New iAuto, iRealty & iLister Release by WorksForWeb

WorksForWeb (WFW), a software development team specialized in the classifieds solutions announces a new release of its top classifieds products: iAuto, iRealty and iLister.

WFW introduces a number of new features to enhance the overall user experience with the classifieds scripts. In response to customer demand and recently collected feature requests, iAuto, iRealty and iLister now include a host of serious improvements in usability, functionality and performance dictated by the advanced industry standards and requirements.

The listing comparison mechanism is introduced in the latest software release. It provides advanced field-by-field comparison algorithms for multiple listings. Unlike some of the industry's market leader portals, all WFW product-based websites now offer unlimited listing comparison capability. Users browsing listings in one category can simply click the “Compare Ad” button and all pre-selected listings will be displayed in the Comparison Results table. Users can also remove some listings from the table to focus closer on the ones that best match the request. Now the eternal problem of choosing among similar products is elegantly resolved in a couple of mouse clicks.

Among the newly added features there is one that performs import and export of user data in both CSV and XLS formats. Those formats are the most typical and widely-used user account formats. This feature is instrumental for backing up and sharing of the customer account base with third party applications (internal corporate db, newsletter scripts, billing software) fast, easily and conveniently.

The latest release also features CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) protection added to block form submissions from spam bots and prevent abuse. Ad ranking system, a great social networking tool, is a great tool to encourage customer participation and sharing of experience.
Now images uploaded to listings on websites powered by WorksForWeb classifieds software can be copyright protected with watermarks. As a site administrator, you can easily add a custom watermark (image or text) to be automatically merged with all images uploaded by your users. As TechFAQ.com points out, using watermarks for copyright protection and security reasons is equally beneficial to the Web site owners as using watermarks as a marketing/branding tool for additional exposure.

In addition to the above features, the new release of iAuto, iRealty and iLister classifieds solutions includes a number of enhancements such as indicators of the max number of symbols allowed for text input fields, and a new and greatly improved availability calendar interface.
You are welcome to find more information on the changes and improvements implemented to iAuto, iRealty, and iLIster on the official WFW website at www.worksforweb.com. Alternatively, you can contact, email or chat with our Sales Team. Please send your requests to sales@iautosoftware.com , sales@irealtysoft.com and sales@ilistersoft.com and we'll be happy to address your inquiries.

The Warranty Insurance Signal

The Obama administration's decision to offer government backing for GM and Chrysler warranties is a clear signal of the direction they expect the companies to go in. If Obama thought that GM and Chrysler had viable business plan, with a good chance to restructure their obligations further, there would be no need for the warranty backstop.

What this signals is that Obama thinks there is a good chance that at least one of the companies will in fact wind up in bankrupcy. In which case, government backing of warranties is key to keeping public confidence high enough to keep the businesses running.

Another automotive software workshop

I stumbled across a call for paper to the 7. Workshop Automotive Software Engineering taking place in August 2009 in Hamburg. Unfortunately it seems to be conducted entirely in German. Too bad, since it would have been a good opportunity to see what the German manufacturers and suppliers think is most interesting in automotive software right now.

There are very few opportunities to see "what's cooking" in the industry, mostly it is academics presenting, but this workshop seems to have a program committee with a majority from industry. This is one of the few I've heard of besides the biannual Baden-Baden conference.

Abandoned fuel stations to go electric?

A plan to keep the increasing number of electric cars available buzzing along the streets has been revealed by US firm Evoasis.


The San Diego based company has announced that they have plans to turn disused fuel stations, both in the UK and elsewhere, into electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. The plan is known as R2G (Red 2 Green), the name coming from London's red buses and tube routes, with green being fairly self-explanatory. The best news is that rather than standing outside in the cold watching your bank balance decrease, EV owners will be able to go inside, watch films and download music and TV in a lounge area. Charges are expected to take around 20 minutes, as this is the typical time for a "fast charge" in many EVs.

The other benefit to the system is that while your EV is plugged in, Evoasis want to offer diagnostics and battery tests, as well as the ability to download content for your in-car entertainment.


