Ford and Chrysler both brought similar-sounding blind spot detection technologies to Detroit for SAE.

Ford plans to offer a blind spot mirror and a cross traffic alert with blind-spot monitoring system on MY2009 and future Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles.

Derrick Kuzak, Ford group vice president, Global Product Development, said the blind spot mirror will be standard equipment on many vehicles. He described it as an outside rearview mirror with a secondary convex spotter in the top outer corner aimed at the driver’s blind spot. The blind spot mirror, which uses one continuous glass surface, unlike some aftermarket offerings, will replace traditional sideview mirrors.

The optional cross traffic alert with blind spot monitoring system is a radar-based blind spot detection system that can help customers back out of a parking space when traffic is approaching from the sides. The feature uses the blind spot detection system’s two multiple beam radar modules, which are located in the vehicle’s rear quarter panels. An indicator light on the corresponding sideview mirror is illuminated when another vehicle enters the defined blind spot. Cross traffic alert uses the radar when in reverse to pick up moving objects within a 65-foot range from either the left or right side of the vehicle. The radar also works when backing out of angled parking spaces.

Ford also offers a reverse sensing system and a rearview camera.

Chrysler’s rear cross path system warns drivers who are backing out of parking spaces of traffic moving toward their vehicle, but outside the driver’s field of vision. Drivers are notified of vehicle(s) crossing behind their vehicle via an illuminated icon on the sideview mirror, and with an audible chime. Rear Cross Path operates any time the vehicle is in Reverse. The feature will be available on the 2009 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan.

Chrysler’s blind spot monitoring system uses an illuminated icon on the sideview mirror to warn drivers when changing lanes if being passed by vehicles or when vehicles are positioned in the blind spot zone. If the turn signal is operated, an audible chime can act as an additional warning. The blind spot monitoring system uses dual ultra-wideband radar sensors and it’s active whenever the vehicle is moving forward. The feature will be available on the 2009 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan.

Frank Klegon, executive vice president, product development, said Chrysler is working on an in-vehicle wireless Internet connectivity system that will combine WiFi and 4G connectivity and transform the vehicle into a “hot spot” to deliver Internet and e-mail access, and movie and music download capability directly to the vehicle. An aftermarket in-vehicle “hot-spot” wireless Internet capability is planned for introduction later this year through Mopar (www.mopar.com) .

An active transfer case and front-axle disconnect combination seamlessly transitions between rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive with no driver intervention. When all-wheel-drive is not required, the system automatically disconnects the front axle and opens the transfer case from the drivetrain to reduce friction and rotational mass. The system provides optimal traction, performance, safety and an improvement in fuel economy of one mile per gallon. The feature will be available on the 2009 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger.

Chrysler has also enhanced its rear-seat entertainment system for 2009 with a swivel third-row screen to allow passengers facing to the rear of the vehicle, via Chrysler’s Swivel ‘n Go seating system, to view the screen. Chrysler’s Vehicle Entertainment System includes dual DVD players and screens that deliver a variety of programming choices, with ports to connect games and portable media players. The driver and front-seat passenger can access all video sources on the front-passenger screen. The third-row rear-seat swivel screen is available on the 2009 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan. The Chrysler Vehicle Entertainment System is available on the 2009 Chrysler Aspen, 300, Sebring, Jeep(R) Grand Cherokee, Commander and Dodge Durango, Charger, Ram, Journey, Avenger and Nitro.

Chrysler’s UConnect Bluetooth hands-free system can now download up to 1,000 phone book entries per phone, automatically. The 2009 Chrysler voice-activated system is available on the 2009 Chrysler Aspen, 300, Sebring, Town & Country, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Commander, Liberty, Patriot, Compass and Dodge Grand Caravan, Charger, Challenger, Nitro, Durango, Dakota, Ram, Caliber, Avenger and Journey. Full iPod integration into the audio system is available on the 2009 Chrysler Town & Country, 300, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Commander, Compass, Patriot and Dodge Grand Caravan, Challenger, Charger and Journey.

Klegon also said Chrysler’s product development team has created a proprietary knowledge-based engineering system to speed vehicle development time. Engineers used it to develop the Dodge Challenger in 21 months, slicing several months off the normal vehicle development time.

Vendors are jockeying for position in a potentially huge market for in-vehicle TV technology. At the National Associated of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, Qualcomm’s MediaFLO Technologies unit broadcast live streaming television to an SUV, just to prove they could. The MediaFLO platform employs a dedicated mobile broadcast network that, unlike satellite-based TV transmissions, does not require direct line-of-sight, so video quality and signal strength shouldn’t be compromised in crowded metropolitan areas. As its name implies, the platform is based on FLO air interface technology standardized by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA).

Meanwhile, ICO Global Communications’ launched its ICO G1 geosynchronous satellite to cover North America. IMS Research analyst Helena Perslow calls it the first deployment of the DVB-SH (digital video broadcast – satellite service to handhelds) mobile video standard in the U.S.

