European automobile industry is going quantum

Automobile Industry takes a number of leaps

The European automobile industry is going quantum  By Tristan Greene    in TheNextWeb

Spooky action at a distance goes vroom

September 19, 2022 - 7:40 pm

It’s a bold new world for automobile makers. After a century of development and fine-tuning, the combustion engine is going the way of the dodos as Europe shifts to clean energy.

But there’s more to the future of cars than just electric motors. The onset of fully autonomous vehicles may lie just beyond the technological horizon and the promise of a million-mile battery draws ever closer. In order to navigate the road to these technologies, European automakers are partnering with quantum computing companies at an increasing pace.

The European automobile industry has a long, rich history of technological innovation. From its onset with the Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau in 1898 to the masterpiece that is the 2023 McLaren Artura, Europe’s place at the cutting edge of the industry has never been questioned. With that in mind, let’s contemplate the future.

Greetings, humanoids

The next steps for the industry involve taking a quantum leap forward. Despite the fact that quantum computing and other quantum-based technologies are still in their infancy, there are myriad ways in which they can aid the automotive industry.

Right up front, the low hanging fruit is autonomous driving. Despite the early hype, researchers and automobile makers have yet to crack the self-driving car nut. For every step companies such as BMW, Tesla, and Waymo take forward, it seems like hundreds of edge cases pop up that the AI is unable to deal with.

We’re probably still a long way off from building a quantum computer that can fit into a car where, presumably, it would act as its brain. But quantum speedup — the ability for quantum processors to perform calculations and/or run algorithms that a classical system couldn’t do in a useful amount of time — could offer advances in several foundational areas for autonomous vehicle systems.

Scientists at Terra Quantum AG, recently partnered with Volkswagen to find novel methods for using hybrid quantum neural networks to improve image recognition. This particular experiment demonstrated the potential for quantum technologies to improve the quality assurance process drastically.

Essentially, the researchers used quantum-powered AI to increase the accuracy of its image detection abilities in order to improve the quality of the car manufacturing process. The techniques they’re working to develop could easily spill over into other industries, but they could also be used to give self-driving cars better “eyes” by increasing the speed and accuracy at which neural networks can process images.

Pasqal, a Paris-based quantum startup also partnered up with BMW in another quantum-based endeavor. Together with the German-owned automobile maker, the company hopes to find new, lighter, more durable materials to build cars out of. The team hopes to eventually reach the point where the design process is fast, accurate, and involves zero-prototyping in order to ensure a clean energy approach to every facet of the car-making process.

BMW and Volkswagen are early adopters out in front of the impending quantum computing hardware explosion, but you can be sure that every other major automobile maker also has a plan to get in on the action — experts predict the quantum technologies market will hit nearly $500B by 2030. And the shift towards autonomous vehicles (and away from ownership) will require an entirely different view on supply and logistics, something the quantum industry is heavily invested in improving.  ... ' 

Automotive 3D Printed Parts

Remarkable capability  being used by GM 

GM 3D Prints 60,000 Parts to Keep Tahoe Deliveries on Time  By Tim Stevens in CNET

What's happening : GM turned to industrial 3D printers to avoid a crucial parts shortage.

Why it matters  :  This is the first time we've seen additive manufacturing on such an automotive scale.

What's next:  This points to 3D printing moving beyond the prototyping phase and into proper manufacturing.

Current chip shortages may be the buzzkill quashing your most urgent capitalistic desires during the pandemic, but production supply issues aren't limited to the silicon variety. When faced with an inability to produce a component needed for delivery of the 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe, General Motors engineers turned to a novel solution: 3D printing.

