Yr'21 Vehicle Telematics
Mercedes me Eco Coach app On 12 January 2021, Mercedes launched Eco Coach app, a new entry to the Mercedes ‘me ecosystem’ which was debuted last August 2020. The Eco Coach app has been specially developed to help customers a take advantage of their electrified cars. By following the suggestions of the app, customers can improve their driving style coming to fully use all the potential of electric traction. In addition, through a points program, they can earn exclusive rewards and services. The app puts available to people for “challenges”. For example, covering the highest possible percentage of a trip using electric traction, recharging in different places, recharging several consecutive days and obtaining the lowest possible fuel consumption. By completing each challenge, you get points. The app also allows users to enter into competition with the Eco Coach community. The points earned can then be redeemed for rewards as part of an integrated bonus program. At launch in Germany, top-up vouchers for the Mercedes me Charge service and vouchers for the Mercedes Collection stores are available. Furthermore, following the suggestions of the app you will be able to drive more efficiently, to the benefit of the environment. As mentioned, the app was initially launched in Germany for Apple and Android platforms. Mercedes says it will soon be available in many other European countries as well.
IGM Maps+ In April 2021, General Motors launched Maps+, an in-vehicle, appbased navigation system, upgrading capabilities for select model year 2018 and newer Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles by the end of 2021. Maps+, powered by Mapbox, is expected to begin its rollout to approximately 900,000 vehicles on April 30, as part of select Connected Services plans. MAPS+ FEATURES INCLUDE: Cross-App Integration ● Voice command activation for new destinations and directions with Alexa Built-In ● One simple interface for vehicle navigation and music and podcast selection Personalization ● Management of favourite locations and points of interest ● Predictive keyboard entry when searching for locations ● Modern map designs with day and night modes ● Shortcuts for search categories, such as coffee, food, fuel, parking, recent spots, and favorites Contextually Relevant Services ● Routing based on real-time traffic and daily updating map data ● Speed limit and road hazard alerts ● Routing to nearby stations if vehicle is low on fuel ● Notifications and alerts about faster routes Maps+ will be available on select vehicles through Connected Vehicle, Premium, and App Access subscription plans.
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Driver monitoring system ASIC, image signal processor and DDR3 memory In January 2021, OmniVision Technologies, Inc. announced the OAX8000 AI-enabled, automotive application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which is optimized for entry-level, stand-alone driver monitoring systems (DMS). The OAX8000 uses a stacked-die architecture to provide the industry’s only DMS processor with onchip DDR3 SDRAM memory (1GB). This is also the only dedicated DMS processor to integrate a neural processing unit (NPU) and image signal processor (ISP), which provides dedicated processing speeds up to 1.1 trillion operations per second for eye gaze and eye tracking algorithms. These fast processing speeds with 1K MAC of convolutional neural network (CNN) acceleration, along with integrated SDRAM, enable the lowest power consumption available for DMS systems—the OAX8000 and OmniVision automotive image sensor consume just 1 watt in typical conditions, combined. Further optimizing DMS systems, this integration also reduces the board area for the engine control unit (ECU). The OAX8000’s on-chip NPU is supported by the popular TensorFlow, Caffe, MXNet and ONNX tool chains. Additionally, this ASIC embeds quad Arm® Cortex® A5 CPU cores with Neon™ technology for accelerated video encoding/decoding and on-chip video analytics algorithms, along with hardware for image processing, video encoding and RGB/IR processing. Its high dynamic range (HDR) processing capability allows the ASIC to accept input from RBG/IR image sensors and support high quality output, for videos taken during the day or at night, in conditions with widely contrasting bright and dark images. The integrated video encoder accepts up to 5 megapixel captures from OmniVision’s automotive image sensors, and outputs up to 2K resolution video at 30 frames per second (fps). Boot-up time for the OAX8000 is significantly faster than its nearest competitor. This rapid startup eliminates any delay between ignition and activation of the DMS camera. Additionally, it supports secure boot features to provide cybersecurity.
