Member Info for TheLongestShot

gosh, around 8 minutes it says that "mid to high trims of Mach-E will come with this prep package included" So we get paid!!!!

Patents are just a product of R&D the more the merrier they don't always need to be used or useful They are often the byproduct of training new researchers, but the more patents you publish, the better the funding for the department. You can cancel a project if it isn't viable, but you retain your staff by allowing them to finish the patent.

In an ideal world targeted development would only deliver what you need, but along the way you try many things and see what works, or have a good idea, it is a tangent to what you need, so develop it a bit then patent it and move on.

Which part did I not proof read?

On Friday, JC posted a patent by Honda for a DMS system. You may be wondering why if it is so obvious to us and the analysts that the highest performing system optimised for almost any automotive hardware is Seeing Machines and it will probably be cheaper than and safer than a home grown system.

On let's look at this from some different angles:
R&D - all companies have some form of research and development. It is a career, you start at the bottom and work your way up carving your niche as you grow. In fact often before joining a big company you may be working on a subset of a problem in university, (or a separate consultancy) you may join as an intern on a short contract so haven't the time or skills to get into a complicated project but still need to deliver something meaningful to you and the company. Here the company can take risks and hope to reap some benefit however small.

There are several "products" that come out of R&D departments - trained researchers that can work better within the company, designs for new parts that are incorporated in new vehicles and patents.

Patents are great, they are easy to count! So make great KPIs, just like in academia where the metric is papers published.

Patents are defence or you can earn royalties. If it gets to suing and counter suing companies you can use them as protection and you can trade them as part of the solution.

Of course you could even make the product that the patent applies to! But, that probably happens a lot less often than you would think. So don't worry if Big Car Company looks like it is going its own way. The only patents that matter will be building ontop of our systems as the fight to differentiate their products in the market.

Hyms, JC,
I was almost right the head unit is just the stereo/infotainment. I guess it contains the brains, but the amplifier and speakers are elsewhere so it is just the "head"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_head_unit

I hate to disappoint hyms, but I think Paul was referring to a "head unit" it is just another name for the display for the "stereo" heating controls etc

Jazz, JC,

There are lots of parallels to pick up on here:
"Number one is this: as you know, we would love to take Nvidia’s IP through ARM’s network"
Well we are putting our IP through Qualcomm's network and through (so far) 1 semiconductor (Texas Instruments - or maybe Renesas)

"Number two, we would like to lean in very hard into the ARM CPU datacenter platform. ... The investments that Simon and the team have made in the last four years, while they were out of the public market, has proven to be incredibly valuable ... Well, before we do that, it would be great to own it. We’re going to accrue so much value to this architecture in"
Well we have worked very hard to make Qualcomm's SnapDragon platform ours, and the existing Xilinx platform, and if you pay us we will work with you on your ASIC solutions too. In fact, we have already optimised for many of the major platforms.
Wouldn't it be great to OWN US!!!!

"Third reason, we want to go invent the future of ... And so the timing is really quite important. We’ve invested so much across all of these different areas, that we felt that we really had to take the opportunity to own the company and collaborate deeply as we invent the future. That’s the answer." We really have this sewn up which every way you look at it, we will be standalone in Xilinx, sold along with the Qualcomm / Veoneer stack, you can build us in to a system easily with the Qualcomm to build your own infotainment or ADAS cluster. Or if you are a big Semiconductor company, you can license our code and put it in your own chip and sell that far and wide.

Bristol, they are on 4 day week, because the hard work is done. now they get to rest

Electronics (LG) and Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announced today plans to work together to further develop webOS Auto, LG’s connected in-vehicle infotainment system. Harnessing the combined strengths of webOS Auto and Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Automotive Development Platform (ADP), the companies aim to create and advance a more convenient in-car experience for drivers and passengers alike.

LG’s webOS Auto is a Linux-powered platform which leverages LG’s expertise in vehicle infotainment for the next generation of connected automobiles.

http://www.lgnewsroom.com/2019/10/lg-and-qualcomm-join-forces-to-advance-the-in-car-experience/

Thanks Schlem, my SUBJECT was too long and chopped off the important part - TOKYO

Zeq, think of it more like Lego, you can assemble the bricks and if the driver is tired or distracted you just need to attach a claxon, or a flashing light to these two wires. Or Something fancier if you have the time.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/job-listing/senior-manager-product-marketing-automotive-infotainment-and-ad-adas-qualcomm-JV_IC2851580_KO0,68_KE69,77.htm?jl=3623001879

Gosh, JC,

This may be Google taking out a patent to prevent anyone from trying a stupid idea!

