Mobilised

Visteon

The Visteon iterations to the SmartCoreTM cockpit domain controllers are exciting. Sumesh Soman looks at the key integrations paving the way for next-gen driving experiences.

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he AdrenoX derives its genes from the Adreno Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) that first came onto the scene in 2018, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Powered by automotive solutions from Qualcomm Technologies Inc., it is crucial to Visteon’s run for leadership in the cockpit electronics segment. A scalable hardware and software stack, it is aimed at supporting advanced cockpits, and it succeeds in doing so on first impressions. On the supply side, it is built on the foundation of offering high levels of performance, cost and reliability that can be tailormade for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) requirements, for their respective vehicle platforms. Stated Aashish Bhatia, Regional Vice President and General Manager, Visteon India, “We are proud that our engineering and manufacturing capabilities in India, combined with our global leadership in cockpit domain controllers has resulted in creating a personalised digital cockpit,” case-in-point being the inclusion on a recently launched Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV). “Visteon’s technology elevates user experience by keeping occupants safe, informed, engaged and entertained,” he claimed.

The DNA of AdrenoX

According to Pramod Nanjundaswamy, Director - Product Delivery, Visteon, the AdrenoX is an intelligent cockpit technology powered by the SmartCoreTM which fires up the in-cabin cockpit screens and telematics. In its earlier generation SmartCore™ powered virtualised graphic engine ran three displays and one head-up display claimed to deliver an enhanced driver and passenger experience through a single, seamless Human-Machine Interface (HMI). It made it possible to collate content from different safety-critical and infotainment domains, including media applications and navigation on all connected displays. Secure and seamless were a priority even then. Back then, the second generation cockpit domain controller was designed to integrate infotainment, instrument clusters, information and head-up displays, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and connectivity into a single Electronic Control Unit (ECU). This foundation was shared to be scalable from assisted to autonomous driving applications.

Claimed to have been designed to meet the need for an intuitive and personalised digital experience of the new-age tech-savvy consumers, it boasts of multi- display environments that can support a digital voice assistant, instrument cluster, infotainment, cloud connectivity, security and telematics. Taking the

Optical bonding

Sachin Lawande, Chief Executive Officer, Visteon Corporation Aashish Bhatia, Regional Vice President and General Manager, Visteon India Pramod Nanjundaswamy, Director - Product Delivery, Visteon Technical And Services Centre Pvt. Ltd.

baton from Adreno, which ran on the Snapdragon 820A automotive platform, it builds on the DriveCore™ , an open platform consisting of the layers like hardware, middleware and frameworks. These are known to aid in development of the machine learning algorithms for object classification, detection, path planning and execution.

Leveraging technology

Visteon is leveraging its technological prowess across Artificial Intelligence (AI), connected car applications, cybersecurity, user experience and interior sensing. Visteon’s machine learning algorithms, for instance, are known to offer advanced perception, localisation and driver monitoring capabilities. Visteon is also known to leverage HTML5 and Androidbased connected infotainment platforms, to facilitate builtin smartphone integration with CarPlay and Android Auto technologies. Notably, the company is able to tailor these for varied consumer cost points. It effectively means that what was restricted to the luxury vehicles at the top end of the spectrum have percolated to the segments below.

Visteon is also offering end-to-end cybersecurity by controlling design and development of the ECUs. It is able to not only securely manufacture but sustain the offerings with secure OTA updates. The adaptive Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs), the color, content and complexity of the cockpit are all built in a manner that it can be customised through change in parameters. OEMs thus are not required to carry out an additional asset development or go through with mid-cycle adjustments. The Driver Monitoring System (DMS) can be used by OEMs to offer identification of the drowsiness and distraction level of the driver. Visteon makes use of infrared camera-based solutions for facial recognition while deploying AI to monitor driver distraction, drowsiness, emotion, and head and eye gaze.