3D printing, more formally known as additive manufacturing, is the process of rapidly crafting fully formed parts from digital models. GM made a major investment in the tech in 2020, dedicating 15,000 square feet of space to facility dubbed the Additive Industralization Center, then filling it with HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printers, among others. These printers are a lot more sophisticated than your Prusa or Anycubic at home, but operate on the same basic principle of creating components layer by layer. .... '

Mobility as a Standard: MaaS

 Reviewing this as a set of IEEE Standards worth examining

NURTURING THE ERA OF END-TO-END MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MAAS): STANDARDS FOR CONNECTED AND AUTONOMOUS TRANSPORTATION

About  (Outline)

Image of a futuristic carThe automotive ecosystem is in transformation, driven by technology evolution, new business opportunities, and policy initiatives. Future cars will have electric and other power trains. Moreover, vehicles will be connected, automated, and smart due to computerization and software-embedded intelligence. There is a shift from individually owned vehicles toward interconnected shared mobility solutions , used as an if-and-when needed service [Mobility as a Service (MaaS)]. Drivers will be operators and eventually passengers. Autonomous vehicles will open up many more currently unknown opportunities for end-to-end MaaS.

While vehicle manufacturers drive the evolution of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) toward fully automated cars, the ICT sector’s aspiration is to leapfrog autonomous driving. Stakeholders from both industries in the converging mobility ecosystem face challenges that cannot be solved by a single company or by a closed circle of a few companies. Close cooperation across a variety of disciplines and a diversity of stakeholders is needed to align technology evolution paths, to jointly evolve value networks and markets, and in general to build trust in autonomous systems. In particular, standards-related activities help to reduce complexity and thus reduce risks and cost, facilitate economies of scale, enable interoperable building blocks of the end-to-end system, and help ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

A broad, open, cross-industry dialogue is needed to exchange views, to debate, and to agree upon common challenges and coordinated activities needed, including:

Technology enablers for autonomous vehicles—Trade-offs

Data driven engineering and testing

Vehicle platforms and platform business

Infrastructure for autonomous vehicles

Hitting the safety spot despite security risks and AI-black box embedded functionality

IEEE SA organized two standards-related industry workshops, on 13 December 2018 and on 2-3 December 2019. Both workshops took place in Munich. The first workshop was hosted by the IBM Watson IoT Center, the second by Rohde & Schwarz. Due to the Pandemic, the next events 23 January 2021 / 12 February 2021 on Cybersecurity were changed to virtual formats. The next event is going to be a Web debate about the stumbling points on the way to autonomous drive.

To evolve the workshop format and further its relevance and impact, it is key to:

Broaden the base to build agendas more systematically bottom up according to stakeholder needs, and

Grow international participation by globalizing the workshop that is changing venue worldwide.

This Industry Connection activity aims to provide the organizational framework needed for both, to expand volunteer engagement from the entire ecosystem and to globalize participation from all over the world, in particular from Asia and the Americas.

The overall purpose of the event is multifold:

Inform about relevant leading-edge technologies

Inform about ongoing standardization projects

Inform about standards-related initiatives

Identify limitations and shortcomings of existing (standardized) technologies

Identify research challenges

Identify standardization needs

Identify stakeholders with a vested interest to engage in a standards initiative  .... '/

Mobility of Tomorrow Examined.

 Excerpts from Fraunhofer piece.

The mobility of tomorrow  

“Mobility is about more than the proverbial concept of getting from A to B. When it comes to cars, there are factors that go beyond the purely objective.” Sebastian Stegmüller, Fraunhofer

Cars of the future

Web special Fraunhofer magazine 4.2021

In the right direction

The cars of the future will need design of the future. Find out how Fraunhofer is helping to restructure transport.

New times, new challenges – and new challengers. E-mobility pioneer Tesla, which launched on the German market in 2013 with its Model S, had reason to celebrate in October. The growth rates for Tesla vehicles registered in Germany were in the triple digits, marking an increase of 482.9 percent. German manufacturers saw a double-digit drop, with the exception of Porsche, which stayed almost stab-le at just minus 0.8 percent. Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Audi have also taken on the challenge of e-mobility. With its research fab for battery production, in which ten Fraunhofer Institutes are involved, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is helping to expand and strengthen Germany’s position as a leader in battery manufacturing technology. And yet it will take more than that to ensure Germany maintains this position and doesn’t slip down the ranks in terms of environmental rating and reputation.

