Tomorrow’s cars will be all-round communicators
06-10-2016 | By Paul Whytock
A system that provides 360-degree vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications and is expected to find applications relative to autonomous driving technology has been developed by Japanese electronics company Renesas.
Offering real-time processing it forms part of the company’s lineup of V2X solutions and includes two System-on-Chips (SoCs). One of the solutions includes the R-Car W1R 760MHz band wireless SoC for the Japanese market whilst the other consists of the W2H SoC combined with the R-Car W2R 5.9 GHz band wireless communication SoC developed for US and European territories.
A development starter kit that will enable system developers to immediately start application software development is also available.
This month the company has also launched the R-Car W1R system which conforms to Japan's wireless communications standards and is adopted in the ITS Connect V2V and V2I communications system. The R-Car W1R was adopted in Denso Corporation's in-vehicle ITS units and these are used in Toyota's Crown, Prius, and Lexus RX models for displaying traffic signal violation, cross traffic and pedestrian warnings.
In addition to the current V2X activities led by Japan, Renesas says that progress is being made in Europe and the US. Differing communication frequencies, communication and security standards have made optimising devices for these regions significant design challenges for V2X system development. Accordingly, Renesas is delivering V2X kit solutions that combine either the R-Car W1R or R-Car W2R with the R-Car W2H. The company maintains these kit solutions make it possible to construct systems for each region at low cost.
Wireless communication evaluation tools are also available and these support a range of test procedures from the system development prototyping stage to wireless communication tests in the mass production stage to in-vehicle testing at the OEM manufacturer's site.
Samples of the R-Car W1R and R-Car W2H are available now and mass production of the R-Car W2H starts this month and is expected to reach a volume of 300,000 units per month by 2019.
