Qualcomm urged the FCC to ignore arguments by Continental Automotive that limiting part of the 5.9 GHz band exclusively to cellular vehicle-to-everything use could have negative implications because of intellectual property concerns (see 2204060038). “The FCC should not entertain Continental’s requests that the agency adopt regulations or broad pronouncements relating to private patent licensing disputes because the U.S. court system is addressing those issues and the FCC lacks the legal authority and expertise to do so,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138. “Continental fails to inform the FCC of Continental’s federal antitrust case, including the recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirming the dismissal of Continental’s lawsuit seeking relief that substantially overlaps what Continental is asking the FCC to implement,” Qualcomm said. Company representatives spoke with staff from the FCC offices of General Counsel, Engineering and Technology, and Economic Analysis.

Connectivity will be available in more than half of new vehicles sold globally this year and more than 70% in 2028, but automakers “still have not found an effective strategy to recoup the connectivity and airtime costs” they’re investing in connected cars, reported ABI Research Wednesday. “Connected services adoption is low, especially among lower-tier vehicles, and the increase in free trial periods means that the ratio of paid subscriptions will contract by 20% between 2021 and 2028.” Connected services subscriptions are being extended to drive higher customer engagement, sais ABI. The average free trial period in the U.S. is increasing from three to six months, and in Europe from one to three years. Many carmakers in China offer “free for life connectivity,” it said. The “drawback” is that the ratio of subscriptions paid by consumers will “dwindle,” it said. ABI estimates more than 70% of “active infotainment subscriptions” globally will be on a free-trial or free-for-life “arrangement” in 2022, it said.

Continental Automotive representatives warned that limiting part of the 5.9 GHz band exclusively for cellular vehicle-to-everything use could have negative implications because of intellectual property concerns. Continental supports C-V2X technologies and “has every intention of designing and manufacturing automotive parts and components that use C-V2X and the 5.9 GHz band,” the company told an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Shifting to a sole technology standard “complicates parts suppliers’ ability to license patented technologies included within the standards,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-138: “The cellular standard essential patents underlying C-V2X technologies incorporate thousands of patented technologies owned by companies throughout the supply chain, most of whom are not based in the United States. As a factual matter, many of the companies that own such patents refuse to license them to companies such as Continental, or insist only on unfair, unreasonable and discriminatory terms.” If not accompanied by a licensing requirement, Continental and its peers must “use a technology for which they may not be able to obtain the intellectual property licenses needed to remain fully in compliance with the U.S. Patent Laws.”

Ford and ADT will invest in Canopy, a joint venture within Ford’s New Business Platform incubation group, to provide AI-powered connected security cameras and a mobile app for various vehicle makes and models, the companies said Tuesday. Canopy’s first smart vehicle security system accessory offering will make use of acoustic sensors for vans, onboard cameras, radar, LTE and GPS, the companies said. The initial product will have a camera that can be mounted in a van’s cargo area or on a pickup facing the bed. The platform will use AI technology to identify and report credible threats while reducing false alarm signals, they said. Customers will be notified of suspicious activity via smartphone alert and can connect to the system via the Canopy app to livestream video from the vehicle or review past events, they said. Notifications will be triggered by breaking glass, metal cutting or suspicious motion or sound near the vehicle, they said. Customers can warn potential thieves they are being monitored by speaking through the smartphone app, enabled by a two-way audio feature due next year. The system’s AI is designed to distinguish true threats from benign acts -- such as a cat jumping into a pickup bed or construction sounds near a vehicle -- before alerting the owner or ADT monitoring agents of potential theft. The system will alert ADT monitoring pros if it detects a person loitering around or breaching the vehicle; agents can contact customers, fleet managers, or police to take additional measures. Canopy products will be sold through vehicle dealerships, major retailers and online. Canopy plans to launch the multi-sensor security systems with available professional monitoring early next year in the U.S. and U.K for the Ford F-150, F-150 Lightning, Transit vans and E-Transit. The system will be “easily installable” by customers to protect work and recreational equipment, the companies said. Canopy, which has been developing and testing its first technologies for two years, will be headquartered in Detroit and London and led by interim CEO Christian Moran, they said. It expects to expand offerings to other manufacturers over time. Ford and ADT’s investment in Canopy, due to close in Q2, is subject to regulatory approvals. The partners expect to invest an initial $100 million over the next three years.