Diversity – on our roads too

The cars of the future need mobility that’s fit for the future. Dr. André Häusler has warned against closed-mindedness when it comes to mobility. The expert from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen believes that diversity in transportation will become a necessity. He envisions different drive methods coexist­ing harmoniously – depending on where cars are used and what they are used for Need to fill up in five minutes and then drive 650 kilometers? Hydrogen is best for the job. Living in a rural area where charging points are hard to come by? A hybrid model with a combustion engine and an electric motor might be the best option. “In the coming years, car manu­facturers won’t just have one drive type in their portfolio anymore,” says Dr. Häusler. “They’ll need to offer a separate solution for every need – hydrogen, electric, gas, diesel and hybrid models.”

New times, new challenges – and new challengers. E-mobility pioneer Tesla, which launched on the German market in 2013 with its Model S, had reason to celebrate in October. The growth rates for Tesla vehicles registered in Germany were in the triple digits, marking an increase of 482.9 percent. German manufacturers saw a double-digit drop, with the exception of Porsche, which stayed almost stab-le at just minus 0.8 percent. Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Audi have also taken on the challenge of e-mobility. With its research fab for battery production, in which ten Fraunhofer Institutes are involved, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is helping to expand and strengthen Germany’s position as a leader in battery manufacturing technology. And yet it will take more than that to ensure Germany maintains this position and doesn’t slip down the ranks in terms of environmental rating and reputation.

Diversity – on our roads too

The cars of the future need mobility that’s fit for the future. Dr. André Häusler has warned against closed-mindedness when it comes to mobility. The expert from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen believes that diversity in transportation will become a necessity. He envisions different drive methods coexist­ing harmoniously – depending on where cars are used and what they are used for Need to fill up in five minutes and then drive 650 kilometers? Hydrogen is best for the job. Living in a rural area where charging points are hard to come by? A hybrid model with a combustion engine and an electric motor might be the best option. “In the coming years, car manu­facturers won’t just have one drive type in their portfolio anymore,” says Dr. Häusler. “They’ll need to offer a separate solution for every need – hydrogen, electric, gas, diesel and hybrid models.”  ... ' 

Qualcomm for Autonomous Cars

More moves in automating features in vehicles.

Qualcomm wants to make it easier to build semi-autonomous cars

Snapdragon Ride Vision is open and scales to more cars., By Jon Fingas in Engadget

Qualcomm believes it can widen the field for semi-autonomous driving features, and it's launching a new platform to make that happen. The company has unveiled a Snapdragon Ride Vision platform that combines a 4-nanometer system-on-chip with Arriver's computer vision software to give automakers an "open, scalable and modular" way to build Level 2 driver assists and Level 3 partial autonomy into their cars.

Snapdragon Ride Vision can help cars detect road geometry, pedestrians and other cars using 8MP wide-angle cameras. It can also handle driver monitoring (to keep your hands or eyes focused on driving) and perception for near-field parking cameras. More importantly, the system is flexible — car designers can customize it to fit new vehicles and update features over the air.  ... '

Cars Becoming Smartphones

 As cars become smartphones, Big Auto turns to handset chipmaker to survive

Legacy automakers underestimated the importance of employing the latest technology in their dashboards, now they're playing catch up.

How will phones link with particular ecosystems?

As cars become smartphones, Big Auto turns to handset chipmaker to survive

By  Christiaan Hetzner  in Fortune. 

After Tesla transformed the car into a smartphone on wheels, automakers lagging behind are now turning to a mobile handset chip provider to help narrow the widening technology gap.

Semiconductor designer Qualcomm inked further deals with a number of auto brands including Volvo and Honda this week that will serve the growing demand by drivers to enjoy the kind of seamless connectivity they know from their Samsung Galaxy S21 when in their cars. 

In the past, automakers were all too loath to reveal who provided parts for their vehicles. The growing importance of chipmakers, however, has upended the traditional industry pecking order. Overarching trends have catapulted semiconductor companies to the top of the food chain—making them a strategic partner to car companies rather than just a bottom-tier supplier. ... ' 

Chip Shortage for Toyota

Toyota to Cut Output as Chip Shortage Finally Catches Up to It   By The Wall Street Journal  August 20, 2021

The global semiconductor shortage has finally started to bite at Toyota Motor Corp., highlighting how a resurgence in Covid-19 infections from the Delta variant is now stifling chip manufacturing in Southeast Asia, worsening a parts crisis for car companies.

