Month: October 2021

A new user experience evaluation from Strategy Analytics’ In-Vehicle UX (IVX) group has assessed the Lynk & Co 01 infotainment system, the car and mobility concept designed and engineered in Goteborg, Sweden and manufactured in Yuyao, China.

The 01 aims to focus on experiences rather than ownership, hence its emphasis on sustainability and absence of ‘hassle’. The infotainment system is adequate, with a large amount of real estate that allows for a very flat menu structure. But while it has some nice touches and functionalities which will delight their target consumers, it does not include Google Automotive Services (GAS). Besides obviously missing Google Maps, Google Assistant can also only be accessed through Android Auto.

Diana Franganillo , director IVX and report author comments, “The Lynk & Co 01 brings an interesting mobility concept to Europe, backed up by Volvo’s engineering capability and reputation. The vehicle’s exterior design is attractive ‘in person’, beyond how it looks in pictures and videos, and it’s interior is even more spacious than that of the Volvo XC40, despite sharing the same platform.

Continues Franganillo, “Despite the lack of GAS, which is a shame in our opinion, the Lynk & Co 01 infotainment system is functional and benefits from a voice assistant “Frank”. While Frank performs reasonably well, he is packed with an unengaging and artificial smurf-like metallic voice which could be better optimised for the user experience. However, the Home View is customisable and all the features follow a consistent structure, are easy to navigate and can be operated whilst driving thanks to sufficiently large and separated pressable areas and standard icons.”

Adds Chris Schreiner, director IVX , “The whole concept, car and infotainment system have been built to catch the attention of its target customers, especially with the inclusion of features such as the ‘Journey Camera’ dash cam with selfie function and ‘Scoreyteller’, Lynk & Co’s gaming app designed to enhance classic road trip games such as ‘I Spy’ and ‘21 Questions’. Although the latter would benefit from more use of voice interaction to facilitate the games, both apps are nice attempts at generating conversations inside and outside the car.”

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AutoFill, a Dutch deep tech company revolutionising inspection workflow processes for the automotive and rail industries, has secured €2.6 million in pre-series A funding.

The round was led by powerhouse investors, Innovation Industries, with participation from Deeptech Labs, a highly coveted accelerator initiated by Arm and The University of Cambridge, among others. Rick Belluzzo, former COO of Microsoft, and Bram Schot, former CEO of Audi both of whom joined the AutoFill board of advisors earlier this year also participated in the round.

Currently, most object inspections in the automotive and rail sectors are performed by humans. Existing automated solutions, meanwhile, are costly and require substantial space and infrastructure to function. AutoFill has a solution which combines vision technology with multisensor data fusion to identify anomalies and increase the accuracy of quality standards.

Rick Belluzzo

Designed to be as agile as possible, AutoFill’s solution can be incorporated seamlessly into existing operational processes, ensuring further efficiencies, objective reporting, increased safety, and cost savings. All of this modernises, optimises and enhances quality control at scale.

Speaking on the fundraise, AutoFill CEO and co-founder, Gideon Richheimer, says, “AutoFill’s technology removes the limitations presented by human involvement, significantly raising safety and accuracy standards, and making huge financial savings for the enterprise. We believe our solution will play an important role in accelerating a more efficient future initially for the automotive and rail industries and are extremely grateful to our investors for supporting us in this mission.”

Headquartered in Wassenaar, AutoFill recently opened a second office in the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, claims to be the largest centre for technology innovation in Europe.

The company has received a major vote of confidence in its solution, having secured backing from Innovation Industries, a venture capital firm which is renowned for only backing the most promising deep tech start-ups and scale-ups.

The investment will be used to advance AutoFill’s technical solution, strengthen its current operational deployments at partner sites, and grow its engineering team.

Harm De Vries, co-founder and general partner at Innovation Industries, states, “AutoFill is a ‘new gen’ deep tech start-up founded by a very experienced team. The offering is a market validated, highly scalable solution. We are convinced that AutoFill will have a revolutionary impact on inspection workflow processes for numerous industries potentially saving them billions of dollars a year.”

Bram Schot

Miles Kirby, CEO of Deeptech Labs says, “Following AutoFill’s completion of our powerful and highly coveted accelerator programme, we are delighted to demonstrate our commitment to the company through this funding round. AutoFill’s progress demonstrates the value of our role as a catalyst for deep tech success. We are excited to see the positive impact AutoFill’s technology can have on the automotive and rail industries as well as many other sectors. We look forward to continuing to support AutoFill and helping the business grow.”

Bram Schot, former Audi CEO and AutoFill board member says, “I joined AutoFill’s board of advisors earlier this year because I was so impressed by the experience of the leadership team and the credibility of its solution. My subsequent investment in its future is testament to that continued confidence, and I look forward to witnessing the results of this successful funding round first-hand.”

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Tokyo, Japan. October 28, 2021 ― Renesas Electronics Corporation, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with Celeno Communications, the provider of smart, innovative Wi-Fi solutions, under which Renesas will acquire Celeno in an all cash transaction valuing Celeno at approximately US$315 million (€269.87 million) (approximately 35.9 billion yen at an exchange rate of 114 yen to the dollar), assuming the payment of certain milestone payments as set forth in the definitive agreement.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close by the end of calendar year 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. The acquisition significantly enhances Renesas’ connectivity portfolio with the addition of Celeno’s Wi-Fi technologies and software expertise.

Headquartered in Israel, Celeno offers a wide range of wireless communication solutions, including advanced Wi-Fi chipsets and software solutions, for high-performance home networks, smart buildings, enterprise and industrial markets. Its industry’s compact chipset offerings for Wi-Fi 6 and 6E deliver exceptional Wi-Fi network performance and increased security with low latency and low power consumption.

Celeno’s Wi-Fi Doppler Imaging technology, a Wi-Fi based, high-resolution imaging technology is ideal for home elderly care and assisted living, home security, safe driving and digital and connected factories. It depicts, tracks and analyses the motion, behavior and location of people and objects using standard Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for multiple cameras or sensors in home environments and commercial buildings.

As the embedded processor supplier, Renesas offers a breadth of low-power MCU/MPU/SoC processors, wireless ICs, sensors and power management technologies. Celeno’s field-proven Wi-Fi and software capabilities are highly complementary to Renesas. The combination creates comprehensive, end-to-end embedded solutions for addressing the fast-growing markets for low-power connectivity in IoT, infrastructure, industrial and automotive applications.

Gilad Rozen

In addition to expanding the solution offering, the acquisition also increases Renesas’ engineering and design scale with Celeno’s design centre in Israel and by welcoming R&D staff based in Israel, Ukraine, India, China, Taiwan and more. This further strengthens Renesas’ global engineering and software development talent base, allowing Renesas to bring more seamless and expanded services to customers around the globe.

“The transaction announced today underscores our continuous commitment to improve performance and efficiency in electronic systems,” says, Hidetoshi Shibata, president and CEO of Renesas. “Building on our recently-expanded connectivity portfolio following the Dialog acquisition, the addition of Celeno provides us with more advanced Wi-Fi connectivity capabilities to deliver end-to-end connectivity solutions for both clients and access points. Renesas is now strongly positioned to capitalise on the growing opportunities from the massive rise in connectivity and requirements created by increasingly connected world.”

“This is a compelling transaction for both our customers and employees. Our depth and strength in connectivity combined with Renesas’ portfolio of embedded solutions will allow us, together, to open up new growth areas we can target,” says, Gilad Rozen, president and CEO of Celeno.” Renesas will also provide us with the go-to-market capabilities to bring Celeno to a broader range of customers.”

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