Tesla Model 3 Australia Specs, Features Review - Tesla would need to challenge all desires to make progress on the tesla sydney, while keeping away from all the potential pitfalls—not just for the 200-mile $35,000 m3 price australia, yet a gigantic new battery manufacturing plant. However, in view of the disclosing of the auto in March 2016, the organization seems prepared to make another earth
Showing posts with label Tesla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tesla. Show all posts
Did you read yesterday that a Tesla driver in Germany saw another driver on the road slumped over the wheel, so he got his car in front of the VW, used his brakes to let the car hit his and then kept on the brakes to bring them both to a stop
Once the Tesla driver was able to stop the out-of-control car, he administered first aid to the man, who reportedly had a stroke. The German newspaper says the man has since recovered.
Well, that is really cool, but it wasn't enough to post about.
So, Elon Musk fixed my problem, and gave me something to post about... he heard about the hero and today announced that he's going to pay to fix that cars damages.
That is pretty damn cool
http://fortune.com/2017/02/15/elon-musk-reward-tesla/
https://www.facebook.com/pg/feuerwehr.muenchen/photos/ for the photo credit
http://jalopnik.com/heroic-driver-sacrifices-his-tesla-to-save-unconscious-1792349590 for more photos of the two cars
Fast Charging EV stock - 2016
Following on this article, here is an update to the table:
Number of EV's sold by type of Fast Charging protocol
| Year | Chademo | CCS | Tesla |
| 2011 | 33.301 | ||
| 2012 | 38.852 | 2.721 | |
| 2013 | 72.701 | 3.391 | 22.442 |
| 2014 | 100.280 | 25.521 | 31.655 |
| 2015 2016 | 108.680 96.921 | 45.273 45.690 | 50.567 76.243 |
As can see, Chademo still has the lead, but for the first time numbers have gone down, mostly due to Mitsubishi sales dive, while CCS this year is had a bitter-sweet year, as on the one hand the BMW i3 numbers grew and the Hyundai Ioniq Electric helped to boost sales, but on the other hand, the VW e-Golf numbers went down, counterbalancing the other two good news. Also not helping, most brands behind it are focused on plug-in hybrids, that don't include fast-charging.
2017 and 2018 will be all important years in the race between Chademo and CCS, as the Nissan Leaf will defend Chademo's lead over the CCS-compatible Chevrolet Bolt and the new wave of European and South-Korean BEV's.
Given the large amount of brands now getting behind CCS, it looks this protocol will win the race in the long run.
Given the large amount of brands now getting behind CCS, it looks this protocol will win the race in the long run.
Finally, while the Tesla SC is not intended to fight the other two, the truth is that, unlike the softening sales of the other two standards, strong sales of the Tesla brand has increased the lead over CCS and is now starting to close in on Chademo, with the ever-expanding network, top-of-the-range charging abilities and the undisclosed number of Model 3 units to be added this year, expect the Tesla SC to be a serious candidate for the best selling fast charging standard this year.
Automotive Groups December 2016
Regarding 2015, there were some major changes, BYD jumped ahead of the Renault-Nissan Alliance (Haven't included Mitsubishi yet, as the Japanese brand was only included in October), and has set an ambitious goal of 200.000 units in 2017, while Tesla climbed to Third at the expense of the Volkswagen Group and hopes to reach BYD-level of deliveries this year.
But the 2017 Best Selling OEM title will be a three horse race, as a Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance can also reach 200.000 units with relative ease, it's just a matter of producing the Renault Zoe at full speed, update the Nissan Leaf with a 40 kWh battery soon and actively sell the Mitsu Outlander PHEV.
Volkswagen's slow growth (Up only 6% YoY) has made it lose the Third spot and it wasn't surpassed by an ambitious (100.000 units goal for 2017!) BMW Group by just 300 units, so VW better shape up in 2017 and increase sales significantly, or else they will be on the uncomfortable role of also-rans, 2020 and its I.D. disruptive model is still some years away and a lot can/will change until then.