They are not evil

Yep, and this one
https://www.eetimes.com/who-says-dms-is-an-interim-solution/

Electric light used to be magic now it is taken for granted. So we miss much of the hard work that See and others do in the background.

Just going back to Paul's post "Major players in silicon, sensing, illumination, software and cloud are converging"
- Silicon makes sense, so does software and cloud. Sensing - lidar, cameras radar, ultrasound and microphones do the sensing. Why throw in illumination? I don't think he saying the Illuminati are behind this.
One name that often got mentioned with DMS was Osram. We presumed it was the IR leds and the red green blue steering wheel. But is it something more? We saw how car lighting can do ambiance or alert someone. Intelligent main beams don't dazzle, could he mean something else too. Perhaps the AR HUD...

ISB,
You are correct there are several OEMs who are well overdue with announcing how they will deliver DMS in the ever shrinking time span. It took 4 years of hard work for the Mercedes S-Class from RNS to product launch. The Ford F-150 took just over 2 years, the Ford Mustang Mach-E blindsided even ud and came from nowhere, no doubt piggybacking on the Fovio chip we developed with Ford.

The auto landscape has changed much in the last few years. I would state that much of the tools that were used for the Merc and Ford are baked into the chips now. New customers have an easy on ramp to install the systems. See Paul's latest video about half way through. So the missing OEMs are no doubt waiting for Occula solutions built by the Tier 1s, as soon as they are announced, there will be a flurry of contracts - not necessarily with us, but using our licenced code in new Tier 1 ASIC chips along with other ADAS functionality. The more that can be bundled, the cheaper for the OEMs, once it is standardised for one vehicle it can quickly be rolled out across the range. We get paid per vehicle and perhaps development costs by the Tier1. Just like how a little company called called Arm got very rich!

Esc,

Here's my thoughts. We know it is a "leading Semiconductor Company" and also a "global semiconductor company"

Let's start with Intel - well it won't be them (this time) since Arm was mentioned. Although Mobileye did have Arm cores, EyeQ 5 is already designed, EyeQ 6 will move to an Intel Atom Core.

Qualcomm - they wouldn't describe themselves as a Semiconductor company

Nvidia - they invented the GPU but they are trying to be more than just semiconductors

Renesas - well they don't describe themselves as a semiconductor company either but SemiControllers

Texas Instruments - well Google them:

Texas Instruments www.ti.com
TI is a global semiconductor design & manufacturing company. Innovate with 80000+ analog ICs & embedded processors, software & largest sales/support staff.

So it looks like the home of Speak #& Spell can now SEE!

Short article, but still squeezes in 6 mentions of Driver Monitoring or drowsy/distracted driving!

Sometimes we can get so familiar with our linguistic shortcuts that we forget that not everyone can understand what is meant or implied. Maybe that explains why the company is only worth £100 M, yet those of us who can, see a Unicorn. Sorry you can Google that one yourself (technically SEE aren't a startup, but who cares)

Low integration pathways - let's start with 'high integration' as demonstrated by the long gestation of the new Mercedes S-Class. Here there is DMS - not that we have seen it in action yet, but we have seen the telltales of what else it does and it is a long list and no doubt there are more surprises to come:
- facial identification - in the past with a single RBG camera you could spoof this with a photo, but here there are two near infrared cameras that record the face in 3D.

- 3D display rather than a simple screen for the instruments, Merc use a 3D display with a comb that hides the left eye pixels from the right eye and vice versa - this needs an accurate position of your eyes that constantly refreshes.

- Augmented Reality (AR) Head Up Display (HUD) that projects the speed display etc 10m ahead of the car. A second HUD shows in real space the actual directions to turn. These again must know the actual position of your eyes so that the projects image coincides with the moving real world outside of the windscreen (and integration with the extremal camera to identify the external features)

- watching the driver, if the driver looks over his shoulder it will lower the screen, if it is a glance to the passenger seat in the dark the light comes on if the side mirror needs adjusting you select the mirror by looking at it.

OK that was high integration, so low integration is pretty simple let the car know that the driver is tired or distracted - now the OEM just decide what to do about it. For a bit more money, we can warn if there is a live body still in the car when the door lock request happens so you can warn that the dog or baby is still in the back seat.

OK finally pathway - like the instructions in a pack of Lego, we can suggest what you build and buy - a camera and brains hidden in a mirror, or behind the instrument console or built into the "stereo" as they used to call it.

Hope that helps, if in doubt DYOR to check. If there is any jargon or technical that the SEE community would benefit from understanding, have a go yourself or ask

Whatif, Texas Instruments and Renesas are the names that I will be looking for when it comes to licensing. They are both massive in Automotive electronics. Just think how great Speak & Spell would be today If Occula was checking that you weren't using a dictionary.