Japan's largest car maker said Thursday it was cutting production in the country by 40% in September because of a shortage of semiconductors, highlighting how the scarcity is hitting even the best-prepared companies.

Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. also said this week they are scheduling more downtime at several North American factories, in part because virus-related restrictions overseas are further adding to chip-supply constraints.

For much of this year, the chip-shortage challenges in the auto industry have largely stemmed from car companies miscalculating how quickly auto sales would bounce back and not ordering enough semiconductors.

Now, the auto industry is confronting a new wrinkle with a resurgence in Covid-19 infections in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia, denting output at computer-chip factories that are already straining to fill orders. This region is where semiconductors are assembled into small components that control everything from engines to headlights.

From The Wall Street Journal

View Full Article  

Amazon Assistant to Roll on 700K Ford Vehicles

Pretty impressive rollout here.   Like to see additional novel uses as well.   My own Echo Auto continues to run well. 

Amazon’s Alexa Gets Biggest Auto Rollout in Six-Year Ford Deal By Matt Day in Bloomberg

 Digital assistant will be on 700,000 cars and trucks this year, Companies will collaborate on tools for commercial fleets

Amazon.com Inc. is deepening its ties with Ford Motor Co. in a deal that will integrate Alexa into the entertainment system of F-150 trucks and other models.

Amazon’s digital assistant will roll out to about 700,000 Ford vehicles this year, including new and recent models of the pickup, as well as the Bronco and the electric Mustang Mach-E in the U.S. and Canada. New and existing vehicles powered by Ford’s SYNC-4 in-car software will also offer drivers the option of invoking Alexa hands-free.   ... " 

Origami Based Tire Design

Had not heard of such a design.   Pictures and some stats at the link.

Origami based tires can change shape while a vehicle is moving  by Bob Yirka , Tech Xplore

A team of researchers affiliated with Seoul National University, Harvard University and Hankook Tire and Technology Co. Ltd., has developed a tire based on an origami design that allows for changing the shape of a tire while a vehicle is moving. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes their new tire design and how well it worked when tested.

Origami is an art that involves folding paper to create a desired shape or figure. Originating with Japanese artists hundreds of years ago, it has become an international pastime. In more recent years, it has caught the interest of engineers who have used origami designs to create usable objects out of plastics and metals. In this new effort, the researchers have extended an origami design called a waterbomb tessellation—it involves creating a single wheel that can have two configurations depending on how it is used by a person holding it. The researchers have ramped up the design by making its facets out of metals such as aluminum and connecting them together using other materials.

The researchers realized the design in a variety of sizes—some of which were as large as automobile tires. The design could switch between configurations while bearing a heavy load and while serving as tires on a vehicle in motion. To test the capabilities of the design, they created several wheels that served as tires on a variety of vehicles. In all cases, the main difference between the two configurations was height. They demonstrated, for example, a vehicle sporting the specialized tires in the tall configuration as it approached a low underpass—too low for the vehicle to drive under with its initial configuration. The driver switched the tires to the low configuration as the vehicle was still moving, allowing the vehicle to pass beneath the underpass.  ... ' 

Alexa Custom Assistant Announced

 Was expecting something like this, now here it is, will this be widely used?   Implications? Check out what Chrysler is doing.   Introduction below:

Announcing Alexa Custom Assistant

Learn how you can create intelligent assistants tailored to your brand personality and customer needs leveraging Alexa’s advanced AI today. ... 

For the first time, Amazon enables companies to access Alexa’s advanced AI to build their own intelligent assistants with Alexa Custom Assistant; Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is the first Automotive OEM to implement in vehicles

Today, Amazon announced Alexa Custom Assistant, a comprehensive new solution that lets device makers and service providers create intelligent assistants tailored to their brand personality and customer needs. The Alexa Custom Assistant is built directly on Alexa technology, providing companies access to world class, always-improving voice AI technology, customized with unique wake word, voice, skills, and capabilities. The brand’s assistant also seamlessly coexists and cooperates with Alexa, providing customers the benefits of an intelligent assistant that is their product and services expert, while Alexa provides the familiar experiences they already know and love. The Alexa Custom Assistant reduces the cost and complexity of building intelligent assistants into automobiles, consumer electronics, mobile applications, smart properties, video games, and a variety of other digital experiences.   