BAIC is rising from the shadow of BYD and despite only selling half of the Chinese poster-child, it is growing significantly (The EC180 looks like a winner), so it wouldn't be surprising to see it reach 80.000 sales this year, same as the Geely Group, which has seen Volvo grow 50% and most importantly, Geely land with 17.000 units. Two OEMs to follow closely in 2017.
The same can be said about General Motors, growing 54% YoY in 2016 and that's without using the ace up its sleeve (Chevy Bolt). With the Bolt and Volt (Arriving soon to China) charging at full speed, anything less than doubling sales in 2017 will be considered a disappointment. As for the Cadillac CT6 PHEV career, i believe the ELR is a good sales indication...
| Automotive Group | Units | % of sales |
| BYD | 102.470 | 17 |
| Renault-Nissan | 86.247 | 1 |
| Tesla | 76.243 | 100 |
| VW Group | 62.480 | 1 |
| BMW Group | 62.157 | 3 |
| BAIC | 46.420 | 2 |
| Zotye | 37.363 | 15 |
| Geely Group | 32.760 | 3 |
| General Motors | 32.700 | 0 |
| Mitsubishi | 32.179 | 2 |
Looking at the percentage of plug-in sales of each OEM, besides the obvious case of Tesla, the two brands that have a significant share of EV's are BYD (17%) and Zotye (15%), with the remaining OEMs still having residual percentages, with the highest share of this third pack being the BMW and Geely Groups, both with 3% share.
General Motors has a lot to improve, as their plug-ins still do not reach 1% of the Group sales, but even so, there are worse OEMs, like Toyota of Fiat-Chrysler...
2016 in Review
2016, also known as Year Six of the Modern Age of Electric Cars is about to end, so i took the time to review some of the most important facts this year:
The EV Future will be bright (But it's not here yet)
If there is a phrase that sums up the general feeling in the Plug-in scene in 2016, it's the one above, starting with the production-spec Chevrolet Bolt Detroit presentation in January, the Tesla Model 3 earthquake in March, 31st, and ending with several announcements of long range EV's throughout the year, the fact is that buyers had a taste of the Second Generation EV's, but all they could buy during 2016 were First Generation BEV's / PHEV's and a couple of 1.5G models (Chevrolet Volt II, Hyundai Ioniq Electric), which lead to a Osborne effect in many western markets, with buyers preferring to wait for the upcoming models, leading to a drop in sales of First Generation electric cars.
Sometimes Tesla behavior reminds that of a certain Right Said Fred hit, with a near cult-like following from its fans and a Model 3 success that surpassed Elon's wildest dreams, it would be more than enough to keep every other OEM happy and they would just surf the wave and prepare for the Model 3 goldmine.
Not Tesla. During 2016, they did a Model S facelift (Ok, they had to do something about that nose), improved their P90D/90D versions, replaced the 70 version for the 60/75 units, which together with the QA issues of the Model X, created unnecessary production constraints in Q1 & Q2.
As the year progressed and the Q3 was turning out to be memorable, they thought: "This is becoming boring, we haven't presented anything awesome in the past couple of months, so what can we do? I know, the P90D is passé, let's do the P100D! And add the Second Gen. Autopilot!"
With another two jaw-dropping additions, they managed to increase even further their sexyness-awesomeness, with the minor detail of screwing up the production plan of Q4...
With all this, the new Power packs and all the rest that's going on (Gigafactory, Model 3 tooling...), being COO of Tesla must be one of the toughest jobs on Earth.