Visteon has won USD 3.2 billion in new business during the first half of the year. This includes a USD 640 million second-quarter expansion of a previously awarded digital cluster program, bringing total lifetime value for that program to USD 1.5 billion. Of the 50 plus product launches in the pipeline, globally, seven products are known to have been launched in the second quarter of financial year 2022 (Q2FY2022). According to Sachin Lawande,Chief Executive Officer, Visteon, the strength of Visteon’s digital product portfolio supports the industry trends of digitalisation and connectivity, and has led to the company’s continued market outperformance even in a supply constrained environment. New business wins, product launch cadence are among the driving forces of the company’s continued longterm growth. ACI

Color Compact Spectrophotometer

Axalta Coating Systems has launched the Acquire Color Compact spectrophotometer. Deepti Thore looks into the claims of cost-effectiveness, accuracy and faster colour match.

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xalta Coating Systems Ltd., known for providing innovative and sustainable coating solutions for the automotive industry has introduced ‘Acquire Color Compact’ spectrophotometer. It is aimed at addressing the automotive industry’s longstanding requirement of colour matching. These requirements come from the body shops where the deck searches and spray tests are known to be time-consuming. Making it available in the Asia-Pacific region including China, India, Korea, Southeast Asia and Australia, the global supplier of liquid and powder coatings is eyeing a larger customer base with this launch. Not only is the spectrophotometer claimed to be small in size and light in weight, but it is also positioned as affordable too. “A powerful demonstration of Axalta’s commitment to total customer support, our next-generation spectrophotometer benefits from the power of all the digital platforms,” pointed, Simon Lee, APAC Refinish Business Director, Axalta.

Accurate colour match

Designed to provide high-speed access to over 200,000 current colour formulas using enhanced digital connectivity, the spectrophotometer is aimed at delivering an accurate colour match every single time. This capability is made possible by a three-angle measurement and the use of LED technology. The capability extends to solid colours, as well as add-on enhancer effects like the sparkle effect. Users can look forward to step-by-step instructions on the large high-resolution screen, carefully designed to offer an easy-to-use, user

Simon Lee, APAC Refinish Business Director, Axalta Coating Systems Ltd.

interface that is feature-loaded. These multi-faceted features in combination make colour identification and matching more efficient, reliable and are claimed to help operators save time. The state-of-art device works with all Axalta refinish brands, including Standox®, Cromax® and Duxone®. These spectrophotometers are designed to be compact with an internal light source and are made available with an optimised calibration kit which comes with an additional tile. It also enables wireless measurements and helps in auto-correct formula to enhance operability.

The operating procedure

The advanced portable computerised colour matching tools offered by Acquire Color Compact at first captures the exact colour of a vehicle. It then transmits the information to Axalta’s color retrieval software installed on the Axalta Color Cloud. The device comes into play first by helping operators identify the damaged area followed by an assessment of the refinish requirements. This is followed by checks to determine the manufacturer and colour code. It runs a check to identify any special pigments that may be included in the formula. Doing so helps prevent higher repair costs that would have otherwise been borne by the operator. The operator is required to choose a flat area as close as possible to the damaged area and clean it ahead of the colour measurement cycle. This is followed by degreasing of the cleant surface, mechanical polish and a clean wipe. The degreasing is repeated on the polished surface in one more iteration. The device is calibrated using white and green tiles for measurement coupled with the software aiding in the identification of the best match. The final step is to spray which inturn is on a calculated basis of the operator requirement to apply RFU, mix of colour and spray coverage.

KEY USPs

Faster Colour Matching

Light weight

Affordable and Profitable

Easy-to-use

Accurate

Utility scorecard

It enables the professional body shops to create more accurate and faster colour matches with the help of productive digital colour measurement tools thus claimed to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. This is yet another innovation from Axalta that leverages fast, efficient, high-quality coating technologies and integrated digital business processes. It is claimed to have made the entire paint repair journey faster, easier and more profitable for many centres and custom painters around the world. ACI