“DVB-SH is expected to be one of the dominant mobile TV standards, and the one showing the most rapid growth over the next few years,” Perslow said. “In a large and spread-out country such as the U.S., satellite broadcasting may be the key to such mobile video applications as in-car TV.”

ICO expects to start its alpha trials later this year and to launch commercially in 2009. According to Perslow’s report, although in-car broadcast TV till now has not been a significant market in the U.S., such new mobile digital video applications as ICO’s will stimulate tremendous growth in the coming years. “Beginning in 2009, sales of in-car satellite TV receivers will almost double in one year and treble over two years.”

The MathWorks says automotive engineers can now verify compliance with IEC-61508 (safety systems) and The MathWorks Automotive Advisory Board (MAAB) modeling standards within Simulink. At SAE 2008 in Detroit, the company also announced version 2.0 of the MAAB’s Control Algorithm Modeling Guidelines for MATLAB, Simulink and Stateflow, and earlier it noted that the R2008a releases of Simulink and Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder include support for import and export of AUTOSAR Software component descriptions and generation of AUTOSAR compliant production code.

Simulink Verification and Validation software (www.mathworks.com/products/simverification/) version 2.3 automatically evaluates and verifies system models for compliance with those standards as well as with DO-178B. New model-checking features also extend the existing support available within Simulink Verification and Validation for customer-developed modeling guidelines.

Engineering organizations use modeling guidelines as a best practice to improve readability, increase maintainability, and encourage reuse, while guarding against modeling errors. Typically, modeling guidelines are verified through visual inspection of models and related documentation during design reviews. According to The MathWorks, organizations can reduce or eliminate time-consuming and error-prone manual verification by using Simulink Verification and Validation to capture their internal guidelines and automatically check their models.

The Model Advisor also checks for other attributes, such as model consistency and code-generation compatibility. Engineers can use the customization API in Simulink Verification and Validation to develop their own modeling checks, using MATLAB scripts, and register them with Model Advisor for automatic execution.

“Modeling-standards compliance is crucial to the overall development process,” said Jon Friedman, aerospace, defense, and automotive marketing manager at The MathWorks. “Many users already employ Simulink Verification and Validation to check their designs against their own modeling guidelines as a core part of their development process. Now, engineers can use the same tools to ensure that their models meet the DO-178B, IEC-61508, and MAAB standards for data types, diagnostics, code generation, and safety, without having to spend critical staff-hours on repetitive manual review work.”

Information on version 2.0 of the MAAB’s Control Algorithm Modeling Guidelines for MATLAB, Simulink and Stateflow is available at www.mathworks.com/industries/auto/maab.html/. “By leveraging these guidelines and extending them with company- or project-specific rules, automotive engineering teams can build and manage models for specification exchange, simulation, automatic code generation, documentation, and test definition,´Friedman explained. “Teams can generate designs that are reusable, easy to integrate, and consistent with proprietary or industry-standard guidelines.”

AUTOSAR enhancements in the R2008a releases of Simulink and Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder eliminate the need for engineers to introduce new blocksets or tools in order to support AUTOSAR. Software Component descriptions generated by AUTOSAR authoring tools, such as DaVinci Tool Suite from Vector Informatik, can be automatically imported into Simulink to design and implement the functionality of the component. No structural changes to the model are needed. As a result, a single Simulink model can be used as a golden reference throughout the development process for simulation, rapid prototyping, and production code generation in both AUTOSAR and non-AUTOSAR environments.

After the component is modeled and designed, AUTOSAR compliant code can be automatically generated using the newest release of Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder. To validate the generated code and test it against the reference model behavior, software-in-the-loop testing is supported by automatically configuring and generating an interface to the code that routes the simulation data using the AUTOSAR Runtime Environment API calls.

Friedman said that in addition to the component, an updated AUTOSAR Software Component description is automatically generated, enabling the component to be integrated with the AUTOSAR Runtime Environment (RTE) and AUTOSAR Basic Software.

In the Fiat stand at the Frankfurt Auto Show Wednesday morning (September 12) Microsoft and Fiat said they are expanding Blue & Me to include navigation. Martin Thall, general manager of Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit, said a market opportunity exists between factory-installed navigation systems in the €1,500-2,000 price range and portable navigation devices. In a Fiat 500 the firms demonstrated what appeared to be a factory-installed navi display screen attached to the dashboard via a short tube. In fact, the display is a portable device and the tube is the visible portion of a docking station set into a special socket in the dash. Blue Map is only available in Europe at the moment and only as configured; however, a Fiat spokeswoman confirmed the obvious - that Microsoft and Fiat will encourage portable navi display vendors to build or adapt units to fit the docking station and socket. It looks cool and it makes sense.