Then again, Tesla has to keep their cult followers happy, right?
 |
| Model 3: 9 months away from hitting the roads, but already the most important EV in History |
The EV Future will be bright (But it's not here yet)
If there is a phrase that sums up the general feeling in the Plug-in scene in 2016, it's the one above, starting with the production-spec Chevrolet Bolt Detroit presentation in January, the Tesla Model 3 earthquake in March, 31st, and ending with several announcements of long range EV's throughout the year, the fact is that buyers had a taste of the Second Generation EV's, but all they could buy during 2016 were First Generation BEV's / PHEV's and a couple of 1.5G models (Chevrolet Volt II, Hyundai Ioniq Electric), which lead to a Osborne effect in many western markets, with buyers preferring to wait for the upcoming models, leading to a drop in sales of First Generation electric cars.
 |
| BYD Song plug-in: Announced for 2016, now scheduled for 2017 |
BYD Remained Number One (But failed to amaze us)
After watching BYD sales surge three-fold and reaching the Best Selling plug-in manufacturer status in 2015, one would think that sales would at least double in 2016, but this wasn't the case, with around 100.000 units sold this year, or 64% growth, it felt like when Messi won the Pichichi Trophy with 45 goals, yes it was impressive, but the previous year he had scored 50...
Having won seven Monthly Best Seller Trophies (January, April, May, June, July, August, October), and with a 30.000 units lead over the Second Placed Tesla, the Best Selling Manufacturer trophy is more than deserved, but this was more due to regularity (Five consecutive months at 10.000-something) than outlandish results, with the two most impressive results of the year going to Tesla (13.394 units last September) and Zotye (12.318 in October). Using the Messi analogy, it was like despite the 45 goals, not once did the Argentinean player scored a poker during the whole season.
The model diversification (Tang, e5, etc) occurred in 2015, didn't followed in 2016, with only the BYD Qin EV300 reinforcing the lineup, while the Song and Yuan Crossovers and the T3 Van remained in the sideline.
Will they appear in 2017? They'd better do, as 2017 in the Chinese EV Market will be even more fierce, with foreign carmakers forced to join the local EV party and on a global level, there will be other OEM's (Tesla, BMW, BAIC) targeting 100k or more EV's for 2017.
You'll better step up, BYD...
China is Rising - Third Chapter
Will they appear in 2017? They'd better do, as 2017 in the Chinese EV Market will be even more fierce, with foreign carmakers forced to join the local EV party and on a global level, there will be other OEM's (Tesla, BMW, BAIC) targeting 100k or more EV's for 2017.
You'll better step up, BYD...
 |
| BAIC EU260: A rising star |
2016 was Year Three for the Chinese EV market, with foreign makers still neglecting the Chinese EV market, where the local brands have 95% of this booming market to themselves, this allowed the Chinese EV makers global share to rise from 31% in 2015 to 43% in 2016, with China rapidly becoming the place to be, not only it is the largest EV market in the World, but also the fastest growing one, volume-wise.
Even mentioning EV Share, China is making giant steps, their plug-in share is now at 1.4%, an important improvement over the 0.9% of 2015 and already above markets like the USA or Europe, both close to 1%.
If BYD and BAIC are frequently mentioned here, others are also contributing for this unstoppable wave, like Zotye (#6 in the global manufacturers ranking), SAIC Roewe (#12), Zhidou (#13) or Chery (#15).
An interesting trend is the steady climb of chinese cars in the global ranking, if in 2013 the best positioned chinese model was outside the Top 10 (#11 - Chery QQ3 EV), in the following year there were two (#7 - BYD Qin & #10 - Kandi EV) in the Top 10, 2015 witnessed three models in the Best Sellers ranking (#4 - BYD Qin; #6 - Kandi Panda EV; #8 - BYD Tang), while in 2016 there are four (#3 - BYD Tang; #7 - BYD Qin; #9 - BAIC E-Series EV; #10 - BAIC EU260) models, with the Tang becoming the first Chinese model to reach a Podium seat.
Expect for 2017 to reinforce this trend, maybe with five Chinese models in the Top 10?
I'm Too Sexy (To Surf the Wave)
Sometimes Tesla behavior reminds that of a certain Right Said Fred hit, with a near cult-like following from its fans and a Model 3 success that surpassed Elon's wildest dreams, it would be more than enough to keep every other OEM happy and they would just surf the wave and prepare for the Model 3 goldmine.
