Automobility: The Bot in a Box Boom

Automobility: The Bot in a Box Boom
by Roger C. Lanctot on 11-20-2016 at 4:00 pm

The Automobility event, which starts today ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show, will be remembered for introducing the bot in a box. While Ford Motor Company President and CEO Mark Fields will take the stage this morning to tout Ford’s leadership in transforming transportation with new vehicle ownership models and mass produced… Read More


Ford Motors Discusses Future Mobility Trends at Synopsys Seminar

Ford Motors Discusses Future Mobility Trends at Synopsys Seminar
by Tom Simon on 11-17-2016 at 4:00 pm

Five or ten years ago it would have been hard to imagine someone from Ford Motors giving the keynote at a technology summit at a major EDA company like Synopsys. However, on November 2[SUP]nd[/SUP], Synopsys hosted a seminar on the topic of Automotive Architecture Design and System Testing, and Ford Technical Fellow Jim Buczkowski… Read More


Hotz Tech Crunched

Hotz Tech Crunched
by Roger C. Lanctot on 11-13-2016 at 4:00 pm

George Hotz, founder of Comma.ai told the world at TechCrunch that he was going to ship a $999 aftermarket autopilot system – the Comma One. The smartphone-sized device was designed to replace the rearview mirror enabling an automated driving experience in appropriately equipped cars – initially certain Acura and Honda models.… Read More


Ford Seeks Own Path to Car Sharing and IoT

Ford Seeks Own Path to Car Sharing and IoT
by Roger C. Lanctot on 11-10-2016 at 4:00 pm

It’s hard to be a thought leader around the future of transportation when the entire market seems to be moving in one of three directions simultaneously: either ride hailing (Uber, Lyft), car sharing (Zipcar, Car2go) or automated driving (Google, Tesla). If you’re Ford Motor Company and you care about whether you are adding to … Read More


Apple Car Crumble

Apple Car Crumble
by Roger C. Lanctot on 10-21-2016 at 7:00 am

Software, mechanical and electrical engineers working for auto makers received a huge self-esteem injection this week as events unfolding at Apple suggested that the company had abandoned long-rumored plans for building a car. Considering the fact that Apple still hasn’t delivered a decent navigation app with traffic services,… Read More


Takata’s Deepest Betrayal

Takata’s Deepest Betrayal
by Roger C. Lanctot on 10-06-2016 at 4:00 pm

There’s been a lot of betrayal in the automotive industry over the past few years. Consumers have been betrayed by car makers that failed to identify, report or anticipate problems or that deliberately misled their customers. But no betrayal was deeper than that of Takata and the ongoing airbag recall effort. And Takata’s… Read More


GloFo’s 12nm FD-SOI: why it makes headlines in China

GloFo’s 12nm FD-SOI: why it makes headlines in China
by Adele Hars on 10-04-2016 at 7:00 am

As you’ve probably seen in (excellent!) recent semiwiki postings by Eric Esteve and Scotten Jones, 12nm FD-SOI has now officially joined the GlobalFoundries’ roadmap. Eric and Scotten did a great job of putting many things in perspective. But this is a big piece of news, so here I propose looking at it from yet another perspective,… Read More


The Privacy Delusion

The Privacy Delusion
by Roger C. Lanctot on 09-28-2016 at 7:00 am

Why do we think we have privacy in our cars? Why does the government believe there is an interest in preserving privacy in cars? Can we just get over it? One of the least private places known to mankind – outside of the Internet – is the car!

But our transportation regulators in the U.S. and their counterparts at the European Commission… Read More


Getting out of DIY Mode for Virtual Prototypes

Getting out of DIY Mode for Virtual Prototypes
by Don Dingee on 09-26-2016 at 4:00 pm

Virtual prototyping has, inexplicably, been largely a DIY thing so far. Tools and models have come from different sources with different approaches, and it has been up to the software development team to do the integration step and cobble together a toolchain and methodology that fits with their development effort.

That integration… Read More