BEIJING, April 25, 2018 -- Visteon Corporation (Nasdaq: VC) is showcasing its innovative cockpit electronics solutions, including connected car solutions, at the 2018 Beijing International Auto Show, which opened on April 25, 2018. Visteon is demonstrating its technological strengths in advancing the automotive industry’s transition to all-digital cockpit electronics and autonomous driving. The Visteon exhibit is located at Booth E34A04 (the outdoor venue between E3 and E4) of the new China International Exhibition Center (Tianzhu).
This is Visteon’s second year at the Beijing International Auto Show since transforming itself into a technology company and the only Tier 1 supplier focused exclusively on cockpit electronics. Headlining Visteon’s exhibit is the China introduction of its DriveCore™ autonomous driving controller, a hardware/software platform that enables automakers to build autonomous driving solutions quickly in an open collaboration model, which aligns with the theme of the 2018 International Auto Show: Steering to A New Era.
DriveCore™ has a hardware/software platform that enables automakers to build autonomous driving solutions quickly in an open collaboration model. DriveCore™ is independent of system hardware such as sensors or CPU hardware and provides extremely high information processing capabilities. It also includes advanced software development tools that promote collaboration within the broader ecosystem, greatly shortening the time for entering the market.
As a leader in the fast-growing global vehicle cockpit electronics technology, as well as a major supplier to various Chinese auto companies, Visteon’s solutions play an important role in the current shift toward connected cars and autonomous vehicles. In addition to the DriveCore™ autonomous driving platform, Visteon will present its expertise in instrument clusters, in-vehicle infotainment, displays, head-up displays, and the SmartCore™ cockpit domain controller at this year’s Beijing Auto Show.
Instrument Clusters
The shift toward connected cars and autonomous vehicles is driving a transition from analog and hybrid clusters to all-digital systems. Visteon is displaying digital solutions for all vehicle segments, featuring display sizes ranging from 7 inches to 20.3 inches, with embedded functionality such as camera systems and ambient lighting.
Instrument cluster highlights at the 2018 Beijing Auto Show include:
- A plastic OLED (organic light-emitting diode) instrument cluster with 1920-by-720 resolution, vivid colors and ultra-thin (5 millimeters) profile
- A 4K-by-1K instrument cluster with integrated driver monitoring infrared cameras for facial recognition and head and eye-gaze tracking, which will be important to assessing driver readiness to resume control of an automated vehicle. The cluster also features integrated side-view e-mirrors.
Displays
To deliver a connected experience and prepare for an autonomous future in which occupants will need to monitor the status of the vehicle and its surroundings, the car’s interior is going digital – with more and larger displays of all types. Visteon is presenting a range of more than 40 displays that are brighter and larger than most conventional displays, with high-resolution, vivid graphics and a wider color space.Visteon design innovations include selective dimming, curved surfaces, enhanced optics management, narrow borders and thin design. Highlights at the Beijing Auto Show include center displays with HD haptics and a dimmable lens display.
Audio/Infotainment
In-vehicle infotainment is gaining more attention as cars become more connected and as the industry considers how to bring value to occupants of future automated vehicles. Display audio systems, which leverage the smartphone to bring features such as navigation and other connected services, are replacing traditional audio systems. Additionally, automakers want to leverage the global community of app developers to build infotainment apps.
Visteon is showing a range of infotainment solutions, including:
- Phoenix™ platform of display audio, embedded infotainment and SmartCore solutions, capable of adapting the human-machine interaction (HMI) across different screen sizes, resolution and orientation.
- Phoenix™ InfoCore – the in-vehicle middleware that maximizes reuse and enables seamless upgrades
- Phoenix™ Studio 2.0 – A next-generation, PC-based development tool enabling development of third-party apps that can be written once and run on any infotainment system in the car that runs on InfoCore – without adaptation.
- Android™ infotainment – An open-source system based on Android Automotive, with two independently controllable displays and features such as Google Assistant.*
Head-Up Displays
Head-up displays are fast gaining popularity as a preferred interface for critical information such as vehicle speed, warnings and navigation messages. Visteon is featuring a range of windshield solutions with fields of view from 4 degrees-by-1.2 degrees, to 8 degrees-by-3 degrees, with best-in-class optical systems, tilt and picture-generating unit (PGU) technologies.
Visteon is also displaying an augmented reality solution that provides a digital layer of information to help improve safety, and which can be integrated into different electronic control units.
SmartCore™ Cockpit Domain Controller
As in-vehicle electronics proliferate, the industry recognizes the cost-, space- and power-saving benefits of consolidating electronic control units, or ECUs, across multiple electrical domains.
Visteon’s SmartCore™ domain controller, launching with a European-based automaker in early 2018, enables the integration of instrument cluster, infotainment and head-up displays into one ECU instead of three.
Visteon is demonstrating integration of its SmartCore™ “Gen2” cockpit electronics software stacks along with Phoenix™ or Android infotainment. Technology on display includes:
- A SmartCore™ domain controller incorporating Visteon’s driver information applications and Android™ O-based infotainment, running on Qualcomm’s 820 AM Snapdragon processor.
- SmartCore™ Runtime – the middleware that enables communication between domains and apps to be shown on any display.
- SmartCore™ Studio – a PC-based configuration tool to generate hypervisor configurations.
With its advanced technologies and considerable experience in cockpit electronics, Visteon continues to innovate to provide strong solutions and technical support for the transition to autonomous driving.