According to Renesas, the company’s R-Car SoC will control the infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) of these vehicles while the RH850 will be responsible for general automotive control tasks. The combo will cover peripheral recognition and boy control. The R-Car SoC has been selected for Denso’s engine control unit to be used for Toyota’s upcoming autonomous-driving vehicles. Functioning as the vehicle’s “electronic brain“, the SoC provides highly accurate intelligence on the car’s position within its environment and makes real-time decisions on vehicle control and active safety maneuvers based on sensor data. he RH850 was also selected to control driving, steering, and braking functions based on the judgements made by the R-Car SoC.
Series-ready autonomous vehicles require a broad range of capabilities including protection against malicious cyber attacks and functional safety technology capable of detecting and even predicting system failures. The Renesas electronics platforms are regarded as meeting these requirements. In addition, the Japanese chipmaker claims to have the expertise to provide the balance of advanced technologies and traditional automotive requirements, including aspects such as electronic performance, power consumption, form factors, packaging and installation of electronic systems against the background of the hostile electronic environment in cars.
Toyota selected Renesas as the key semiconductor supplier for its “Highway Teammate”, an autonomous car prototype capable of merging, passing changing lanes other acrivities during highway driving – albeit with a safety driver present in the car. This requirement corresponds to the definitions of level 4 of autonomous driving. Production vehicles from Toyota meeting these requirements will hit the roads in 2020.
