Mercedes-Benz announced at CES it’s using Nvidia’s Drive AGX platform for a new vehicle architecture designed to enable high-performance, energy-efficient artificial intelligence-based computer technology. Currently, the Mercedes’ vehicle’s software functions are powered by dozens of electronic control units distributed throughout the car, each specialized for individual functions such as window or door lock control or braking, Nvidia blogged. The Nvidia platform, combined with Mercedes’ engineering experience, will enable centralized computing in the vehicle to make it easier to integrate and update software features as they become available, it said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and Wireless Bureau extended comment deadlines on a petition by the 5G Automotive Association to deploy cellular vehicle-to-everything technology in the upper 20 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. Comments were due Jan. 11, replies Jan. 28. Now, it's Jan. 18 and Feb. 5, said a Monday order in docket 18-357. Automaker groups asked for extension last week (see 1812260045).

Automotive iwatchers will remember 2018 as the year General Motors “shrugged off the mantle of industry leadership and stepped aside to allow bolder players to take the lead,” blogged Strategy Analytics Thursday. GM no longer is “calling the tune in powertrain, safety, infotainment or connectivity technologies,” it said. Toyota and Volkswagen are “stepping forward” to fill the void in mobile connectivity that GM is “leaving behind,” and CES “should help to clarify the sources of auto industry leadership in 2019,” it said. Though GM and Volkswagen aren't exhibiting at CES, many prominent automakers are, including Audi, Daimler, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan and Toyota.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Thursday on a waiver request by the 5G Automotive Association to deploy cellular vehicle-to-everything technology (C-V2X) in the upper 20 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. The band is allocated to dedicated short-range communications. In October, an NCTA-led coalition urged the FCC to take a fresh look (see 1810160061). Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to do that (see 1811140061). Technology companies led by Qualcomm and automakers led by Ford put increasing focus on C-V2X as an alternative to DSRC (see 1803140055). The OET notice asks more narrowly for comment on the 5GAA petition. “5GAA claims that operating C-V2X in this band is consistent with the purpose and policy of allocating the 5.9 GHz band for short-range Intelligent Transportation System services, with ‘significant performance advantages ... when measured against DSRC,’” OET said in docket 18-357. “5GAA proposes conditions applicable to all operations under its requested waiver that it claims would ‘ensure that C-V2X will not have any larger potential for interference than DSRC operations currently permitted under the FCC Rules.’” Comments are due Jan. 11, replies Jan. 28. Michael Calabrese, director of New America's Wireless Future Program, told us the FCC shouldn’t rewrite the rules for the band by waiver. “We agree with Commissioners [Mike] O’Rielly and [Jessica] Rosenworcel that it is time for a broader rulemaking that takes a fresh look at how much spectrum is required for auto safety and whether that allocation should be in this band or somewhere else,” Calabrese said. “Times have changed. The 5.9 GHz band is a roadblock in the middle of the potential Wi-Fi superhighway that is needed to make America’s 5G wireless ecosystem the most accessible and affordable.” C-2VX “represents the next evolution in connected car technology and the first step towards leveraging 5G to increase safety on America’s roads,” said Sean Conway of Wilkinson Barker, counsel to 5GAA. “While industry stakeholders continue to discuss proposals for modernizing the rules for connected car technologies, this waiver request initiates the process by which the FCC can grant approval for near-term deployments.”

Deploying autonomous and connected cars will lead to higher penetration of electric vehicles, an Edison Electric Institute event was told Friday. Representatives from automakers, including General Motors and Nissan, said goals include cutting traffic congestion and accidents, along with vehicle emissions. Launching autonomous vehicles will bring electric vehicles into higher-profile public view and "really pushes the EV forward," said Dan Turton, GM vice president-North American policy. Mentioning a semi-autonomous driving feature amid Nissan's goal of "intelligent mobility," Michael Arbuckle, senior manager-EV sales and marketing strategy, said the manufacturer is "also going to enhance" autonomy and connectivity in its vehicles. After saying to audience laughter that "frankly, I am happy to be talking about anything besides trade policy," Bryan Jacobs, BMW vice president-government and external affairs, said in Q&A that "open and free trade is a formula for success." Components that go into vehicles "have to be unencumbered as they move from one place to another," he added. "We are all in on this. We are unapologetically free traders. ... The trading regime that’s currently in place is really beneficial to companies like ours." An Energy Department official later sought to describe the outlook "to increase affordable mobility choices." There are "a wide range of futures due to autonomy and interconnectivity," Alex Fitzsimmons, the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office chief of staff, said of diverse forecasts related to energy usage: "We’re all striving toward the same goal of affordable mobility for all."

Building on a 2012 connected vehicle cloud partnership, Ericsson will provide its Connected Vehicle Cloud platform for Volvo Cars to enable digital vehicle services in 120 markets for five years, they said Thursday. The agreement covers connected digital services such as telematics, navigation and infotainment. The platform, via geographically distributed centers, conforms to global legal, security and privacy obligations, they said.

Machine learning startup Phiar got a $3 million seed funding round to develop a computer vision and deep learning navigation app for smartphones, with a 2019 launch date. It displays a driver’s real-world surroundings augmented with a colored path, said the company. Augmented reality overlays, based on computer vision and deep-learning artificial intelligence, can boost surroundings rather than distract users.

Nuance Communications will spin off its automotive voice-control business as a separate publicly traded company in late 2019 and will “wind down” its subscription revenue services (SRS) and consumer devices operations because they're “non-core” to Nuance’s artificial intelligence “strengths” in “conversational AI solutions” for the healthcare and enterprise sectors, said CEO Mark Benjamin Monday on an earnings call. To phase out SRS, “we will see customer content contracts through completion over the next 12 to 24 months and not take new business,” he said. Nuance also will manage its remaining royalty contracts in consumer devices “and seek opportunities to monetize IP and source code in one-time deals,” he said. Nuance voice and virtual assistance technology for car infotainment and communication systems is installed in more than 50 million new cars each year “and can be found in more than 200 million cars on the road,” said Benjamin. As part of Nuance, the automotive business was straining to compete for “resources” with other company “segments and priorities,” he said. As a separate company, automotive “will be exclusively focused on its own opportunity, and thus better positioned to invest in the tools needed to pursue it,” he said.

General Motors based the January 2016 founding of Maven, its car-sharing business, on the “thesis” that the “traditional ownership model is dead” among 30-year-old millennials, GM Vice President Julia Steyn told a Barclays automotive investors conference Thursday. For those consumers, the traditional model of buying and using cars is “not efficient,” she said. “This is not the future.” Millennials just won’t “be buying cars that sit there 95 percent of the time idle,” she said. Maven is “building out a purpose-built system” that’s 170,000 subscribers strong, 80 percent of them millennial, she said. In just under three years, Maven “created what took the startups in the Silicon Valley years to do,” she said. “We are built to be able to scale this business.” The platform is available in 20 U.S. cities, she said. Though GM is not disclosing financial specifics about Maven, “we believe that we can easily get to 50 billion monetizable shared miles and get 2.5 million cars on the platform,” she said.

Analog Devices bowed a transceiver series that enables HD video over unshielded twisted pair cables and unshielded connectors, allowing OEMs to upgrade from standard-definition cameras to HD for automotive camera applications, it said Wednesday. The ADV7990 and ADV7991 transmitters and ADV7380 and ADV7381 receivers use ADI’s car camera bus technology, said to save weight, bulk and cost and to reduce cable-routing constraints when compared with other automotive link solutions.