Not Tesla. During 2016, they did a Model S facelift (Ok, they had to do something about that nose), improved their P90D/90D versions, replaced the 70 version for the 60/75 units, which together with the QA issues of the Model X, created unnecessary production constraints in Q1 & Q2.
As the year progressed and the Q3 was turning out to be memorable, they thought: "This is becoming boring, we haven't presented anything awesome in the past couple of months, so what can we do? I know, the P90D is passé, let's do the P100D! And add the Second Gen. Autopilot!"
With another two jaw-dropping additions, they managed to increase even further their sexyness-awesomeness, with the minor detail of screwing up the production plan of Q4...
With all this, the new Power packs and all the rest that's going on (Gigafactory, Model 3 tooling...), being COO of Tesla must be one of the toughest jobs on Earth.
Then again, Tesla has to keep their cult followers happy, right?
BMW steps up from other German Automakers
Following on the Volkswagen Dieselgate and Tesla's increasingly larger appetite for premium customers, German automakers joined the EV bandwagon with both feet, announcing big plans for the future, but the fact is that in 2016, only BMW made the necessary step-up.
In the BMW i-line models, the i3 model finally received a decent battery, with 33kWh, pulling sales to record levels and making it the cornerstone of its plug-in strategy.
The German automaker also launched the 740e plug-in hybrid, which was an instant hit in its class, helping BMW to have the most extensive plug-in lineup of all, while all other PHEV's were also beating sales records, which allowed it to become the Third Best Selling Plug-in maker in 2016, the first among established OEMs;
In the BMW i-line models, the i3 model finally received a decent battery, with 33kWh, pulling sales to record levels and making it the cornerstone of its plug-in strategy.
The German automaker also launched the 740e plug-in hybrid, which was an instant hit in its class, helping BMW to have the most extensive plug-in lineup of all, while all other PHEV's were also beating sales records, which allowed it to become the Third Best Selling Plug-in maker in 2016, the first among established OEMs;
German automakers global share remained stable at 19%, with BMW (8% Share) surpassing Volkswagen (5%) as the major Teutonic EV maker, with Mercedes in Third, with 2% share, Audi in Fourth (2%), followed by Porsche (1%) and Smart (0%), with BMW being the only brand to win share (+2%) regarding last year.
Global Sales Continue to Grow
After a slow start, EV sales picked up pace, now expected to surpass the 750.000 units, after the 140k of 2012, low-200k in 2013, 320k in 2014, and 550k last year.
Growth Is All Around
While Norway continues to be the poster-child for EV Share (29% Share!) and China the King of Volume (Over 100.000 units more than in 2015!), others are also making themselves noted, like Belgium (1.76% in '16 vs 0.78% in '15) or Austria (1.6% vs 0.6%), while several countries in the Scandinavian region, probably inspired by the Norwegian case-study, are growing at surprising rates and reaching high market shares, like Sweden (3.7%), Iceland (4.2%) on Finland (1.2%).
Other markets finally had their Year One in 2016, like Luxembourg (0,61%), Lithuania (0,40% vs 0,04% last year) or Romania (0.14%).
Despite the general positive trend, there were some slowing markets this year, with the largest being Japan, that for the second consecutive year is falling significantly, with its current market share (0.45%) far from the 2014 peak, when it was flirting (0.98%) with the 1% barrier.
Other two markets dropping significantly regarding 2015 are the Netherlands (3.4% vs 9.3%) and Denmark (0.6% vs 2.3%), but in these cases the culprit is easy to identify, as fiscal changes made EV's less appealing to local buyers.
Other two markets dropping significantly regarding 2015 are the Netherlands (3.4% vs 9.3%) and Denmark (0.6% vs 2.3%), but in these cases the culprit is easy to identify, as fiscal changes made EV's less appealing to local buyers.
