Future Mobility

2022.06.23 Alvyn Lin

As a critical component of electric vehicles, batteries not only affect the endurance and performance of electric vehicles: they are also a key aspect of electric vehicles’ possible popularity in the future. With the rise of the electric vehicle industry, the global power battery field is also gradually moving towards a more mature stage where a hundred schools of thought compete in a rather fierce manner. Both Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) and China Aviation Lithium Electricity Technology Co., Ltd. (formerly known as China Aviation Lithium Battery Co., Ltd., or CALB) are China-based power battery manufacturers. Their batteries are...

2020.10.06 Patrick Liu

Researchers at the University of North Texas announced[1] this year on September 24, that they plan to use the 1 million USD, provided by the National Science Foundation, to establish the first framework in the United States that allows self-driving cars to share data with each other.  Standardizing the data between self-driving cars is an important infrastructure for achieving “cooperative perception” of the vehicles.   Different brands of self-driving cars use different sensors and software, making it difficult for data sharing between the cars. The Vehicle-to-Everything’s (V2X) purpose is to solve this problem through cloud services using the above framework, so...

2020.08.11 Patrick Liu

According to reports, the four-year ConVex1 C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything) trial—which the German government invested in—successfully ended last month. Swarco—a leading provider of traffic solutions that participated in the trial—concluded that C-V2X would be added to traffic infrastructure product portfolios based on the trial results. Additionally, last month, Qualcomm, the world’s communications leader, and San Diego Regional Proving Ground (SDRPG) announced the launch of C-V2X direct communication program2 in California, which uses 5.9GHz LTE direct communication technology to provide vehicle communication tests and case studies on real roads.   C-V2X is a connected-vehicle technology that combines wide-area cellular networks and direct communication. Specifically,...

2020.08.04 Bace Tseng

The top 5 LiDAR companies combined received a total aggregate funding of over USD 1 billion. [caption id="attachment_7486" align="alignnone" width="865"] Data source: Crunchbase (2020.1.15), edited by WISPRO[/caption] Among the top five companies, two are from the United States; there is one Israeli company, one Chinese company, and one Canadian company. The total funding for the United States companies amounted to about USD 965 million, followed by the Chinese companies with USD 322 million and the Israeli companies with USD 319 million. Israeli company Innoviz Technologies raised the highest amount of total funding with USD 252 million. The average total funding...

2020.07.31 Jean Chou

WISPRO manager Jean Chou: Dyson’s self-developed solid-state battery technology could be the next cash cow.   In October 2019, UK vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson announced that it was giving up on developing its own electric vehicle business. Dyson has invested a total of £500 million in the development of electric vehicles. However, its own solid-state batteries claimed to significantly increase the range of electric vehicles (up to 600 miles, or 966 kilometers). In the end, the company chose not to invest anymore, due to the huge money pit and the challenging market conditions. “Just because Dyson is giving up on...

2020.07.29 Bace Tseng

As LiDAR technology develops, Level 5 self-driving cars may become a reality in the near future. Self-driving cars will reduce the probability of accidents; they will also increase the mobility of people with disabilities. Besides, LiDAR technology has additional unexpected applications, such as replacing the controversial US-Mexico wall and being used to maintain social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last few years, the number of LiDAR patent applications has increased significantly. Apart from major market players, such as Waymo, Valeo, Bosch, Denso, Uber, and Baidu, there are many LiDAR companies worth keeping an eye on. Analyzing their patenting activity...

2020.07.21 Eugene Lu

Fisker changes strategy and plans to use Volkswagen’s MEB platform for $30,000 electric SUV. WISPRO Analyst Eugene Lu: the modularization of automotive components could lower automotive manufacturing costs and benefit startups.   Henrik Fisker is an American automotive designer. His classic works include BMW Z8 and VLF Destino V8. After Henrik participated in Tesla’s body design in 2007, he founded Fisker, an electric vehicle start-up company with the same name. As a result, Tesla filed a lawsuit for the stealing of trade secrets. According to a recent report by Electrek, Fisker not only raised US$50 million but also expects to go public through a reverse merger. These funds will be used for...

2020.07.10 Alvyn Lin

Chaotic Traffic vs. Self-Driving Testing, what do you think? According to recent reports, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced the “Automated Vehicles Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing Initiative (AV Testing Initiative)”. This initiative serves to provide an “online platform for sharing self-driving system road test activities” to raise public awareness about self-driving cars. The public can use this platform to understand the test activities of self-driving cars, such as test data including time, location, frequency, number of vehicles, and routes, etc. Currently, there are nine self-driving companies and eight state governments that are participating in the...