5920 Panel: Automotive (ADAS)
“Advanced Driver Assist Systems” (ADAS)
The role of semiconductors in vehicle safety and autonomy
The Electric Vehicle revolution has gotten much attention lately but a relatively silent, yet rapidly growing evolution has started in this decade of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). According to consumer surveys, demand for safety features in vehicles is high, increasing the need for manufactuers to include more complex networks and features in their cars.
While ADAS like radar-enabled adaptive cruise control (ACC) had been installed in luxury cars for more than 10 years, they used to be too expensive for economy vehicles. But this is changing now …
For example, the new European Ford Focus is available with features like Active City Stop (autonomous braking at speeds up to 20 mph if needed, enabled by a laser sensor), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC, enabled by a radar sensor), Active Lane Assist (enabled by a windshield camera sensor) as well as several other active safety features. Surely this car is just the beginning of new generations of ADAS-enabled volume-segment vehicles.
What is needed?
Semiconductors play a critical role inthe ADAS innovation - from sensors, analog and power devices via transceivers and bus interfaces, memory, microcontrollers, DSPs and, of course, FPGAs.
Challenges:
Shorter design cycles and time-to-market, new design concepts based on microcontrollers/DSPs and/or FPGAs with larger memories and the emergence of Ethernet in the car are key issues that must be addressed by the semiconductor industry. Also, suppliers face the challenge of meeting rigorous industry performance regulations and must ensure they provide an open architecture with system compatibility throughout the vehicle.
The story idea:
Design engineers worldwide need to know about the contributions of semiconductor manufacturers in future ADAS solutions on the road towards safe and autonomous driving.
A panel of semiconductor experts will discuss their technology approaches and opinions.