Also of importance is the dissemination of plug-ins into countries not associated with EV's, like Malaysia (Some 106 units), UAE (283 sales), Sri Lanka (993 units!) or Ecuador (20 Twizzies).
Fast Charging - September 2016
2016* Update
Following on the original article, here is an update to the table:
Number of EV's sold by type of Fast Charging protocol
| Year | Chademo | CCS | Tesla |
| 2011 | 33.301 | ||
| 2012 | 38.852 | 2.721 | |
| 2013 | 72.701 | 3.391 | 22.442 |
| 2014 | 100.280 | 25.521 | 31.655 |
| 2015 2016 | 108.680 68.394 | 45.273 29.715 | 50.567 54.033 |
As is possible to see, Chademo still has the lead, but growth has stalled since 2015, while CCS this year is being hampered by the fact that brands behind it are focused on plug-in hybrids, where they don't include fast-charging.
2017 and 2018 will be all important years in the race between Chademo and CCS, as the Nissan Leaf will defend Chademo's lead over the CCS-compatible Chevrolet Bolt and the new wave of European and South-Korean BEV's.
Finally, while the Tesla SC is not intended to fight the other two, the truth is that, unlike the softening sales of the other two standards, the strong sales of the Tesla brand has allowed it already to surpass last year result, with the ever-expanding network, top-of-the-range charging abilities and the undisclosed number of Model 3 units adding to the current portfolio of models, expect the Tesla SC to be a serious candidate for the best selling fast charging standard in the next couple of years.
Autonomous Cars Part 1-- And Now for Something Completely Different: The Autonomous Accident
Kaivan KarimiSVP of Strategy and Business Development
BlackBerry Technology Solutions (BTS)
A few weeks ago a self-driving Tesla Model S in Autopilot mode crashed into a large semi-trailer in Williston Florida. This is pretty much what lawyers call a case of first impression, and rightfully so. This unprecedented event brought up a bunch of questions, and it is clear that we are now on the cusp of the autonomous (i.e. robot-driven) automotive future. With that comes a completely different mix of risks, liabilities, safety concerns, responsibilities, ownership models, insurance platforms, and regulatory oversight.
Car crashes are, and should be, a big deal. They are the number one reason for death among young people and number five overall, claiming over 32,000 American lives each year. Some news outlets have questioned the sanity of allowing driverless cars on the road all together. Fairly or unfairly, the whole notion of driverless cars is experiencing knee-jerk reactions. It is easy to see why the first known death caused by a self-driving car in the history has focused everyone’s attention on autonomous vehicles.
This incident is much like how Bridget Driscoll made the history in 1896 by being the first pedestrian being struck and killed by a gas-powered car (at a top speed of four miles per hour). Thanks to the sensationalism of the press, the Florida crash got much more coverage in the news cycles than the more positive story about the Missouri man who used his Tesla Model X in autopilot mode to get to the hospital when he suffered from a debilitating blood clot on the highway. Tesla Autopilot saved his life, and that is real (and good) news. Nothing like that has happened before—a robot saving a man’s life. Amazing.
These issues have made so much headlines that it made it to the white house, and president Obama wrote an op-edmostly in support of the technology. President Obama wrote that safer, more accessible driving, and less congested, less polluted roads are what harnessing technology for good can look like referring to self-driving car technologies. He also said that we have to get it right. Americans deserve to know they’ll be safe today even as we develop and deploy the technologies of tomorrow.
Car crashes are, and should be, a big deal. They are the number one reason for death among young people and number five overall, claiming over 32,000 American lives each year. Some news outlets have questioned the sanity of allowing driverless cars on the road all together. Fairly or unfairly, the whole notion of driverless cars is experiencing knee-jerk reactions. It is easy to see why the first known death caused by a self-driving car in the history has focused everyone’s attention on autonomous vehicles.