The first stations are due to be rolled out this Autumn, likely starting with major locations in London such as Euston or Waterloo station, with others following. This should follow hot on the heels of cars such as the new Mitsubishi iMiev which is due in the Summer, and benefit drivers of cars like the THiNK and NICE which are already becoming popular.

Images ©Evoasis via AutoExpress

Does America Want The Tata Nano?

My answer: no, not in its original form.

As it is, the thing (probably) won't pass the NHTSA crash tests, not to mention the basic FMVSS standards. Once you add the airbags, mass, 5mph bumpers, and so on, the puny 33HP engine won't do at all. NHTSA will require stability control, so ABS will be required.

Americans also won't buy vehicles without radios. They'll want an automatic transmission.
Tata will have to go for a much larger motor, which will reduce the fuel efficiency and raise the price.

By the time the missing features are added, the car will cost $5000. You can buy a nice used Chevrolet Cobalt, Saturn Ion, Ford Focus, etc. for that kind of money. And you'll get a proven product, with wide dealer support.

Video: Early Nano Review

This is another video review of the Tata Nano, apparently done in India for CNBC.



An interesting detail: 0-60 kph takes about 10s, which translates to 37mph. 100kph (62mph) takes 35s!

The reviewer likes the rear spoiler and fake brake vents... I'm wondering why Tata bothered, they should have invested the money in more interior amenities.

Poor Man's Aptera

This. Is. Awesome.



Also see this one.

Seminar: Development of AUTOSAR compliant Control Units with Model-Based Design

I have just attended a joint presentation from MathWorks and Vector about model-based development of AUTOSAR Software Components. Besides the fact that I won a t-shirt (I'm still unsure if it was for the most stupid question or the first really interesting question) it was very interesting to hear both what they had to say and what others in the 80+ crowd had for questions.

Here are some spontaneous observations I wrote down while listening to the speakers (the keyword is spontaneous):

• Vector works actively with the following OEMs to implement AUTOSAR in their vehicles: Audi, BMW, Daimler, VW and Volvo Group. The first vehicles will be on the market in 2010.
• Diagnostics is usually very hardware dependent. How can this be implemented as re-allocatable software components?
• A likely scenario is to have a hierarchy of S/W-C (i.e. composite components) and not a "flat" structure as one would believe by just reading the AUTOSAR specs.
• A prerequisite for ECU modelling are the defined system signals (what we would call the signal database at Volvo Cars). But one difference to what I think is most common now is that the "signals" as seen by the S/W does not need to agree name-wise with what is defined in the signal database.
• Structure begets function! For me as an architect this is completely natural, but there seemed to others in the audience who thought that was an unnatural way to do things (i.e. structure follows function instead). But suggested common process when starting afresh was to define the ECU structure of S/W components in daVinci and the import that into Simulink to fill it with behaviour (functionality).

I also had some tool specific observations:

• The tool and process demonstration was very focused on function development. Other aspects, such as variability, redundancy and memory management (non-volatile memory), was not discussed. My guess it has to do with the background of the companies and their products, e.g. none of these aspects can be addressed in Simulink.
• Structure is not defined in the simulation tool (i.e. Simulink) but is done before algorithms are defined.
• The vector tool DaVinci Developer takes the XML output from the AUTOSAR system configuration, it is not an system design tool but an ECU design tool.
• The AUTOSAR run-time environment (RTE) can only be approximated in Simulink and not simulated. So any simulation in Simulink is not telling much of how the software behaves on an actual ECU. But this is note very different from today, even if I know of people code-generating from Simulink believes otherwise.

I think all the presentations will be available on-line, if I understood the organisers correctly.

My suggestion is that anyone who has a background in programming embedded systems should (must) look at real examples of XML-files that are the result from the AUTOSAR process and the associated .c and.h-files for S/W-C and RTE. At least for me it made the difference of understanding what AUTOSAR is really about. And it makes even more sense if one remembers that AUTOSAR allows you to build your ECU with already compiled S/W-C, i.e. where the source code is not available. For controls-people only familiar with equations and Simulink I guess the threshold of understanding is quite steep.

