TomTom Rolls Out Digital Cockpit
Company Integrates Latest Navigation Technology
JAVAD offers Triumph-LS Plus and Triumph 3 Latest-Generation Receiver. JAVAD GNSS is looking for new talent to join their team!
Saying that vehicle software development can be slow and expensive, Dutch mapmaker TomTom [TOM2] has announced its TomTom IndiGO, an open digital cockpit software platform for automakers.
The platform, launched this week in a splashy video announcement after much prelaunch publicity, unifies passenger and driver displays through a common user interface that gives access to the latest apps and services, climate control, audio system and vehicle systems settings, the company said.
The platform integrates with TomTom’s new Navigation for Automotive and Electric Vehicle (EV) technology suite. Drivers can use cloud-native hybrid navigation, which is able to take advantage of super-fast and up-to-date routing, search, and fresh maps, as well as precise range and routing information for EVs, the company said.
TomTom CEO, Harold Goddijn, said the new platform allows automakers to deploy such modern software development principles as rapid prototyping, fast deployment and incremental improvements.
IndiGO runs on the Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS). Through online connectivity, the platform’s software, apps, services, and plugins can be updated and extended over-the-air—to allow automakers to integrate new innovations throughout a vehicle’s lifecycle to generate revenue, the company said.
TomTom IndiGO’s initial partners include Access Company, Amazon Alexa, ART S.p.A., Bosch, Cerence, Cinemo, Digital Charging Solutions GmbH, Faurecia Aptoide Automotive, HARMAN, iHeartRadio, Intellias, Microsoft, and Rightware. IndiGO allows application developers to integrate their services with TomTom’s location technologies which will take advantage of Microsoft Azure as its underlying cloud platform, the company said.
In other company news, TomTom recently opened new office space in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Spread over 100,000 square feet, the state-of-the-art facility can accommodate as many as 1,000 employees, the company said. TomTom, which has been in India for more than 13 years, said the Pune office is one of its largest worldwide and constitutes a strategic engineering hub.
Autonomous Racecar Challenge To Be Held At CES 2022
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) recently announced that Energy Systems Network, the organizer of the Indy Autonomous Challenge, will host a head-to-head, high-speed autonomous racecar passing competition at CES 2022. The Autonomous Challenge @ CES will take place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022. The event will be limited to CES attendees and transportation will be available from the LVCC to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, organizers said.
The event builds on the Indy Autonomous Challenge, which set records on Oct. 23, 2021, with the first high-speed autonomous racecar competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Autonomous Challenge @ CES will feature several of the university teams that competed in Indianapolis, including the winner of the competition and the finalists, organizers said.
The university teams competing in Las Vegas include:
EuroRacing – University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy), University of Pisa (Italy), ETH Zürich (Switzerland), Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland) (Oct. 23 finalist)
KAIST, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea)
MIT-PITT-RW, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Waterloo (Canada)
PoliMOVE – Politecnico di Milano (Italy), University of Alabama (Oct. 23 finalist)
TUM Autonomous Motorsport – Technische Universität München (Germany) (Oct. 23 winner).
KCS Has Sold More Than 500,000 Tracking Units
Holland-based KCS BV said it has sold more than 500,000 TraceMe LoRa and other tracking units. KCS, which announced the milestone in the third quarter, has been selling the units since 2015.
The company said that customers switching from traditional GPS/GPRS systems to LPWAN-based devices saw reduced costs and increased battery life—more than 10 years in some cases. “As a hardware supplier, we understand that we are just part of the puzzle. We have strategically located distributors who market and integrate our products, typically with their platform offering,” said Jan Willem Versluis, KCS research and development director. “It means we are not location-bound to Europe.”
KCS said some tracking applications for its TraceMe and other units include smart waste management, smart farming, temperature-controlled transport, smart road signs and large-scale asset tracking such as E-Bikes, to name a few.
The company, which developed and manufactured advanced products for the Amiga and the Commodore 64 computer in the 1980s, said it will continue to enhance its existing TraceMe and other products next year.
Contact: KCS, www.trace.me.
