Microphones have long been used inside vehicles for voice-assist functions and other features. But automotive tech company Harman has developed a microphone designed to be placed on a vehicle’s exterior. Positioning a microphone outside the car will allow vehicle safety systems and automated driving functions to detect everything from emergency vehicle sirens to verbal commands
German powertrain supplier Vitesco Technologies is using green lasers to mass-produce battery management electronics for BMW, helping to reduce energy consumption compared with traditional infrared lasers. Typically, infrared lasers show up in the copper welding process, but they can be difficult to control and require significant energy, according to Vitesco. Green lasers, however, have shorter
Chicago battery materials startup NanoGraf Corp. is betting big on silicon anodes to greatly increase lithium ion battery density for everything from electric vehicles to consumer electronics. The company unveiled its new 18650 battery cell last year, calling it “the world’s most energy-dense lithium ion battery.” It is 20 percent more efficient than industry-leading batteries.
The Heat Belt — a new technology developed by German parts supplier ZF Group — is a heated seat belt that warms up a driver’s body on a cold morning. But its bigger promise is to deliver longer-lasting batteries for electric vehicles. The seat belts work on conductors woven into their fabric that warm up
Automakers and their supply chains have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in emerging technologies that promise to transform how vehicles are constructed and how people will get around. That investment stream is now outpacing other industries’ quests for innovation. Autonomous vehicle technology was the fastest-growing technology group in the U.S. last year, as measured
For the first time in months, assembly plants in China led the way in weekly vehicle production cuts caused by the microchip shortage, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions. About 29,000 vehicles were removed from production schedules at Chinese factories last week, outpacing the 22,700 that were axed at European plants and an
Parts suppliers are rolling out new driver monitoring systems designed to monitor a driver’s head position, eyes and body to better determine if they are distracted or drowsy. Canadian supplier giant Magna International has developed a camera-based driver monitoring system that is integrated into a vehicle’s rearview mirror. The system, which also uses infrared sensors,
However promising they are, lidar systems have many critics in the auto industry who question the powerful remote sensing technology’s high cost and complexity compared to cameras and radar. But a new game-changer is the development of solid-state lidar systems that can be produced profitably at scale and ditch the spinning mirrors and motors of
Chipmakers and suppliers are investing in an emerging semiconductor category called “system on a chip” as the importance of software and electronics in vehicles rises exponentially. System on a chip allows multiple vehicle functions to operate on a single chip instead of having those functions split among different sets of electronic control units. The technology’s
As vehicle designers rethink how interiors are laid out and search for ways to make vehicles safer, a new airbag technology has gained a place, mounted in the vehicle’s roof. ZF Group has been supplying “bag-in-roof” products since 2014. And Ford has reportedly filed U.S. patent applications for a new roof-mounted airbag design. But the
