishing Sept. 12.
How Elon Musk set Tesla on a new course for self-driving
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/09/ai-for-cars-walter-isaacson-biography-of-elon-musk-excerpt.html
Musk had used FSD hundreds of times before, but this drive was profoundly different, and not just because it was much smoother and more reliable. The new version he was using, FSD 12, was based on a radical new concept that he believes will not only totally transform autonomous vehicles but also be a quantum leap toward artificial general intelligence that can operate in physical real-world situations. Instead of being based on hundreds of thousands of lines of code, like all previous versions of self-driving software, this new system had taught itself how to drive by processing billions of frames of video of how humans do it, just like the new large language model chatbots train themselves to generate answers by processing billions of words of human text.
Amazingly, Musk had set Tesla on this fundamentally new approach just eight months earlier.
“It’s like ChatGPT, but for cars,” Dhaval Shroff, a young member of Tesla’s autopilot team, explained to Musk in a meeting in December. He was comparing the idea they were working on to the chatbot that had just been released by OpenAI, the lab that Musk cofounded in 2015. “We process an enormous amount of data on how real human drivers acted in a complex driving situation,” said Shroff, “and then we train a computer’s neural network to mimic that.”
Until then, Tesla’s Autopilot system had been relying on a rules-based approach. The car’s cameras identified such things as lane markings, pedestrians, vehicles, signs and traffic signals. Then the software applied a set of rules, such as: Stop when the light is red, go when it’s green, stay in the middle of the lane markers, proceed through an intersection only when there are no cars coming fast enough to hit you, and so on. Tesla’s engineers manually wrote and updated hundreds of thousands of lines of C++ code to apply these rules to complex situations.
The “neural network planner” that Shroff and others were working on took a different approach. “Instead of determining the proper path of the car based on rules,” Shroff says, “we determine the car’s proper path by relying on a neural network that learns from millions of examples of what humans have done.” In other words, it’s human imitation. Faced with a situation, the neural network chooses a path based on what humans have done in thousands of similar situations. It’s like the way humans learn to speak and drive and play chess and eat spaghetti and do almost everything else; we might be given a set of rules to follow, but mainly we pick up the skills by observing how other people do them. It was the approach to machine learning envisioned by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” and which exploded into public view a year ago with the release of ChatGPT.
By early 2023, the neural network planner project had analyzed 10 million clips of video collected from the cars of Tesla customers. Did that mean it would merely be as good as the average of human drivers? “No, because we only use data from humans when they handled a situation well,” Shroff explained.
Machine-learning systems generally need a metric that guides them as they train themselves. Musk, who liked to manage by decreeing what metrics should be paramount, gave them their lodestar: The number of miles that cars with Full Self-Driving were able to travel without a human intervening. “I want the latest data on miles per intervention to be the starting slide at each of our meetings,” he decreed. He told them to make it like a video game where they could see their score every day. “Video games without a score are boring, so it will be motivating to watch each day as the miles per intervention increases.”
Members of the team installed massive 85-inch television monitors in their workspace that displayed in real time how many miles the FSD cars were driving on average without interventions. They put a gong near their desks, and whenever they successfully solved a problem causing an intervention, they got to bang the gong.
By mid-April 2023, it was time for Musk to try the new neural network planner. He sat in the driver’s seat next to Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s director of Autopilot software. Three members of the Autopilot team got in the back. As they prepared to leave the parking lot at Tesla’s Palo Alto office complex, Musk selected a location on the map for the car to go and took his hands off the wheel.
When the car turned onto the main road, the first scary challenge arose: a bicyclist was heading their way. On its own, the car yielded, just as a human would have done.
For 25 minutes, the car drove on fast roads and neighborhood streets, handling complex turns and avoiding cyclists, pedestrians and pets. Musk never touched the wheel. Only a couple of times did he intervene by tapping the accelerator when he thought the car was being overly cautious
“Amazing work, guys,” Musk said at the end. “This is really impressive.” They all then went to the weekly meeting of the Autopilot team, where 20 guys, almost all in black T-shirts, sat around a conference table to hear the verdict. Many had not believed that the neural network project would work. Musk declared that he was now a believer and they should move their resources to push it forward.
During the discussion, Musk latched on to a key fact the team had discovered: The neural network did not work well until it had been trained on at least a million video clips. This gave Tesla a big advantage over other car and AI companies. It had a fleet of almost 2 million Teslas around the world collecting video clips every day. “We are uniquely positioned to do this,” Elluswamy said at the meeting.
Four months later, the new system was ready to replace the old approach and become the basis of FSD 12, which Tesla plans to release as soon as regulators approve. There is one problem still to overcome: human drivers, even the best, usually fudge traffic rules, and the new FSD, by design, imitates what humans do. For example, more than 95% of humans creep slowly through stop signs, rather than coming to a complete stop. The chief of the National Highway Safety Board says that the agency is currently studying whether that should be permissible for self-driving cars as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/09/when-tail-lights-lose-touch-with-reality/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Electric Motor Tech Spins With No Magnets
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/10/new-electric-motor-tech-spins-with-no-magnets/
When you think of electric motors, you usually think of magnets. But magnets are heavy, and good magnets can pose problems when you need lots of them. A technology called SESM (separately excited synchronous motors) requires no magnets, but now ZF — a German company — claims to have a different scheme using inductive excitation. Motors that employ SESM tend to be larger and require a direct current to turn the rotor. This DC is often supplied by slip rings or an AC induction with a rectifier. The innovation here is that the inductive excitation is built completely into the shaft, which the company claims makes the motor both compact and powerful.
ZF makes magnet-free electric motor uniquely compact and competitive
https://press.zf.com/press/en/releases/release_60480.html
Inductive current transmission unit inside the rotor enables ultra-compact e-motor design
Performance data on par with permanent-magnet synchronous machines, currently the most common form of drive for e-vehicles
Advantages: no magnets or rare earth materials, increased security of supply, and better sustainability and efficiency