The Senate Commerce Committee plans a Wednesday hearing on barriers to testing and deploying self-driving cars. The panel's news release said the 10 a.m. hearing in 253 Russell also will examine federal and state roles in ensuring safety and promoting innovation. Witnesses: Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers Chairman Mitch Bainwol; Rob Csongor, Nvidia general manager-automotive business; American Center for Mobility CEO John Maddox; and Mothers Against Drunk Driving national President Colleen Sheehey-Church.

Marvell Technology landed “multiple design wins” in Q1 for its automotive Ethernet and Wi-Fi products with U.S., European and Asian car manufacturers, said Matt Murphy, CEO of the semiconductors supplier, on a Thursday earnings call. Though those wins aren’t expected to contribute “meaningful revenue” until 2019 and beyond, “they do represent an important milestone in Marvell's progress in the automotive market,” said Murphy. Marvell sees its “momentum continuing to build” in automotive Wi-Fi/Bluetooth “combo chips” and in “PHY” (physical layer receiver) chips for Ethernet functionality in the car, he said in Q&A. “The way to think about the traction” that Marvell is getting in the automotive space is that “it’s very broad-based in nature in terms of geography” across “all three major regions” of the world, he said. It's also spread widely across “multiple customers and OEMs as well,” he said. “Having been involved with automotive for quite a bit of time, almost 10 years now, going back to 2007 when I got really involved with my old company, this concept of Ethernet in the vehicle was around even then,” said Murphy of his past executive service with chip supplier Maxim Integrated. The “vision” back then of “actually upgrading that legacy bus in the car,” by connecting all the disparate electronic control units “on one packet-based network, is starting to happen,” he said. “And so we feel like we’re in a good position as Ethernet becomes more prolific in vehicle.” Since that business isn’t expected to really flourish before 2019, “we’re not quantifying any revenue yet or sizes,” he said. “But you can imagine we’ll begin to talk more about that as we make progress towards these production ramps.” The design wins Marvell landed in Q1 are “just the signal that we’ve got leverage from our existing R&D efforts that we can apply into adjacent markets that are growing very fast,” he said. “We think automotive is one of those markets for us.”

Voxx is combining its vehicle security, remote start and telematics group with the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) unit to form the new vehicle safety, security and convenience group, said the company in a Tuesday announcement. The new unit will be headed by Joe Dentamaro, vice president-vehicle safety, security and convenience, and Shane Wilson, who headed the ADAS group, will take on the new position of assistant vice president, said the company. Dan Bisceglia was promoted to product manager and will relocate to Voxx’s Troy, Michigan, facility, which also houses OEM engineering and the product test unit. Over time, the company will expand the group to include field applications technicians and trainers, it said.

Denso and Toshiba are collaborating on IoT-based manufacturing, advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving initiatives, the companies announced Friday. The efforts will combine Denso’s manufacturing capability and Toshiba’s image recognition, IoT, artificial intelligence and software development technologies, they said. The companies jointly developed automotive lithium-ion battery packs and software for electronic control units.

Consumers with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are “largely satisfied” with the connected car mirroring systems since their debuts last year, but integration issues with embedded infotainment systems can hurt the user experience, said a Wednesday Strategy Analytics report. Overall, consumers with mirroring platforms are largely satisfied and use them for most of their infotainment needs, with consumers rating CarPlay high for ease of use and its similarity to the iPhone interface and ranking both systems positively for the ability to update as needed. Consumers are happy to recommend the platforms to others, but “consumer-facing embedded navigation could become obsolete for those OEMs implementing smartphone mirroring solutions, as those solutions provide a better experience,” said analyst Chris Schreiner. Analyst Kevin Nolan said OEMs that don’t adopt smartphone mirroring solutions will have to provide over-the-air software updates to “continually enhance features and fix usability issues, in addition to developing value-added features that tie in with the rest of the vehicle to differentiate themselves from CarPlay and Android Auto.” At some point OEMs will have to decide whether to implement embedded systems or use mirroring solutions, said Nolan, saying providing both “will not produce optimal results."

NTT and Toyota agreed to collaborate on developing, verifying and standardizing connected car technology. Goals are to research and develop ways to address issues such as traffic accidents and congestion and to offer customers new mobility services, they announced. The collaboration will focus on a platform for collecting and analyzing big data; IoT networks and data centers for safe and reliable collection and distribution of data; 5G and edge computing communications in vehicles; and artificial intelligence to improve the in-vehicle experience for drivers, they said Monday. The companies plan a 2018 field trial.

The number of global cellular IoT connections is likely to grow to more than 2.4 billion in 2025, Strategy Analytics reported. The top three “vertical markets” -- automotive, utilities and security -- will have more than 46 percent of global IoT cellular connections in 2025, said a Monday SA news release: “Across the forecast period, the automotive vertical market will not only remain the single largest global consumer of IoT cellular connections, but increase its market share position by 2025.”

Consumer privacy and security issues for connected and self-driving cars will be the focus of a June 28 workshop by the FTC and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the commission in Monday news release. The event will discuss: data collection, storage, transmission, and sharing and the benefits and risks associated with it; privacy and security practices of automakers; the role of government agencies in this area; and self-regulation that might apply. Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen will provide opening remarks. The event will be at 400 7th St. SW and be webcast live.

Honda received a 20-month waiver of the accessible user interface requirements covering rear entertainment systems for its Odyssey, Pilot and Acura MDX models for 2017 through 2019. An FCC Media Bureau order Thursday in docket 12-108 requires that Honda file status reports on July 20 and Jan. 20 with the Media and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus on its work integrating accessible technology for rear entertainment systems in its vehicles. The National Federation of the Blind opposed the waiver request petition, saying the carmaker had ample time to design systems to meet FCC rules. The bureau said it's only a limited waiver, and not granting it would mean the company would have to suspend production and sales of vehicles to make hardware and software changes, or alternately, it would have to cease offering rear entertainment systems altogether.

Wipro opened an engineering center in Detroit for design, product engineering, digital customer-vehicle experiences, artificial intelligence, and sensors-driven advanced vehicle data analytics, it said in a Wednesday announcement. Using local talent, the Automotive Engineering Center will host product design and support development and validation of automotive cockpit electronic products such as navigation and connectivity systems, instrument clusters, head-up displays, advanced safety systems, vehicle diagnostics and advanced analytics, it said. The center will showcase Wipro’s automotive engineering and digital technology capabilities and enable collaboration with the southeast Michigan automotive community, said Alex Beylin, global automotive business head.