Listen to “AD #3658 – Thermal Cameras to Help Meet NHTSA Mandate; Tesla Not the Only One Developing 48V Systems; Suppliers Now Getting Involved with VT” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 7:46
0:00 Rear View Mirrors Perfect Spot for Driver Monitor Tech
0:41 Thermal Cameras Needed to Meet New NHTSA Mandate
1:34 Suppliers Now Getting Involved with VTOLs
2:35 Tesla Not the Only One Developing 48V Systems
3:37 Magna Developing System to Predict Accidents
4:30 China Car Imports Drop Dramatically
5:19 Tremec Develops Powerful EV Drive Unit
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REAR VIEW MIRRORS PERFECT SPOT FOR DRIVER MONITOR TECH
Automakers are adding cameras, microphones and other sensors on cars, but where’s the best place to mount them? Gentex, which makes rear view mirrors, says that the inside rear view mirror is the perfect place to put them. That puts everything in the driver’s line-of-sight. And they can easily be installed on the assembly line in one operation. In 2026, the European Union is mandating driver monitoring systems and Gentex says it can incorporate all that into a rear view mirror.
THERMAL CAMERAS NEEDED TO MEET NEW NHTSA MANDATE
Gentex is also working with the Israeli company Adasky to add thermal cameras for automated emergency braking since most AEB systems don’t do very well at night or in bad weather. In the US, NHTSA says that 75% of pedestrian fatalities happen at night. Currently, NHTSA mandates that AEB cameras have to see in 2000 Lux, which is a measure of illumination, and is the equivalent of daylight. But NHTSA is going to drop that to only 0.2 Lux, which means those cameras have to see in the dark, and that means automakers will need to use thermal cameras. Adasky claims to have the smallest thermal camera available, and says it already has an order for them from a Detroit based automaker, which means either GM or Ford.
SUPPLIERS NOW GETTING INVOLVED WITH VTOLs
VTOLs, or vertical take-off and landing craft, could be the next big thing in mobility. Automakers such as Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes and General Motors have all expressed an interest in getting involved, and so has the supplier Schaeffler, which makes the electric motor for a VTOL developed by an Austrian company called FlyNow Aviation. It’s a one passenger, battery powered, electric VTOL with enough room behind the passenger seat for a roll-on suitcase. Or, it can be configured to carry a small pallet of cargo. It’s designed for wireless charging so that the VTOL just has to land on an induction pad to recharge the battery.
TESLA NOT THE ONLY ONE DEVELOPING 48V SYSTEMS
Tesla already announced that its next generation car, which some people call the Model 2, will use a 48 volt system for low voltage applications. But Tesla is not the only one. Clarios, which is the world’s largest lead-acid battery maker, says it’s working with other OEMs to come out with 48 volt systems, too. In fact, it’s working on what are called Multi Output Voltage batteries, where one battery can be used for 12, 24 or 48 volt systems. And Clarios is moving well beyond lead acid. It already has LFP and LTO batteries, or lithium titanium oxide, but it’s also working with an unnamed partner to develop sodium-ion batteries for low voltage applications. And it thinks that ultracapacitors are going to play a role in situations where a car needs a quick burst of energy, like when adaptive suspension needs to keep a car flat while cornering.
MAGNA DEVELOPING SYSTEM TO PREDICT ACCIDENTS
It’s one thing for a car to activate the brakes, change the steering or trigger the airbags once something happens. But what if a car could predict what’s going to happen before it tries to avoid an accident or protect the passengers? Then it could react even faster and that’s why Magna is working on a system that relies on sensor fusion to predict 300 milliseconds ahead of anything happening. Walter Sackl, a senior director at Magna, says sensors are reliable but they can’t predict what’s going to happen. Cameras can see what’s going to happen but they’re not 100% reliable. And info from the cloud can help but it’s not 100% reliable, either. Even so, he says when you fuse those different systems together, you can reliably predict what’s going to happen.
CHINA CAR IMPORTS DROP DRAMATICALLY
We’ve reported on how China became the biggest exporter of vehicles this year, and now car imports to China are plunging. In 2017, China imported nearly 1.3 million vehicles, last year that dropped to 880,000 units and in the first half of this year it was only 338,000, a 23% drop. Part of the reason is more automakers have moved production to China, another is that the government is really incentivizing EVs. Just about no one exports EVs to China. Over half the imports are SUVs and 90% of imports are from luxury brands, which suggests that Mercedes, BMW and Audi are losing the most.
TREMEC DEVELOPS POWERFUL EV DRIVE UNIT
Here’s another example of a legacy supplier transitioning to the EV world. Tremec, which builds transmissions for high-performance models like the Corvette and Mustang, developed a drive unit for high-performance EVs. The two-motor unit weighs 243 pounds and produces 600-kW or about 800-horsepower. It’s even compact enough to fit in the same space as a single, rear-drive motor, like the one in the Mustang Mach-E, which weighs about the same but produces less than half the power. Tremec plans to introduce the drive unit in 2024 or 2025 but only for low-volume specialty vehicles. And it wants to ramp up to 10,000 units per year by 2028.
And a quick programming note before I sign off, there will not be a new Autoline After Hours this afternoon.
But that’s it for today’s show, thanks for making Autoline Daily a part of your day.
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Seamus and Sean McElroy cover the latest news in the automotive industry for Autoline Daily.