Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a blog implicating the insurance industry in the high level of highway fatalities in the U.S. As part of that blog (“The Insurance Industry Has Blood on Its Hands”) I suggested that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ought to look into developing a fatality-reduction… Read More
Millennial Tyranny in the Connected Car
Nielsen’s latest AutoTECHCAST study once again introduces confusion to the connected car debate, but it’s understandable and relates to a demographic gradient around technology. Young people are aware of an interested in so-called “brought-in” technologies, while the majority of (older) people… Read More
Keep It Simple, Allstate
A report in the Wall Street Journal last week dives into the insurance industry’s quandary over the anticipated onset of self-driving cars that might significantly and negatively impact the volume of claims and, ultimately, mitigate the need for car insurance altogether. The report is simultaneously a source of alarm and relief… Read More
GM Trumps Ford
I strongly recommend giving a listen to John McElroy’s panel discussion podcast featuring Julia Steyn (pictured on the right, above), vice president of urban mobility and Maven for General Motors along with John Voelcker of Green Car Reports and Rebecca Lindland of Kelley Blue Book. Steyn offered up a mountain of substance regarding… Read More
Customized PMICs with OTP in automotive and IoT
Power. Every device needs it. Managing it properly can make all the difference between a device people enjoy using and one that is more hassle than it is worth. What happens between the battery and the processor is the job of the power management integrated circuit (PMIC).
Why are PMICs gaining so much attention? Increased power … Read More
Tesla: After the Crash
The funny thing about pitching new cars to the general public these days is that no one really wants to think about ever getting into a crash. There was a time when General Motors counted on OnStar as a deciding factor in selling cars because of its post-crash prophylaxis of automatically summoning assistance.
A couple decades of … Read More
Alphabet vs. Radio: Traffic Info Smackdown
Alphabet is showing signs of taking over just about every infotainment function in cars except one: traffic information. When Alphabet, aka Google, arrived on the automotive scene the company and its minions quickly grasped that there was going to be a big opportunity for search, voice, navigation, maps, traffic and contextual… Read More
Foundation IP for Automotive: so Stringent Quality Requirements!
The Automotive IC market is not the largest segment, but is certainly the segments expected to grow with the highest CAGR, with 10.8% from 2013 to 2018, according with IC Insights (January 2015). If you consider the pretty long concept/design to production cycle time (7 years or more) as well as the numerous segments just emerging… Read More
Optimization and verification wins in IoT designs
Designers tend to put tons of energy into pre-silicon verification of SoCs, with millions of dollars on the line if a piece of silicon fails due to a design flaw. Are programmable logic designers, particularly those working with an SoC such as the Xilinx Zynq, flirting with danger by not putting enough effort into verification?… Read More
Dealerless Future for Driverless Cars
The Chevrolet Volt was a technological marvel from its very launch. A so-called plug-in extended range electric vehicle that could be operated entirely on battery power as long as it was only driven short distances or for hundreds of miles on gasoline. But something happened on the way to the market that suggests deeper troubles… Read More
The Data Crisis is Unfolding – Are We Ready?