Report: The car of 2025 will repair and drive itself

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An IBM study says more intelligent cars will be commonplace by 2025, while self-driving cars may not.

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With the emergence of the IoT, our world is becoming increasingly more connected. Not only is it our kitchens and living rooms, but smart “things” are beginning to infiltrate our garages and roads as well. Today, it is more apparent than ever before that consumers are more engaged, meaning they will demand a more seamlessly-integrated, personalized experience inside their ride. As more cars go online, IBM points out that the lines of the automotive industry will blur and the ecosystem will expand to include electronics and telecommunications enterprises.

According to the company’s Automotive 2025 study — which was based on interviews from 175 automobile industry executives spanning 21 countries — 38% expect at least partial autonomous cars over the next 10 years that will be able to drive themselves in certain designated areas. While these cars will be far more digitally-savvy and connected than anything we have today, only 8% of the executives predicted entirely driverless automobiles. That isn’t to say they wouldn’t welcome them.

In fact, a vast majority (87%) of those surveyed claimed that they believe partially-automated driving, such as an expansion of today’s self-parking or lane change assist technologies, will enter a state of ubiquity in the coming years. Meanwhile, 55% said highly-automated driving, where the system recognizes its limitations and calls the driver to take control, if needed, allowing the driver to perform some non-driving tasks in the meantime, will also be adapted by 2025.

The study found that nearly one-fifth (19%) of the business leaders felt that their companies are fully prepared for the challenges of the next decade, while one-third (33%) believed their organizations are adaptable to facing those obstacles.

The IBM study goes onto reveal that by 2025, vehicles will be intelligent enough to configure themselves to a driver and other occupants. In other words, cars will be able to learn, heal, drive and socialize with other automobiles, and their surrounding environment through vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Indeed, nearly 80% of the execs believe these cognitive technologies will be a key component of how vehicles learn and reason to provide a better experience for the occupants and optimize their own performance. With the rise of V2V communication, next-gen cars will be equipped to monitor drivers with heart conditions for signs of heart attack or even repair itself without human intervention.

Soon, our vehicles will be able to take on their own “digital personas” and join car-to-car “social networks,” an area in which 57% of respondents felt would come to fruition over the next decade. This would enable vehicles to share not only traffic and weather conditions, but information specific to a given automaker. The study also indicated that nearly two out of every three (63%) executives saw mobility services or ride-sharing as an area for greater collaboration with consumers, while more than half (59%) cited product design, marketing campaigns (54%) and service/after-sales (52%) as areas that the industry could tremendously benefit from working directly with drivers.

Whatever the future holds, IBM encourages that “automotive enterprises must adapt to how consumers can access vehicles in new ways and use them in their digital lives — and how cars now fit into an increasingly complex web of transportation options. Looking toward 2025, those enterprises that welcome the openness transforming the business are setting the stage for success.”

While we await 2025, Reuters has recently published their latest report on The State of Innovation in the Automotive Industry 2015. According to the global news agency, GM, Toyota and Hyundai are all making a huge investment on self-driving cars. Though Google may have gotten the lion’s share of the headlines when it comes to autonomous vehicles, a number of today’s biggest carmakers are filing the most patents in this space. GM, in particular, has shown an astonishing increase in interest with the most documents published in 2013, as the chart below demonstrates.

So, what’s next for automotive market in the forthcoming years? Whether it’s sensor-laden vehicles or flying cars, a much smarter, safer and secure future is in store. Without question, today’s drivers make demanding customers for carmakers, so automotive electronics will remain a demanding application area, an area in which we know quite a bit about. Buckle up, we’re driving the Internet of Things in the fast lane! 

Report: 150 million cars will be connected to the Internet by 2020

Finally, it looks like Disney won’t be the only place you’ll find “talking cars.” In fact, vehicles will be among the billions of “things” Internet-enabled by 2020, a Computerworld article has revealed.

In just five years, nearly 150 million vehicles will be connected via Wi-Fi, while 60% to 75% of them will be capable of consuming, creating and sharing web-based data. This enhanced connectivity will allow carmakers to modify their existing business model from simply hardware to tech innovators that draw income from mobile apps. In order to do that, Computerworld notes that vehicle manufacturers will need to join forces with tech heavyweights like Google, Apple and Samsung.

“To facilitate that kind of shift, connected-vehicle leaders in automotive organizations need to partner with existing ecosystems like Android Auto or Apple CarPlay that can simplify access to and integration of general mobile applications into the vehicle,” Gartner Analyst Thilo Koslowski explained in a recent report.

According to a new study by Allied Market Research, the global connected cars market is forecasted to surpass $141 billion over the same five year period, growing at a CAGR of 32.7% between 2014 and 2020. With North America garnering a significant portion of the market share, the  availability of faster communication networks, enhanced driver experiences, advanced connectivity solutions and a user friendly interface will all help drive (no pun intended) the industry.

