Cars-N-Kids is taking preorders for Driver's Little Helper, a smart car seat accessory that monitors a child’s car seat and alerts parents or caregivers if a child leaves the seat, if the temperature exceeds prescribed levels or if a child is left in the seat for several minutes after the vehicle has stopped running. The $79 device operates on Bluetooth Low Energy and can be updated through cellphone notifications, said the company. Driver's Little Helper comes as a kit that includes a pad that is connected to the battery-powered monitor and fits between the car seat molding and the fabric cover, the company said. Shipping is slated for mid-November.

Connected car platform company Zubie launched an in-car Wi-Fi device that operates over the Verizon 4G LTE network. The $99 mobile hot spot, with a $10/month data fee, is available at Best Buy. The Zubie is targeted to families looking to stream entertainment or mobile workers wanting to take their offices on the road, the company said. The Zubie in-car Wi-Fi device is based on a Sequans Communications LTE chipset for connectivity and processing, and plugs into a vehicle's OBD-II port under the dashboard. Zubie accommodates multiple users and devices, the company said.

Voxx bowed a remote start and keyless entry system for the mobile electronics aftermarket with an operating range of 2,500 feet. The Code Alarm CA5354 system ($339) comes with one two-way LED confirming remote control and a one-way companion remote, said the company. The system can connect to the Code Alarm smartphone interface module through a data port for plug-in installation and to the FlashLogic Transponder & Door Lock Interface module via a DBI port, said the company.

While seeking FCC approval of transfer of control to General Motors' current board, OnStar now also is asking for special temporary authority to keep operating the wireless communications that make up its hands-free calling service, it said in an International Bureau filing posted Thursday. GM has blamed the several years lateness on applying for the transfer of control to "administrative oversight" (see 1510190054) and the automaker said in its application Thursday it "is committed to meeting all of its FCC obligations in the future [including] taking steps to ensure that relevant GM personnel are made aware of ... license transfer of control rules so that a similar administrative oversight can be avoided in the future."

AT&T added 2.5 million net new wireless connections in Q3, the company said in a news release Thursday. That included 289,000 postpaid and 466,000 prepaid net adds, the highest number of prepaid adds in eight years, AT&T said. But the biggest growth came through device additions -- 1.6 million in the quarter, including 1 million connected cars. Total wireless churn was 1.33 percent. Other business lines grew at more modest rates -- 26,000 domestic net adds for DirecTV and 192,000 IP broadband net adds. Consolidated revenue was up 19 percent over the year-earlier quarter, driven by DirecTV revenue, at $39.1 billion. Adjusted net income came in at $3 billion, versus $3.1 billion in the same quarter last year. AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said on a call with analysts he sees the net add of prepaid customers, after losing them in the same quarter last year, as the “big story” of the quarter. “This has been a remarkable turn around story for us,” he said. Stephens also emphasized AT&T’s progress in Mexico, where the company recently bought Nextel’s wireless properties and carrier Iusacell. By the end of the year, AT&T expects to cover 40 million POPs with 4G LTE, he said. AT&T is still integrating the two networks, Stephens said. “This is the heavy lifting of the wireless business, but we have done it before and we are confident we can do it again successfully,” he said. “We are also confident that we will grow market share.”

OEMs have an opportunity to enhance their brand relationship with customers via the connected car, a Strategy Analytics report said Tuesday. While much of the focus on the connected car is around infotainment, location-based services and big data, providing vehicle-related information and services while drivers are outside the vehicle gives OEMs another consumer touch point and the chance to provide services that advance the OEM’s brand perception, Strategy Analytics said. The research firm’s survey of consumers in the U.S., Western Europe and China found that consumers were more likely to want to share vehicle data such as vehicle fault messages, service and maintenance reminders, and vehicle health reports with dealers than they were with independent garages. The challenge for OEMs when providing services is “to increase user awareness and make it easy for the consumer to receive and access the information,” analyst Chris Schreiner said. OEMs will have to educate dealers about the benefits these types of features have for consumers and how to communicate the benefits to them, analyst Kevin Nolan said.

Citing “administrative oversight,” OnStar seeks FCC approval for transfer of control from General Motors' Treasury-controlled board to its current board, as well as special temporary authority to keep operating in the meantime, even though the Treasury hasn't had a stake in OnStar parent GM for two years. In a filing posted Monday in docket 15-246, OnStar said Treasury interest in GM's outstanding stock fell below 50 percent in 2010, and it sold its last shares in 2013, but the delay in seeking FCC approval for the transfer of control was due to its unfamiliarity with agency rules. While the commission authorizations at issue are "important to the company’s operations, administrative oversight of this type is not uncommon for companies with such authorizations," OnStar said, saying that as a publicly traded company, GM has a shareholder base that "is constantly changing" and thus it "may not know in advance if such changes could trigger the need for prior Commission approval." OnStar also said such issues are unlikely to come up again, given "the unique facts of this case" -- namely, the Treasury's having majority control of GM in 2009 and later selling that interest in the market.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles will now post all autonomous-vehicle accident reports on its website, a Consumer Watchdog news release said Friday. CW suggested the DMV make the reports available online so the public has information readily available when something goes wrong on U.S. highways, which the group says are being used as “corporate laboratories for robot car makers.” CW Privacy Project Director John Simpson welcomed the DMV’s decision to make the reports available, but said further steps are necessary. CW has petitioned the DMV (see 1508200028) and asked for a rulemaking process that would require police to investigate crashes and require copies of any video or technical data gathered by the robot vehicle related to the crash be provided to the department, the release said. “Under the current regulations, the Department relies completely on the testing company’s account of what happened,” Simpson said. “With the public’s safety at stake, it’s imperative that a neutral third party investigates any accident involving a robot car,” he said.

Cohda Wireless introduced a radar detector said to deliver 360-degree coverage for vehicles fitted with V2X (vehicle-to-everything) connected car systems. Cohda's V2X-Radar can detect buildings, road signs and older vehicles that aren't equipped with V2X technology, said the company. The product is differentiated from competing products by being immune to rain, snow or fog, and it can "see" around corners, said Cohda. When used with a 3D map, V2X-Radar provides “highly accurate positioning” including in urban areas with tall buildings, said Cohda. The device can detect vehicle speeds via Doppler measurements and obtain 360-degree sensing from a single antenna, positioning it as a sensor for autonomous vehicles, Cohda said. V2X-Radar takes advantage of current V2X systems that use IEEE 802.11-compliant wireless signals to share sensor information between vehicles and infrastructure, the company said. Radio signals bounce off objects such as walls, road signs and other vehicles as they travel from transmitter to receiver, and V2X-Radar uses the RF signals to identify objects within that environment, it said.

Chinese ISP Baidu certified Pioneer China as the first contract developer and manufacturer of on-board equipment supporting the Baidu CarLife telematics service in China, Pioneer said in a Tuesday announcement. Pioneer will start shipping the “on-board equipment” needed for the service to car manufacturers in China in November, the company said. “Today in China, with the rapid spread of smartphones, it is possible to establish a constant connection to the Internet, and a boost in the telematics service in the car to connect to the network is expected,” it said. “Our on-board equipment to start shipping this autumn is able to provide an easy-to-use, high quality service” for Baidu CarLife, using “the hardware technology and know-how of Pioneer’s Car OEM business,” Pioneer said. “Pioneer will investigate further cooperation with Baidu in a variety of sectors, including the connected vehicles and automated driving society of the future to combine the hardware technology of Pioneer and the abundant content and applications of Baidu.”