Renesas hits the accelerator on autonomous and cockpit development

The vehicles are part of Renesas’ open, innovative, and trusted Renesas autonomy Platform for ADAS and automated driving that delivers total end-to-end solutions scaling from cloud to sensing and vehicle control. With Renesas autonomy, Renesas aims to contribute to a safe and secure society in the autonomous driving era.

Renesas has added evolutionary upgrades in embedded vision, lidar, GPS, and security to its current autonomous Lincoln MKZ and ADAS Cadillac vehicles. Renesas is also introducing the new Renesas Connected Cockpit Vehicle, developed on a Dodge Ram 1500 truck, showcasing the convergence of embedded- and cloud-based technologies to provide a more integrated and personalized in-car experience.

Renesas will demonstrate the vehicles at CES 2018 in the Renesas Advanced and Autonomous Test Track and Future Ready Solutions Showcase, 9th-12th January 2018, in Las Vegas.

“Faster time to market, flexibility for future-proofing, lower bill of materials cost, manufacturable design - these are just some of the ongoing challenges OEMs and Tier 1s are facing when developing production-ready autonomous-driving and connected cockpit vehicles,” said Amrit Vivekanand, Vice President, Automotive Systems Business Division, Renesas Electronics.

“The enhanced Cadillac and Lincoln vehicles, and the new Connected Cockpit Dodge Ram vehicle help OEMs and Tier 1s deal with these challenges, and accelerate their autonomous-driving and connected cockpit development. We have been overwhelmed by the positive response to our current integrated platforms, and are excited to build on that collaboration with our amazing group of partners.”

Conceived as development platforms for automotive system manufacturers, the Renesas vehicles enable the creation of safe, integrated solutions that extend beyond silicon, based on powerful, high reliability automotive-grade Renesas solutions, including:

• Third-generation R-Car System-on-Chip (SoC), including the R-Car H3 (Connected Cockpit, Lincoln, and Cadillac vehicles) and the R-Car V3M (Lincoln and Cadillac vehicles).
• Popular RH850 Family of microcontrollers (MCUs) for vehicle control.
• Renesas IMP-X5 computer vision processing architecture.

About the Renesas Connected Cockpit Vehicle (Dodge Ram 1500)

• Integrated Cockpit Solutions In Real Life: In 2018, Renesas is taking diverse integrated cockpit solutions into a real-world automotive setting with its new Connected Cockpit Vehicle.
  • Developed on a Dodge Ram 1500 truck, the immersive, future-forward platform integrates production-ready, automotive-grade hardware and software.
  • The Connected Cockpit features a 12.5" 3D digital cluster and a 17" Full HD centre display both driven by a single R-Car H3 SoC. It runs both a production-ready safe OS and Android Operating System (OS) in a virtualised environment to support navigation, software defined radio, multimedia streaming, cloud connectivity, and a fully custom multi-OS HMI. It also supports ISO 26262-critical applications such as biometric facial recognition and eMirror for digital replacement of the rear-/side-view digital mirrors. Finally, advanced virtualised display sharing techniques allow a seamless integration of both OS’s and applications on any display.

Strategic partners on the Dodge RAM Connected Cockpit include: Altia, EPAM, FiberDyne, Green Hills Software, Maxim Integrated, and New Foundry.

About the Renesas Autonomous Vehicle (Lincoln MKZ)

• Taking Secure Autonomous Driving to the Road: In December 2016, Renesas introduced the SAE Level 4 autonomous vehicle, developed on a Lincoln MKZ car model, which was showcased at CES 2017.
  • Over the past year, Renesas has continued its close collaboration with key partners to identify new opportunities to design and deploy autonomous driving technologies on the Lincoln MKZ model for city driving perception in the real world.
  • For 2018, the vehicle platform has substantially evolved to provide greater awareness of and safety within its driving environment through upgrades in its vision-based technologies, secure communications networking capabilities, and deep learning functions.
  • The Lincoln MKZ vehicle showcases a nine-camera system including detection of vehicles, lane marking, stop signs, speed limit signs, traffic lights, pedestrians, and parking spaces, all running on a cost efficient, low power R-Car SoC designed specifically for computer vision and machine learning within automotive standards for functional safety (ISO 26262) and reliability.
  • Architecture upgrades from CES 2017 include advancements in cost-efficient GPS and lidar sensing; DNNs running within ISO 26262; cost-efficient, low power processors (R-Car V3M), and an increase to nine object-detection cameras. Localisation robustness is improved by fusing GPS, lidar, and production-quality, high definition mapping.
  • Architecture improvements on display will include cost-reduced sensing, deep learning with ASIL processors, and fault coverage for sensors and key components in the system design. The updated vehicle also features highly refined, automotive-grade, map-matching methods that are already heading into production cars, replacing expensive and impractical GPS-based positioning technologies.
  • Strategic partners on the Lincoln MKZ vehicle include: HELLA Aglaia, QNX, and the University of Waterloo.

About the Renesas Connected Vehicle (Cadillac SRX)

• Connected Driving for Mainstream: In October 2015, Renesas introduced the first member of its autonomous driving development platform vehicles, developed on a Cadillac SRX mode and highlighting a combination of sensor fusion, 3D surround view, V2X, and mobile apps integration.
  • Over the past two years, Renesas has continued its close collaboration with key partners to identify new opportunities for connected automotive technologies and implement them on the Cadillac SRX model for road trip testing in the real world.
  • For 2018, the vehicle platform has evolved to provide greater awareness of and safety within its driving environment through upgrades for vision-based systems, wireless communications capabilities, and autonomous driving algorithms for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure applications.
  • The enhanced Cadillac SRX vehicle showcases the convergence of sensor fusion, security, and other ADAS functions, featuring the Renesas R-Car H3 SoC, 3D surround view pedestrian and vehicle detection with an on-chip IMP-X5 parallel programmable engine, Ethernet surround view camera enhancements, and rear blind spot alert.
  • Secure communications with optimised timing protocols, Over-The-Air update capabilities, and cloud-based routing intelligence make use of all available wired and wireless protocols, including 5G and DSRC developments.
  • Strategic partners on the Cadillac vehicle include: eTrans, Neusoft, and the University of Waterloo.

The vehicles reflect an expansion and a maturation of the hardware and software solutions provided by Renesas and its autonomous driving and connected cockpit ecosystem partners.