Global automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is the first Alexa Custom Assistant customer, and has already begun the planning process for the development of an FCA-branded intelligent assistant for integration in select vehicle models. The company’s work builds on existing Alexa integrations in its vehicles around the world.... " 

Microscanner Mirrors Sensing Environment

 Sensing your context is very broadly useful.

Microscanner Mirrors Replace Human Vision

By Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany)

A microscanner mirror for LiDAR systems enables the three-dimensional scanning of a vehicle's surroundings out to more than 200 meters.

Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) have developed a microscanner mirror for LiDAR systems that enables the three-dimensional scanning of a vehicle's surroundings out to more than 200 meters (656 feet).

When used with LiDAR, the device removes the need for human vision to scan the vehicle's environment.

Fraunhofer IPMS' Jan Grahmann said, "Our [microelectromechanical systems] mirror splits the laser beam in two dimensions and focuses the light on the object that is being measured. By measuring the time of flight of the reflected light, it is also possible to determine the distance to the object as a third dimension."

The monocrystalline silicon scanner intensifies the reflection of the light, and can continuously track where the mirror steers the laser and which position is being measured.

From Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany)

Amazon Opens Assistant AI Tech

 Have now run a car assistant for several years.  After a few bumps it works fine.       Have yet to see any true innovation in car use, just sharing some voice and music services.  What other customizations are useful?   Note the use of the 'Core AI platform',  or 'Alexa Custom Assistant' which implies a deeper technology reach, mentions video games.   Looking for a way to better monetize the AI investment.  See more on the tech at the Amazon Dev Site.       Via Walter Riker

Amazon opens Alexa AI tech for the first time so car makers can build custom assistants

Amazon is letting automakers tailor custom voice experiences using its AI platform  By Nick Statt@nickstatt   in TheVerge

Amazon will now allow third-party companies the unprecedented privilege of accessing the core artificial intelligence underpinning its Alexa digital assistant, a first for the company’s AI platform.

While Amazon has allowed companies to build skills for Alexa and allows pretty much any consumer electronic device maker to integrate Alexa into a compatible product, the e-commerce giant has not licensed the underlying AI tech for use in other assistant-like products. Amazon is calling the new offering Alexa Custom Assistant, and it’s starting out with a focus on the auto market.

Amazon is doing so to allow not just automobile manufacturers, but any company with a need for a digital voice assistant more control over the software experience. This will allow companies to create their own wake words and custom voices and capabilities Amazon says will “co-exist” with Alexa as it’s designed to work today. For the auto market, this provides Amazon the added benefit of having its software built directly into cars. ...'

Also the article mentions that Amazon is making this available for more than just car makers.

Driverless Cars Are Still Coming

 More comments on the likely general introduction of driverless vehicles.

Driverless Cars Are Coming, But Not Yet to Take Over

The Wall Street Journal, By Stephen Wilmot

Driverless cars are making their way onto U.S. roads, but it will take time for them to reach their full potential. Alphabet's Waymo began offering "robotaxis" with no backup driver in Phoenix suburbs in October, and by year’s end, General Motors' Cruise will no longer require backup drivers in its autonomous test cars in California. However, after safely operating driverless-cars in one urban district in good weather, companies must adapt to new areas and other driving conditions. It will take years, and billions of dollars in capital, to enable self-driving vehicles to adapt to multiple geographies and weather conditions, prompting partnerships between tech giants and the auto industry. For instance, Amazon has taken a stake in Aurora Innovation, a startup looking to take over Uber's operation, and acquired Aurora's rival Zoox for $1.3 billion this summer. Waymo's Larry Burns predicts that freight, rather than taxis, will fuel the commercialization of driverless technology.  .... '

Blackberry and IVY

 A long time examiner of how automobiles, today or in a more autinomos future, will link to more sensors and the web.   Also an early user of Blackberry devices in the enterprise, before they were driven under by the iPhone.    Is Blackberry back?   What are the key apps to watch for? 