Lucid Group is using Gracenote’s Smart Radio technology in the Lucid Air electric vehicle, said the companies Wednesday. Lucid’s entertainment interface connects drivers and passengers to audio content from broadcast radio, streaming and digital services. Gracenote’s Radio Station ID displays easily recognizable radio station names and logos to simplify radio station selection and enable browsing of lists and categories, it said.

DTS introduced a single-camera driver and occupancy monitoring technology at CES that’s said to lower system-level integration, calibration and installation costs vs. multicamera solutions, said the Xperi subsidiary Wednesday. Most vehicles that offer driver sensing today use a camera focused solely on the driver, but the ability to sense the rest of the cabin and its occupants has become critical and an important safety requirement moving forward, said Jeff Jury, Xperi general manager-connected car. Other technology needs a second camera to focus on everything but the driver, which can be complicated to implement; the DTS AutoSense is designed for a wide field-of-view camera, Jury said. DTS AutoSense supports features such as attention zones, manual distraction, activity detection (eating, drinking, talking on the phone and texting), hands on steering wheel detection, seat occupancy, age classification (adult, child), body skeleton detection, hand detection, face recognition, object detection, pet detection, drowsiness and body pose classification, the company said. The camera can be positioned under the rearview mirror or in the center information display. The technology uses AI and machine learning to ensure the quality and reliability of the driver’s drowsiness or attentiveness analytics based on overall activity rather than just on face and eyes analytics, DTS said. It's deployed using edge computing vs. cloud connectivity so all data remains in the vehicle, DTS said.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation urged the FCC to act on revised rules for short-range field disturbance sensor radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2110190067), in a call with Office of Engineering and Technology staff. The group asked for liberalization of the technical rules “to allow for greater fixed and mobile automotive radar use of the band without the need for waivers,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 21-264.

Proponents of cellular-vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band asked the FCC to waive its current rules, so they can deploy now so "consumers and travelers may begin to benefit from this state-of-the-art roadway and vehicle safety technology as soon as possible.” Proponents said they otherwise will have to wait for final FCC action on a rulemaking. The request was filed by Audi of America, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, the departments of transportation in Utah and Virginia, Aaeon Technology, Harman International Industries, Panasonic North America and other companies. The FCC’s November 2020 order (see 2011180043) was “prescient” in saying dedicated short-range communications isn’t the wave of the future, said the filing, posted Tuesday in docket 19-138: “The Waiver Parties are ready, willing, and able to deploy or facilitate deployment of C-V2X.” The request “signifies the collaborative efforts underway to ensure the successful implementation of C-V2X,” emailed Maxime Flament, 5G Automotive Association chief technology officer: “It also demonstrates the strong demand across the transportation industry to immediately deliver C-V2X safety services to American travelers, especially as deployments accelerate in other" world regions.

More than 90% of millennials are more likely to buy a vehicle if it has a computer vision system that can detect children and pets left in a hot car, seatbelt status, sudden sickness and driver drowsiness, said a Wednesday Xperi report. It cited in-vehicle computer vision systems that detect if a child is present and properly secured in the vehicle and then trigger alerts to the driver. Over half of respondents in an August survey of 1,004 U.S. adults would like a sensing system that adapts their vehicle interior to occupant preferences, such as wheel and chair position. Thirty-seven percent said they would like a feature that identifies, and reacts to, driver emotions to adjust settings, such as infotainment and lighting, it said.

Connectivity issues with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto are the “top-cited problem for new-vehicle owners,” reported J.D. Power Thursday. Tech companies and automakers “are delivering on consumers’ desires to wirelessly connect smartphones to infotainment systems,” it said. But owners whose vehicles have wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity capability cite more problems (7.1 problems per 100 vehicles) than those whose vehicles do not (4 per 100), it said. “Smartphone mirroring has shown to be a source of problems for several years now but has become more problematic this year with the growing ability to wirelessly connect the feature on a number of vehicles,” said J.D. Power. “Top tech companies and automakers have the ability to generate demand for new or upgraded technologies while troubleshooting current issues as the rollout continues.” Apple and Google didn't comment Friday.