Other Location News:
News tip? Send them to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
🛥 US Navy Developing Satellite-Independent Navigation System. The U.S. Navy has begun developing a satellite-independent navigation technology for regions where GPS is not operational.
🛰 Galileo Pathfinder Satellite, Decommissioned after 16 Years of In-Orbit Service…and Galileo Satellites Given Green Light for Launch. ESA is launching two Galileo satellites on Dec. 2 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Recently, another Galileo satellite was decommissioned after 16 years.
🚚 AWS Announces AWS IoT FleetWise. “Once the data is in the cloud, automakers can use it for applications that remotely diagnose issues in individual vehicles, analyze vehicle fleet health to help prevent potential recalls or safety issues, or improve advanced technologies like autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems with analytics and machine learning.”
🙂 Vodafone connected mobility platform nears launch. “Vodafone drives connectivity via edge network, with HERE and Porsche among a stable of partners.”
✔ Teletrac Navman wins ABP Southampton contract. “Following a trial of the fleet telematics, tracking platform and connected camera system, ABP Southampton will now roll out the technology across its 80-strong fleet, including more than 30 electric vehicles.”
👍 Valeo Targets Autonomous Vehicles With Lidar Upgrade. “Valeo - which provides earlier versions of its lidar equipment to key customer Audi and has another exclusive deal with Mercedes - ranks in the top ten lidar companies worldwide, with 2020 sales estimated at $49 million.”
🚗 13 Challenges That Come With Autonomous Vehicles. Many of the points are valid, some are ‘who cares’ stuff.
👏 Genesys International Files Two Patents in 3D and Mobile Mapping Space. “The first patent provides a unique 3-dimensional code, which will help pinpoint the exact location of a given object on the 3D map enabling improved accuracy in last-mile delivery of e-commerce companies.”
🤷♂️ CES Is Returning to Vegas. Will the Tech World Follow? “Some notable companies have already decided against going. Ford [F], whose previous CEO, Jim Hackett, held the CES opening keynote in 2018, will be sitting this show out, according to a spokesperson.”
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Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
Swift Navigation Partnering With STMicroelectronics
Swift Navigation said it has been working with STMicroelectronics on the Teseo V family, which is a single-chip GNSS triple-frequency device for automotive use. Swift has been working with ST to optimize Swift’s precise positioning solution—made up of the Starling positioning engine and Skylark precise positioning service—when paired with the STA8135GA Teseo V, the company said..
The triple-frequency capabilities of STA8135GA provide GNSS data required for high-accuracy across automotive, mass-market, and mobile applications, the company said. When paired with Skylark, applications can achieve centimeter-level accuracy, Swift said.
Contact: Swift Navigation, sales@swiftnav.com, www.swiftnav.com.
NovAtel and u-blox GNSS Receivers on NVIDIA Driveworks 4.0
NVIDIA DriveWorks 4.0 SDK is now available on the NVIDIA DRIVE Developer Download page, offering the latest middleware and development environment purpose-built for autonomous vehicles, the company said.
NVIDIA DriveWorks provides middleware functions on top of NVIDIA DRIVE OS that are fundamental to autonomous vehicle development, the company said.
NVIDIA DriveWorks 4.0 features include Hesai P128 Lidar, NovAtel PwrPak7-E1 SPAN GNSS + IMU module and u-blox ZED-F9K GNSS module.
GPS Insight Aquires FieldAware
GPS Insight has announced the acquisition of FieldAware, a made-for-mobile cloud-based field service company. The acquisition advances field services and fleet tracking capabilities for the company, allowing it to expand its field service solutions, the company said. GPS Insight has a customer base of more than 250,000 vehicles combined, the company said.
Contact: GPS Insight, www.gpsinsight.com.
Teletrac Navman Develops Free Road Safety Data Dashboard
Teletrac Navman has launched an interactive dashboard, which assimilates the data from the annual Department for Transport (DfT) 'Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain' report. Available free, the online dashboard allows users to drill down into the data, access insight on what influences road safety and become more informed about how to adjust driving behavior based on road conditions, the company said.