This incident is much like how Bridget Driscoll made the history in 1896 by being the first pedestrian being struck and killed by a gas-powered car (at a top speed of four miles per hour). Thanks to the sensationalism of the press, the Florida crash got much more coverage in the news cycles than the more positive story about the Missouri man who used his Tesla Model X in autopilot mode to get to the hospital when he suffered from a debilitating blood clot on the highway. Tesla Autopilot saved his life, and that is real (and good) news. Nothing like that has happened before—a robot saving a man’s life. Amazing.
These issues have made so much headlines that it made it to the white house, and president Obama wrote an op-edmostly in support of the technology. President Obama wrote that safer, more accessible driving, and less congested, less polluted roads are what harnessing technology for good can look like referring to self-driving car technologies. He also said that we have to get it right. Americans deserve to know they’ll be safe today even as we develop and deploy the technologies of tomorrow.
The accident has given rise to discussions about what types of sensors should have been in place to avoid that accident. Also, as you would expect, there is a lot of questioning by legislators about the need for such technology, and how it can be regulated. A proper outcome of the crash has been awareness that autonomous driving is a public safety issue. This is multi-faceted and includes technology (i.e. hardware, software, and architecture), economics, policy implementation, liability, and oversight factors.
I started following the development of autonomous vehicles when I first heard about Google’s so-called “self-driving car” project back in 2009. While I knew about DARPA’s initiative around this idea in mid 2000s, a commercial entity like Google picking up the project lends real credibility. Back in the 2010-2011 timeframe, my team and I were working on Freescale’s MCU strategies, and through that I got to understand the role of Active Driver Assistant System (ADAS) and the numerous architectural considerations and technologies needed to make autonomous driving a reality.
Now at BlackBerry, I am working with our QNX software team on ADAS development.The QNX perspective, of course, comes from the software side with expertise in instrument clusters, functional safety, hypervisor infotainment, and telematics. When you add that to Certicom’s cryptographic security expertise, and BlackBerry’s Over-the-Air (OTA), updates for automotive security life cycle management, you have what you need for safety and security of the software-defined autonomous future. The evolution to connected autonomous vehicles is transitioning through different stages that in fact were defined by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. SAE has defined levels as well.
Source: NHTSA
Most car OEMs that we are working with have autonomous driving pilot programs in place. That is no surprise. Even before the Tesla Autopilot accident, it was hard to open a technology magazine or website and not see a mention of self-driving cars and various pilot programs around the world. Cars are becoming cool again due to new technological evolution. This is similar to how cellphones became cool in the early 2000s when the emergence of 3G made the notion of smartphones real. Cars are much more than a phone, obviously, and the sky is the limit. Software, semiconductor, networking, cryptography, sensors, communications, electric/hybrid engine, charging, display, augmented reality, smart highways, retail, and other technologies all converge on the car platform. These things are quickly redefining the car, the highway, ownership models, insurance, and society itself.
Some of the items to consider are the forms that vehicles will adopt due to automation, such as autonomous cars, to self-driving busses , self-driving trucks, and DARPA’s 132-foot long Sea Hunter unmanned Submarine-Hunter Drone .
Hardware + Software
Self-driving vehicles, or self-propelled anything, are based on an intimate relationship between electronics hardware and software to create not only a perceiving, processing, and actuating system, but a system that is safe, secure, and reliable. While that last part seems obvious, it is not all that easy to accomplish. Safety, security, and reliability come only from careful design based upon experience—experience that can make hardware and software work seamlessly.
Starting with the hardware, if you look at automotive microprocessors and microcontrollers, you can see that their complexity has skyrocketed to meet real time requirements of active safety elements such as vision processing, sensor fusion, and control algorithms, while still maintaining stringent power budgets.
I started following the development of autonomous vehicles when I first heard about Google’s so-called “self-driving car” project back in 2009. While I knew about DARPA’s initiative around this idea in mid 2000s, a commercial entity like Google picking up the project lends real credibility. Back in the 2010-2011 timeframe, my team and I were working on Freescale’s MCU strategies, and through that I got to understand the role of Active Driver Assistant System (ADAS) and the numerous architectural considerations and technologies needed to make autonomous driving a reality.