Throughout the next couple of years, we can expect to see a majority of in-vehicle infotainment systems capable of smartphone integration. Indeed, Gartner predicts that 58% of U.S. and 53% of German vehicle owners want tech firms, not car companies, to take the in-vehicle technology steering wheel.

“By 2018, two automakers will have announced plans to become technology companies and expand their connected-vehicle value experiences to other industries and devices. And by 2020, at least one auto company will achieve 10% of its total revenues from connected mobility and service offerings.”

As the amount of information being fed into in-car head units and telematics systems continues to grow, Gartner believes that tomorrow’s vehicles will need to be able to capture, handle and share not only internal systems status and location data, but changes in its surroundings all in real-time.

“Ultimately, your car will become just another part of your mobile data plan.”

The latest study by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated that the American government is also looking forward to mandate the use of M2M connectivity solutions into the vehicles. In the years to come, Asia-Pacific could potentially become a prominent automobile market for connected cars.

By 2020, Allied Market Research says both integrated and embedded solutions will be amongst the most popular connectivity offerings in the connected car market, and combined, will account for 80% of the entire industry.

“The increasing importance of human-machine interface (HMI) and cloud-supported user experiences in cars will shift the industry’s R&D focus to new technology and content innovations such as gesture and mood sensing, consumer behavior analysis, and vehicle- and customer-centric services,” Computerworld writes.

Voice-activated apps, in-vehicle cameras and heads-up displays (HUDs) will be key to achieving the safe use of mobile technology in both cars and trucks alike. In the future, apps will be tailored to in-vehicle services, such as scheduling service appointments, driver-related content such as real-time navigation updates, and streaming music and video services — and even the ability to shop online or find and then pay for parking online.

Back at Electronica 2014, Atmel Senior Vice President Rob Valiton explored the ways in which the Internet of Things will affect the auto market, citing OnStar as just one way the IoT has already entered our cars.

“3,000 messages [being sent] per second represents a lot of challenges to the industry, and we here at Atmel plan on solving them.”

 

GM says driverless Cadillac to hit the road by 2017

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, has recently announced that the company plans to introduce 120-miles of technology-enabled highways in and around the Motor City.

By 2017, GM is planning on deploying vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems as a standard in its Cadillac CTS sedan. Equipped with the company’s “Super Cruise” technology, future vehicles will be able to drive themselves, handling highway speeds of up to 70mph. GM’s semi-automated technology will keep a vehicle in a specific, properly equipped freeway lane, making necessary steering and speed adjustments in bumper-to-bumper traffic or long highway trips. However, unlike the driverless vehicle being tested by Google, GM’s system will still require drivers to remain attentive and ready to resume control of the vehicle.

Although Google’s driverless cars have been at the center of all the buzz, several automakers aren’t too far behind in the IoT fast lane. According to reports, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and Tesla are among the latest manufactures dipping their toes into the autonomous driving waters.

In line with our previous discussions around V2V, these new GM endorsed roadways will allow cars to “talk” with one another, thereby promoting safety, reducing traffic congestion and improving fuel economy. Jon Lauckner, GM’s CTO believes, “in the not so distant future, intelligent and connected vehicle technologies could help eliminate the crash altogether.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation has also recently said it is considering adopting a rule by 2016 requiring V2V systems. V2V communications use a variation of the 802.11 wireless network standard used by laptops and mobile phones, but instead link cars, which can share position and speed information with each other 10 times per second.

“I’m convinced customers will embrace V2V and automated driving technologies for one simple reason: they are the answer to everyday problems that people want solved,” Barra said.

According to GM’s CEO, the so-called Super Cruise technology will “kick in when there’s a congestion alert on roads like California’s Santa Monica Freeway, you can let the car take over and drive hands free and feet free through the worst stop-and-go traffic around.” She adds, “If the mood strikes you on the high-speed road from Barstow, California, to Las Vegas, you can take a break from the wheel and pedals and let the car do the work. Having it done for you — that’s true luxury.”

That being said, safety remains the paramount concern when assimilating driverless vehicles onto modern roadways. “The key to all these systems is big data — the mounds of information flowing in and out of your vehicle from intelligent transportation systems, otherwise known as vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure technology,” Forbes‘ Joann Muller explains.

At this week’s Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress in Detroit, Honda and GM unveiled systems where pedestrian smartphones would send alerts to drivers about an individual’s location. These alerts, scanned for every 10 seconds by the vehicle, could greatly improve pedestrian safety in heavily-trafficked areas.

While full vehicle autonomy may not be on the immediate horizon, there are still concrete steps being taken by major industry players to get ahead of the technology curve. With some driverless cars hitting the streets next year, this topic of discussion will only heat up.