I would also suggest anyone who wants a short pocket summary of AUTOSAR to order the booklet "AUTOSAR Glossary" from Vector (bilingual in English and German). I probably shot my credibility as an independent researcher by suggesting this...

Aptera: Quirky Toy or Real Car?

Here is a short list of reasons why I think that the Aptera will be a low volume toy for the rich or idealistic, and not a mass market transportation appliance.

• It's a tricycle--less stable handling than a car of similar wheelbase. A blown tire at speed could be very tricky to handle, especially if it is the pusher wheel that blows. (Update: a reader states that the Aptera is now FWD, however the previous design was definitely a pusher not a puller. The sketch shown in the new brochure clearly shows a rear-mounted powertrain.)
  
• Very little clearance between wheel fairings and pavement. How will it handle potholes? Dirt roads?
• No spare tire. You get a inflation kit instead.
  
• No front or rear bumpers, minor scrapes may do severe damage.
• Sectioned windows may not let a Biggie soda and fries into the cabin
• You can have any color as long as it is white.
  
• May not meet tough side and front impact standards, probably won't interface well with conventional cars. High rear end may result in rear impacts flipping the Aptera forward.
• In a crash, deceleration will be vicious becuase the Aptera is so light. Multiple airbags will have to cushion the occupants, similar to how Smart does it.
  

Silly Mazda, No iPod Controls

By now, just about everyone in the U.S. has an Apple iPod, or one of the many competitors. Most automakers have rightly realized that allowing people to use their iPods in the car with a well integrated interface would be a big selling point. The best system I have tried is Ford's Sync, which will talk to an iPod (and most other mp3 players, as well as flash drives). I have also heard good things about Chrysler's MyGIG system. GM is offering it's PAL system on many of its vehicles, and it will eventually become ubiquitous.

I was looking into the new Mazda6 recently, and I was amazed that Mazda does not offer any digital iPod integration on this car. You can get a dealer installed add-on kit (for a hefty price), but all you get out of the box is the analog aux input. This is a real turn-off for me, in fact it is nearly a deal-killer.

Mazda just released a major update to the Mazda6, the should have put iPod integration at the top of the new feature list. Sure, bluetooth audio streaming is nice, but most people don't use it yet, and Apple doesn't support it yet.

Carnival Of Cars: Ides Of March Edition

Mark Tapscott, after doing yoemans work on Carnival Of Cars (which, you may remember, was started here) has been fairly silent lately. So, with a tip of the hat to Mark, I'm going to pick up CoC sporadically for a while.

Sooooo... let's set the choke and jump on the kickstart lever...

GM's Fastlane Blog discusses the concept of "well to wheels" emissions, or Life Cycle Analysis. According to Norm Brinkman, Argonne National Labs found that "E85 using ethanol made from corn reduced CO2 by about 20 percent compared with gasoline while ethanol made from cellulosic energy crops reduced CO2 by about 75 percent."

Surprising conclusion: the Acura TL is ugly.

At TTAC, Ken Elias writes on how to save the U.S. auto industry: "Lead, follow or get out of the way. The feds should force GM to follow Ford’s example. Chrysler should get out of the way. And then, with American talent and determination, our auto industry can once again be the envy of the world."

Edmund's Daily asks, "Who's cleaner with their car--guys or gals?"". Answer may surprise.

Edmund's posts a tasty bit of retro-TV video, a montage of The Fall Guy truck jumps. Oh, and there's some girl in a bikini, too.

Steve Parker bring us an LA Times story which tells how Obama has ended the controversial (especially if you are a Teamster) policy of allowing Mexican trucks to operate inside of 25 miles of the U.S. from Mexico.

Mark Tapscott wonders if Obamanomics means the end of personal mobility, and AutoProphet responds with a hearty "not dead yet!". Hey, I can link to myself if I want to, it's my CoC!

Over at the AUTOEXTREMIST, Peter De Lorenzo lays down several pages of napalm. Don't read the rant unless you are ready to buy a new monitor. An excerpt: "I’m tired of the auto industry being treated like an old broken down piece of meat or something that should be taken out back and shot. Our so-called “leaders” in Washington - particularly certain senators and representatives who should know better - have relegated an entire industry to the dust heap. And why? So a few idiot southern senators can tout their states as the “new” center of the auto industry? Or is it because Detroit and the center of industrial America don’t quite fit into the new “Green” world that Northern Californian politicians want to shove down our collective throats?" Preach it, brother!