As the number of electronic functions in a vehicle increase, so do the number of electronic control units (ECUs) required. That’s unavoidable in some cases, but in others, it’s possible and beneficial to reduce the total number of ECUs by controlling multiple functions from a single location. To that end, Robert Bosch LLC is developing what it calls a domain control unit (DCU). Kay Stepper, marketing manager for Bosch’s Chassis Systems Control Division, says the DCU is based on a 32-bit, 130nm multi-core microcontroller that’s optimized for advanced safety applications. In its current iteration the DCU will scale to 180MHz and come with up to 4MB of flash with error correction code. It will include a floating point unit, implement AUTOSAR, and include a FlexRay interface as well as CAN and LIN interfaces.

Omron is poised to enter the active safety market with a system that demonstrates sensor fusion. It combines LIDAR-based adaptive cruise control system with camera-based lane departure warning. The firm has configured a demo vehicle – a Mercedes C320 – with a black and white camera and a dashboard display. The CMOS camera displays the road ahead, highlighting the lane markers in red. The dashboard displays two broken lines converging, plus an icon representing a vehicle ahead, when one is present. The Omron system, which operates on a CAN bus, links up with the Mercedes cruise control system, the speed of which can be set in one mile per-hour increments, so a driver can set a comfortable trailing distance. What’s especially cool about the system, however, is the way it nudges a driver with a clear but gentle tug on the wheel in the proper direction – toward the center of the lane – when the vehicle drifts over a lane marker. The haptic signal may not be firm enough to awaken a truly drowsy driver, but Omron also has an internal camera in development.

It’s axiomatic that the sooner a design error is discovered the cheaper it is to fix it, so it makes sense to verify, validate and test early and often.

Jon Friedman, automotive industry marketing manager at The MathWorks, says that many errors originate somewhere between requirements and specifications in the design process, so it follows that verification tools should link requirements documents to specifications and verify that the specification meets the requirements. That’s one of the fundamental principles that underlie The MathWorks new Simulink Design Verifier. Another is the importance of formal – mathematically provable – verification to complement simulation and functional verification in assuring that the requirements on which a model is based are met.

Based on a formal methods engine – Prover Technology’s Prover Plug-in – the Simulink Design Verifier automates test generation and property proving for Simulink and Stateflow models. It generates test cases and counterexamples automatically and performs proofs by using automated mathematical reasoning to explore model execution paths.

Friedman says the Simulink Design Verifier removes the monotony and the heavy lifting from the process of creating test cases to cover all possible usage scenarios and workflows, after which production code can be generated from the verified model using Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder.

For applications like human machine interface and body electronics, the problem facing test engineers is the sheer number of potential inputs and values. There may be a smaller number of variables in safety and powertrain applications, but the margin for error is also less.

What’s been your experience with testing and verification?

Continental AG, which paid approximately $1 billion in April a year ago for Motorola’s automotive electronics business, is now investing $15.6 billion (€11.4 billion) to acquire Siemens VDO Automotive AG. It’s Continental’s largest-ever purchase. With combined sales of $34.3 billion (€25 billion) and a work force of nearly 140,000, the firm will rank in the automotive electronics industry’s top five. The deal is expected to be closed in Q4 and the firms integrated by the end of 2009. There’s no word yet on workforce reduction or the effect of the merger on specific product lines.

STMicroelectronics and Freescale say that since announcing their joint design effort last year they’ve accelerated automotive design activity in the areas of IP development, flash technology alignment and new product definition. They’re applying Power Architecture technology for powertrain, chassis, motor control and body systems and they’ve produced test chips in 90nm embedded flash technology.

Freescale VP Mike McCourt says the pair plan to deliver four new products early next year, and in the next couple of years they expect a “comprehensive roadmap” of scalable MCU designs. Mike reports that customers are interested in the MCU designs that are coming, as well as in the combined product and process capabilities and the dual-sourcing potential. The companies have set up four design centers employing a total of 130 design engineers.

ST VP Marco Maria Monti says that the common MCU architectural platform design facilitates the simultaneous design of multiple products with peripheral sets optimized for specific target applications, translating to faster time-to-market.

As Dr. Phil might ask, how is all of that working for you? Are you using Power Architecture technology and are you among the automotive customers anticipating delivery of samples in Q1? What’s your take on the collaboration?

ST Microelectronics is offering 32Mb automotive-grade (-40 to 125°C) NOR Flash devices manufactured on a 0.11-micron process. They’re promising 64Mb devices in Q2 and 128Mbit parts by the end of the year. The low end of the ST automotive-grade NOR Flash line is 4Mb. Competitor Spansion offers MirrorBit NOR products in densities from 16Mb to 1Gb.

ST’s 32Mbit M29W30 targets dashboard systems and multimedia, among other automotive applications. The devices can be read, programmed and erased over a 2.7V to 3.6V power supply range. Asynchronous random access time is 70ns, and typical byte or word programming time is 10µs. Data retention is guaranteed at 20 years minimum, and write endurance is 100,000 program/erase cycles per block. The chip can be organized in 8-bit or 16-bit words. Other features include independent block erase, optional Fast Programming, and a 64-bit security code.