 

Talking cars can lead to safer, less congested roads

25 years from now, we can expect to see roads filled with millions of self-driving vehicles, as automakers and legislators aim to cut back on congestion and accidents. This week, the Department of Transportation announced the arrival of a report regarding the future of vehicle to vehicle (V2V) technology.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, V2V technology is exactly what it sounds like: Cars will soon “talk and listen” to one another — automatically. They will share information like proximity, speed, direction, road conditions, as well as countless others things yet to be imagined. The chief driver of V2V is signaling impending collisions so that the cars can automatically take countermeasures. That, of course, means the V2V network will become a critical technology for self- and assisted-driving cars. According to its latest report, the DOT hopes that by the end of the decade, law will require all new vehicles to be hooked up to this so-called roadway network.

“By warning drivers of imminent danger, V2V technology has the potential to dramatically improve highway safety. V2V technology is ready to move toward implementation,” explained NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman.

According to the New York Times, V2V can be installed to any appropriate car for nearly $350. This relatively inexpensive technology could save upwards of 1,000 lives a year and prevent over 500,000 accidents, the NHTSA reveals.

“Safety is our top priority, and V2V technology represents the next great advance in saving lives. This technology could move us from helping people survive crashes to helping them avoid crashes altogether – saving lives, saving money and even saving fuel thanks to the widespread benefits it offers,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx affirms.

A research team at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has begun testing V2V communications on a wider scale. The group has signed up over 3,000 volunteers to implement the tech into the real world and use it on a daily basis. Auto manufacturers have also joined in by offering up a series of test cars for the research team to use.

GM’s Dan Flores tells the New York Times, “We think there’s a fundamental benefit where people can be safer if they have this technology. We believe, longer term, it will be part of the suite of technologies that will bring about a true driverless car.”

Gary Silberg, who forecasts future trends in the auto industry for consulting firm KPMG, estimates close to half of all new vehicles sold in 2039 will offer the option of being entirely autonomous. Navigant Research forecasts 94.7 million vehicles with self-driving capabilities will be sold annually around the world by 2035. With self-driving cars hitting some roadways in 2015, it comes with little surprise that this technology is on the cusp of becoming fully adopted.

Google, which many credit with sparking America’s fascination of driverless cars, recently showed a next-generation car with no steering wheel, just a panic button for emergency stops. “The technology has evolved. The sensors, actuators and so on are already there. It is really about integration. We are along the path to get there and I foresee that day coming,” Johann Jungwirth, President of Mercedes-Benz R&D North America, explained.

Still, with safety being of paramount importance, it is clear we will see this technology develop in the near future to become the norm. “The country is well on its way to deploying this life-saving technology. We need to preserve the space on the spectrum that these safety systems rely on to operate. There is no better use of this spectrum than to save lives,” explained John Bozzella, President and CEO of Global Automakers.

And for those who can do without traffic, in 25 years, congestion will only get worse. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts the American population to exceed 400 million people — meaning more drivers on the nation’s highways. Navigant Research estimates another 10 million vehicles will be in use by 2035, bringing the total number on American roads to more than a quarter billion. Subsequently, vehicles equipped with V2V technology could also enable the development of a wide range of mobility and environmental benefits based on vehicle-to-infrastructure applications and other V2V applications that can enhance traffic flow in many ways.

So in a few years, if a car zooms past you on the freeway with no apparent driver, don’t be concerned… you’re likely safer for it!

As cars continue to get smarter, they’re becoming more electrical and autonomous. Interested in learning more about Atmel’s automotive portfolio? Check out our automotive-qualified category breakdown below:

• Microcontrollers (MCUs)
• 
Serial EEPROMs

• Touch (maXTouch)
• Broadcast radio
• 
CAN/VAN networking
• Car access
• Drivers/high temperature ICs
• 
Battery management
• LIN networking

Self-driving trucks to hit the UK streets in 2015

According to The Sunday Times, the UK is looking to test autonomous cargo trucks beginning in 2015. These automated trucks, or “lorries” as they are called across the pond, would grant a single driver the ability to lead a convoy of cargo filled vehicles.

The lorry in front would still driven by a human, while their controls would be shared with all other vehicles in the convoy via Wi-Fi, so the group would move as an homogenous train. A driver would sit in the cab of each lorry, but they will not be required to control the vehicle unless there is an emergency or unpredictable traffic build-up, for example.

This report comes just a few weeks after the UK announced it was planning a test run of self-driving cars on their roads as early as next year. Though this further exploration of automated driving has some worried about road safety, the UK Department of Transport explained in a recent statement to the press, “Road safety remains of paramount importance and will not be compromised.”

The convoy idea was first tested on a regular public road in Spain by Volvo as part of the European Commission’s Safe Road Trains for the Environment project back in 2012, though in that case the lead truck was followed by three regular cars. Motherboard notes that driverless trucks have already been piloted on closed roads by Daimler in Germany and Scania in Sweden, while the Netherlands has unveiled plans to introduce driverless lorries in its Rotterdam port.

Backers of the proposal believe the system would enable drivers to use their laptop, read a book or even “sit back and enjoy a relaxed lunch.” In addition, advocates also say these automated convoys would cut down on road congestion and diminish fuel consumption by nearly 10%. The trials are slated to be held on tracks in Britain, and if successful, could potentially be extended to quieter motorways overnight.