BlackBerry shares rocket upwards on AWS deal to integrate sensor data in vehicles

By Jonathan Shieber in TechCrunch

BlackBerry shares shot up in early trading on news that the company will partner with Amazon Web Services to jointly develop and market its vehicle data integration and monitoring platform, IVY.

BlackBerry stock was up 35%, or $2.11, at the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange. It’s a sign of both the potential market for smart vehicle services and the ability of Amazon businesses to boost the fortunes of businesses with its attention.

The former undisputed heavyweight of the smartphone market, BlackBerry has transformed itself into a provider of business security and information integration services, and it’s through this transformation that the company attracted the attention of Amazon’s web services business.  ... " 

Fraunhofer Modular Vehicle Concept

 Interesting conceptually, practical in what future time?  Thought provoking at least. 

Flexible and Individual: Fraunhofer Team Develops Groundbreaking Vehicle Concept

Research News / November 17, 2020

How can individualized luxury mobility be designed for the world of the year 2040? A world that will be driven by the idea of a circular economy and products with significantly longer lives. A world that will also be characterized by the desire for individual and quickly evolving lifestyles. How can the maximum level of driving comfort be achieved between these two polar opposites? To answer these questions, an interdisciplinary research team made up of experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, and the Fraunhofer for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut, WKI, has developed “Vision PI,” a modular futuristic mobility concept.

What does mobility of the future look like? Researchers from six Fraunhofer Institutes have developed a groundbreaking vehicle concept that can be flexibly and individually designed depending on the intended use. The concept calls for a modular passenger cell, following the logic of a shell principle, that can be flexibly adapted to the individual needs of the travelers: during the day, it serves as a communicative lounge; at night, it becomes a peaceful capsule for rest and recovery on long-haul trips. The interior can be adjusted flexibly and adapted in terms of settings. The materials used are made from renewable sources or are designed to optimize their ability to be reused or recycled. The entire module can be coupled with various mobility bases – with a vehicle platform, an air taxi, or a Hyperloop solution, depending on the need. It can also be transformed into an interactive virtual-reality lounge that enables limitless virtual travel around the whole world, thus contributing to an innovative component of new mobility and building designs.   ... " 

Fooling Self Driving Autopilots

 Had seen this mentioned before, good overview in Schneier.   As usual the discussion in the comments there is the most interesting, with experts in the field chiming in, discussing implications for self driving vehicles and their use regulation.

Split-Second Phantom Images Fool Autopilots in Schneier Blog

Researchers are tricking autopilots by inserting split-second images into roadside billboards.

Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev … previously revealed that they could use split-second light projections on roads to successfully trick Tesla’s driver-assistance systems into automatically stopping without warning when its camera sees spoofed images of road signs or pedestrians. In new research, they’ve found they can pull off the same trick with just a few frames of a road sign injected on a billboard’s video. And they warn that if hackers hijacked an internet-connected billboard to carry out the trick, it could be used to cause traffic jams or even road accidents while leaving little evidence behind.  ...  "

GM Can Manage an EV's Batteries Wirelessly and Remotely

Seems quite a considerable improvement of automotive battery use and management for electric vehicles.

Exclusive: GM Can Manage an EV's Batteries Wirelessly—and Remotely

The new system eliminates the rat's nest of wiring and collects information that can be used to design better batteries.   By Lawrence Ulrich

When the battery dies in your smartphone, what do you do? You complain bitterly about its too-short lifespan, even as you shell out big bucks for a new device. 

Electric vehicles can’t work that way: Cars need batteries that last as long as the vehicles do. One way of getting to that goal is by keeping close tabs on every battery in every EV, both to extend a battery’s life and to learn how to design longer-lived successors.

IEEE Spectrum got an exclusive look at General Motors’ wireless battery management system. It’s a first in any EV anywhere (not even Tesla has one). The wireless technology, created with Analog Devices, Inc., will be standard on a full range of GM EVs, with the company aiming for at least 1 million global sales by mid-decade. 

