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Velodyne LiDAR has gained a combined $150 million investment from co-investors Ford Motor and Baidu, China’s leading search engine company. Morgan Stanley acted as sole placement agent for this transaction.

David Hall, founder and CEO, Velodyne LiDAR, said: “LiDAR continues to prove itself as the critical sensor for safe autonomous vehicle operation. This investment will accelerate the cost reduction and scaling of Velodyne’s industry-leading LiDAR sensors,...

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San Francisco-based firm Automatic has launched its new Automatic Pro connected car adapter, which offers a cellular signal and has been described by the firm as the “future of the automotive ecosystem.”

The adapter no subscription fees and is focused on real-time connectivity and Internet of Things (IoT). The new flagship adapter is designed for consumers to experience connected car capabilities based on their interests and needs.

The adapter, which comes with an unlimited...

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Some would argue that it’s an intrinsic part of human instinct to be wary of change. There’s something inside all of us which can be instinctively nervous about the concept of autonomous vehicles and there are some key questions which the industry is working hard to answer in order to allay these concerns. What, if any, degree of human oversight is required? How will autonomous and traditional vehicles co-exist? And most crucially, how can we guarantee safety?

This school of thought often...

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The US division of the German automotive manufacturer Audi and Traffic Technology Services (TTS) are partnering to launch the first vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) technology at select smart cities in the autumn of 2016 in the US. The traffic light information technology will be available with select 2017 models of the Audi Q7, A4 and A4 allroad with Audi connect.

Traffic light information will serve as a feature of the Audi connect PRIME system, enabling the car to communicate...

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On the same day Uber announced it had acquired self-driving technology experts Otto, the company is launching a fleet of cars in Pittsburgh to get users from A-to-B without a physical driver.

Volvo is the launch partner for the initiative, with the likelihood...

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Ford has announced its intention to launch a high-volume, fully autonomous vehicle as part of a ride-sharing service by 2021.

In order to facilitate developments towards this goal, the company is doubling its Silicon Valley team, more than doubling its Palo Alto campus and investing in or collaborating with four startups to boost autonomous vehicle development. The planned vehicle, set to function without a steering wheel or gas and brake pedals, is being specifically designed for...

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RAC Telematics has revealed in a report that almost two thirds (65%) of all businesses surveyed currently utilise telematics devices – including black box and smartphone apps – in their vehicles when compared to 38% in 2015. The highest growth in use was seen in business services, at 70%, while retail and construction witnessed take-up at 67% and 66%, respectively.

When segmenting business according to size, use among sole traders has increased from 14% in 2015 to 51% at...

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The number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Australia and New Zealand will rise from 0.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 to 1.1 million by 2020, at a CAGR of 16%, according to the latest note from analyst firm Berg Insight.

The market in the region is driven positively by a number of factors including regulatory developments such as health and safety regulations, road user charges and electronic work diaries.

Rickard Andersson, senior...

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A new report published by Zion Research argues that global demand for the commercial telematics market is set to grow from $20.42 billion (£15.6 billion) in 2015 to $55.14 billion (£42.21 billion) by the end of 2021, at a CAGR of a little over 18% between 2016 and 2021.

Commercial telematics finds application in a variety of areas such as infotainment, insurance telematics, fleet/asset management, satellite navigation, tele-health solutions, and others like including...

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A report from security services provider IOActive argues that almost half of the vulnerabilities found in connected cars are either ‘critical’ or ‘high’ impact.

The research categorised each of its findings in five ratings. Critical, or a score of five out of five, would result in “extreme impact” to a vehicle and would be a flaw which receives media attention. High impact (4/5) could be a regulatory violation and “major” for the vehicle,...

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Hyundai is expanding the use of smartphone integrations across the 2017 model year range in the US, with the software update compatible with CarPlay and Android Auto now available for free through MyHyundai.com.

The 2017 Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport are now being built with both CarPlay and Android Auto support and will arrive at dealerships soon. All other 2017 model Hyundai vehicles with eligible Display Audio or Navigation systems include both smartphone integration solutions from...

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When it comes to ensuring the best interaction by driver and car, just having a smartphone in the vehicle is no longer sufficient. If you want to scan all vehicle parameters continuously, and simultaneously record the route history using GPS navigation, you need a more scalable solution. The best option is telematics: the area of information technology that covers electronic communications, and the use of OBD devices in particular.

An OBD device is a compact gadget that attaches to the...

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A new research report from Grand View Research predicts that global connected car market revenue will reach $180.30 billion (£138.2bn) by 2022.

The report argues the increase in consumer demand, the constant need for connectivity, as well as increased dependency on technology and a growing number of tech-savvy people are some of the reasons expected to boost worldwide connected car market growth.

The study lays down further key findings that suggest:

• The inclusion of safety technologies such as danger...

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A new study from Juniper Research titled “M2M: Strategies & Opportunities for MNOs, Service Providers & OEMs 2016-2021” has revealed that data intensive applications such as internet radio, music streaming applications and information services will generate approximately 6,000 petabytes per annum by 2021. The figure corresponds to over 300 billion hours of music streaming.

Research author Sam Barker said: “The wider M2M market offers a reprieve from declining...

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In its latest report, analyst house IDC states that global spending on connected vehicles will be USD 29.6 billion, and spending on intelligent transportation systems will be USD 16.5 billion by 2017.

The report, entitled titled “Collaboration Between Automotive OEMs and City Leaders for Implementing Connected Car and Smart City Solutions”, offers a practical guidance to further explore how IT and non-IT leaders in automotive manufacturing and state and local government...

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The Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) has selected Delphi Automotive as its strategic partner for a pilot program to implement autonomous mobility concepts. Delphi will aim to provide a fleet of fully autonomous vehicles, and will develop a cloud-based mobility-on-demand software (AMoD) suite.

The AMoD development program and autonomous vehicle demonstration is part of the Singapore Autonomous Vehicle Initiative (SAVI), which was formed in 2014 to oversee and manage...

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On the back of the addition of more than one million new connected devices over the past 12 months, Spireon has reported its 20th straight quarter of year-on-year revenue growth.

The addition in connected devices was witnessed across all major vehicle telematics segments, including new and used car dealers and lenders, small and medium sized fleets, transportation and trailer, rental car companies and consumer markets. Profitability more than doubled at the company that boasts over...

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A report from Publisher Research argues that connected car services will generate $14 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2016.

The forecast is inspired by a variety of applications, including but not limited to infotainment, navigation, fleet management, remote diagnostics, automatic crash notification, enhanced safety, UBI (usage based insurance), traffic management and semi-autonomous driving. The market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 31% between 2016 and 2020.

At...

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CalAmp-owned LoJack is raising awareness among consumers concerning connected car theft with a campaign as part of July's National Vehicle Theft Protection Month.

Auto theft is witnessing a sea change on account of the advent of the IoT and complex connected vehicle technology, the company warns. As a result, perpetrators are resorting sophisticated efforts in order to steal vehicles even as the FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report revealed that auto theft grew...

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A report from SNS Research has revealed that connected car services will bring in $14 billion in annual revenue, at a CAGR of 31% in the period 2016–2020.

Though infotainment and telematics are playing a major role in this market, connected driver assistance systems and autonomous driving applications will witness the highest growth rate over the next four years.

At present, the use of telematics has resulted in broad adoption with the utilisation of applications such as fleet...