Now at BlackBerry, I am working with our QNX software team on ADAS development.The QNX perspective, of course, comes from the software side with expertise in instrument clusters, functional safety, hypervisor infotainment, and telematics. When you add that to Certicom’s cryptographic security expertise, and BlackBerry’s Over-the-Air (OTA), updates for automotive security life cycle management, you have what you need for safety and security of the software-defined autonomous future. The evolution to connected autonomous vehicles is transitioning through different stages that in fact were defined by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. SAE has defined levels as well.
Most car OEMs that we are working with have autonomous driving pilot programs in place. That is no surprise. Even before the Tesla Autopilot accident, it was hard to open a technology magazine or website and not see a mention of self-driving cars and various pilot programs around the world. Cars are becoming cool again due to new technological evolution. This is similar to how cellphones became cool in the early 2000s when the emergence of 3G made the notion of smartphones real. Cars are much more than a phone, obviously, and the sky is the limit. Software, semiconductor, networking, cryptography, sensors, communications, electric/hybrid engine, charging, display, augmented reality, smart highways, retail, and other technologies all converge on the car platform. These things are quickly redefining the car, the highway, ownership models, insurance, and society itself.
Some of the items to consider are the forms that vehicles will adopt due to automation, such as autonomous cars, to self-driving busses , self-driving trucks, and DARPA’s 132-foot long Sea Hunter unmanned Submarine-Hunter Drone .
Hardware + Software
Self-driving vehicles, or self-propelled anything, are based on an intimate relationship between electronics hardware and software to create not only a perceiving, processing, and actuating system, but a system that is safe, secure, and reliable. While that last part seems obvious, it is not all that easy to accomplish. Safety, security, and reliability come only from careful design based upon experience—experience that can make hardware and software work seamlessly.
Starting with the hardware, if you look at automotive microprocessors and microcontrollers, you can see that their complexity has skyrocketed to meet real time requirements of active safety elements such as vision processing, sensor fusion, and control algorithms, while still maintaining stringent power budgets.
Of course, the most important aspect of anything automotive is safety. The old adage of safety first is still valid, and getting even more so as robotic cars start to drive themselves. Therefore, there has to be real safety know-how at the core of the design and implementation of ADAS. This is where safety standards compliance comes in. The QNX Platform for ADAS is a great example of safety-centered software for the autonomous car. The platform is certified by TÜV Rheinland to ISO 26262 ASIL-D.
More details will be addressed in a future blog, but are presented here to illustrate that software must be compliant with safety standards if it is to be taken seriously. How safety is achieved by a software architecture is by ensuring that system faults in one area do not affect other areas. This is accomplished by using a microkernel architecture the operating system (OS) to create isolation of failed components, and allowing them to be restarted dynamically while the rest of the system continues to operate. This type of adaptive partitioning technology safeguards the operation of the safety-critical components by ensuring they are never starved of CPU cycles. With a microkernal approach, traditional OS services can be contained in separate, hardware-protected address spaces in the same manner as applications.
The next blog will focus on the individual subsystems used in an ADAS platform in the connected autonomous car. In addition, other connected autonomous car technologies will be covered in subsequent blogs, including security, Domain/Area-controller evolution, more about safety, and other technologies needed, plus use-case and financial considerations related to autonomous cars. The story of the software-defined automotive future is just starting to be written. For more see the QNX web site.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Kaivan Karimi is the SVP of Strategy and Business Development at BlackBerry Technology Solutions (BTS). His responsibilities include operationalizing growth strategies, product marketing and business development, eco-system enablement, and execution of business priorities. He has been an IoT evangelist since 2010, bringing more than two decades of experience working in cellular, connectivity, networking, sensors, and microcontroller semiconductor markets. Kaivan holds graduate degrees in engineering (MSEE) and business (MBA). Prior to joining BlackBerry, he was the VP and General Manager of Atmel wireless MCUs and IOT business unit.