Those vehicles will be powered by GM’s proprietary Ultium batteries, produced at a new US $2.3 billion plant in Ohio, in partnership with South Korea’s LG Chem.    ... " 

Examining Blockchain for Conditional Auto Access

More in my look at IOT's current activity.  A blockchain type encoding to provide access keys for conditional access.    Note the final suggestion that this could make a smartphone as a kind of universal key.

Jaguar, NTT Team Up with Tech Group on Remote Access Software

Reuters,    Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss     September 30, 2020

German technology group IOTA has announced a partnership with corporations that include automaker Jaguar Land Rover, chipmaker STMicroelectronics, and Japan's NTT Data system integration firm, to launch software that would enable consumers to remotely access and control devices like cars and appliances. The IOTA Access software also can grant and revoke conditional access for use of the remote devices by individuals other than the authorized user. IOTA’s Dominik Schiener said the software will be embedded in Jaguar vehicles. Said Schiener, “With IOTA Access, we have to focus on getting more to the consumer. You want to be able to use your phone to access anything. Our phones should be our personal keys.”

Valuing Spatio-Temporal Information

The valuation of data is a long time interest, have consulted with large companies on the topic.  Lately about automotive connections.  Technical detail on the topic at the link.

Computing Value of Spatio-temporal Information
By Heba Aly, John Krumm, Gireeja Ranade, Eric Horvitz
Communications of the ACM, September 2020, Vol. 63 No. 9, Pages 85-92
10.1145/3410387

Location data from mobile devices is a sensitive yet valuable commodity for location-based services and advertising. We investigate the intrinsic value of location data in the context of strong privacy, where location information is only available from end users via purchase. We present an algorithm to compute the expected value of location data from a user, without access to the specific coordinates of the location data point. We use decision-theoretic techniques to provide a principled way for a potential buyer to make purchasing decisions about private user location data. We illustrate our approach in three scenarios: the delivery of targeted ads specific to a user's home location, the estimation of traffic speed, and the prediction of location. In all three cases, the methodology leads to quantifiably better purchasing decisions than competing approaches.

1. Introduction
As people carry and interact with their connected devices, they create spatiotemporal data that can be harnessed by them and others to generate a variety of insights. Proposals have been made for creating markets for personal data1 rather than for people either to provide their behavioral data freely or to refuse sharing. Some of these proposals are specific to location data.6 Several studies have explored the price that people would seek for sharing their GPS data.5, 13, 9 However, little has been published on determining the value of location data from a buyer's point of view. For instance, a Wall Street Journal blog says10:

"What groceries you buy, what Facebook posts you 'like' and how you use GPS in your car:
Companies are building their entire businesses around the collection and sale of such data. The problem is that no one really knows what all that information is worth. Data isn't a physical asset like a factory or cash, and there aren't any official guidelines for assessing its value."
We present a principled method for computing the value of spatiotemporal data from the perspective of a buyer. Knowledge of this value could guide pursuit of the most informative data and would provide insights about potential markets for location data.

We consider situations where a buyer is presented with a set of location data points for sale, and we provide estimates of the value of information (VOI) for these points. Because the coordinates of the location data points are unknown, we compute the VOI based on the prior knowledge that is available to the buyer and on side information that a user may provide (e.g., the time of day or location granularity). The VOI computation is customized to the specific goals of the buyer, such as targeting ad delivery for home services, offering efficient driving routes, or predicting a person's location in advance. We account for the fact that location data and user state are both uncertain. Additional data purchases can help reduce this uncertainty, and we quantify this reduction as well.

In the next section, we introduce a decision-making framework with a detailed analysis of geo-targeted advertising. We focus on the buyer's goal of delivering ads to people living within a certain region. We show that our method performs better than alternate approaches in terms of inferential accuracy, data efficiency, and cost. In Section 3, we apply the methodology to a traffic estimation scenario using real and simulated spatiotemporal data. We present our last scenario in Section 4, where we show how to make good data-buying decisions for predicting a person's future location. ... 
" 

Baidu and Self Driving

Update on Baudu's involvement in self driving.

Baidu completes its computer for self-driving cars
It'll first be used for autonomous valet parking. ... '

Jon Fingas, @jonfingas in Engadget