Contact: Teletrac Navman, www.teletracnavman.co.uk/data/uk-road-safety-data-dashboard.
Unicore Communications GNSS Hardware Available Through Rx Networks
Beijing-based Unicore Communications (Unicore), sister-company to Rx Networks within the BDStar group of companies, said its GNSS hardware is available through Rx Networks in North America. Unicore GNSS receivers applications include reference stations, survey/mapping, precision agriculture, machine control, drones and robotics, vehicle navigation, timing, IoT and more.
Contact: John Carley, Rx Networks, (604) 699-6172, jcarley@rxnetworks.com, www.rxnetworks.com
Samsung Rolls Out Chips For Automotive Market
Samsung Electronics rolled out the Exynos Auto T5123 for 5G connectivity, the Exynos Auto V7 for in-vehicle infotainment systems, and the S2VPS01 power management IC (PMIC) for the Auto V series. The Exynos Auto T5123 is a 3GPP Release 15 telematics control unit designed to bring 5G connectivity to the next generation of connected cars.
Exynos Auto T5123 features built-in GNSS to minimize the use of external ICs and help reduce product development time, the company said.
Contact: Ujeong Jahnke, Samsung Semiconductor Europe, 49(0)89-45578-1000, sseg.comm@samsung.com, www.samsung.com/exynos.
u‑blox/AWS IoT ExpressLink
Two u‑blox modules are among the very first AWS IoT ExpressLink modules to become available:
Contact: Natacha Seitz, u-blox, 41 76 436 0788, natacha.seitz@u-blox.com, www-blox.com.
Hexagon Partners with Airbus
Hexagon’s Geosystems division has announced a partnership with Airbus to integrate two Leica Chiroptera 4X bathymetric LiDAR sensors for maritime surveillance into the C295 MSA, Airbus’ Maritime Surveillance Aircraft.
Hexagon’s new technology enables detection of underwater objects in near real-time, a significant innovation in the airborne bathymetry industry, the company said. The solution was developed to meet Airbus’ requirements and will first be implemented in two C295 MSA purchased by the Irish Air Corps (IAC), the company said. The object detection feature enables real-time LiDAR data visualization and analysis during the flight, the company said.
Contact: Viviana Fuso, Hexagon, 41 79 519 0428, viviana.fuso@hexagon.com.
Telit Rolls Out GNSS Receiver
Telit has announced the LE910S1-ELG, a new LTE Cat 1 module designed for IoT applications in Latin America (LATAM. With an embedded GNSS receiver, the cost-optimized LE910S1-ELG is ideal for tracking applications such as fleet management, stolen vehicle tracking and recovery, the company said.
The LE910S1-ELG, available in the first quarter of 2022, is the latest member of Telit's flagship xE910 module family. The embedded receiver enables the use of GNSS positioning even when the cellular modem is switched off, the company said.
Contact: Leslie Hart, Telit, (919) 415-1510, Leslie.Hart@Telit.com.
MiX Telematics Signs Deal With Monks Contractors
MiX Telematics [MIXT] has announced that Monks Contractors have chosen MiX as their new telematics partner. MiX will provide real-time vehicle tracking data, complete with hours of service (HOS) compliance management and industry-specific customer success support for the connected vehicles within their fleet, the company said.
Contact: Melanie Esterhuizen, MiX Telematics, Melanie.esterhuizen@mixtelematics.com, www.mixtelematics.com.
Inpixon Recognized as an IDC Innovator
Inpixon [INPX] has announced it has been named an IDC Innovator in the IDC Innovators: Location and Geospatial Intelligence 2021 report. Inpixon was recognized as an IDC Innovator for its Indoor Intelligence platform. The report also notes Inpixon's full-stack Indoor Intelligence offering which includes sensors, tags, maps, apps, AI, analytics and more, the company said.
Contact: Inpixon, marketing@inpixon.com, (to get IDC report): www.inpixon.com/inpixon-idc-innovators-location-and-geospatial-intelligence.
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Project Manager. Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning Division.