Trollhattan Saab has shut down, but is being reborn over at Saabs United. There, rumors are reported that a Sheikh Maktoum may be interested in investing in Saab. Rock the casbah!

At IfItsGotAnEngine, a tale of smashing a piano, followed by learning how to repair pianos, all due to sloppy Tacoma loading.

Joe Sherlock drops lots if interesting right-of-center political commentary, not much new on cars lately.

Autoblog reports that researchers have invented self healing auto paint. Impregnated with chitosan, the paint will re-connect with itself to smooth out the scratch. A note to our Jewish readers, chitosan comes from crustacean shells, so licking your car would not be kosher. Especially if it is a VW.

Jalopnik claims that unemployed UAW guys will be retrained to make fashionable hats. I'd be fact-checking this one.

Never Buy a Salvage Car That Has Been "Clipped"

You need a car, and you don't have much money. You find a guy on Craigslist selling a salvage-titled vehicle which has been "expertly repaired, new front clip".

You don't want it.

A "clip", as the repair guys call it, is when a car is cut through the unibody, and a major portion (like, half of the front end) is welded on. On the outside, it looks fine, but underneath the exterior panels, what you have is non-contiguous steel welded together. It may be done well, but it may not be. Chances are, it isn't as strong as the original design, and in a serious crash, it may offer much less protection than a normal car would.

Automuse has some good posts on this subject.

A better bet: buy a car that needs a new engine, and then find a local mechanic to drop in a donor motor from a junk yard. I've seen decent chassis for sale for $500-$1000, that when combined with a junkyard motor, would be a servicable car.

Two articles on Volvo electrical architecture

There are two articles that give an introduction to the electrical system of the first Volvo S80 (really the architecture to be precise). Even if that particular car is 10 years old the architecture in present Volvo vehicles are still of the same family, but two generations later.

• Volvo S80: Electrical system of the future by Kent Melin. This is an overview of some of the more important architectural decisions for the Volvo architecture.
• Volcano - a revolution in on-board communications by Lennart Casparsson et al. This describes the mathematics for Volvo's signal scheduling on CAN to ensure that all signals are received within their designated deadlines, and a brief description on the processes and tools to administrate the signal database.

Unfortunately neither article is available on-line where it was originally published, the Volvo Technology Report.

Fuel-less Jeep?

I saw a Google text ad for Jeep on this blog today, which says:

• Loading...

Jeep hybrid vehicle

Learn More About the New Jeep Fuel-less Vehicles Today.

If you follow the link, you'll see a page about Chrysler's ENVI program, which includes a plug-in hybrid Jeep--which has a gasoline "range extender".

It's not a "fuel-less" Jeep.

It is also important to note that only one ENVI vehicle has been confirmed for production, and the rest are, as far as we know, just demonstration prototypes or concepts.

I don't understand why Chrysler is spending money advertising vaporware.

European Child Seat Testing Video

A fellow from Poland (I think) sent me a link to his YouTube page, which features various videos relating to child seat safety. This one is fascinating, it is a collection of European car seat tests. Note how the tests are done on a sled, using an actual car body (not just a moving platform like the NHTSA test). Midway, one of the seats fails, sending the little dummy spinning heels over head.

The numbers have it: UK car CO2 emissions are falling fast

If ever there was a sign that times are tough and people are trading down to more efficient cars, it's the sharp reduction in the average CO₂ emissions of cars sold in the UK from 2007 to 2008.

Average emissions have dropped by over 5g/km in the past year, continuing a trend that's seen CO₂ plummet by over 30g/km in the last ten years. 2008's figures show a significant fall however, suggesting that the current economic climate, the spike in the price of fuel last year and purse-strings generally being tightened across the country are resulting in people buying much more economical cars than they may have in more favourable times. The figures have been outlined by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) More of the results are illustrated below.

(Images: SMMT)

The trend can also be attributed to the huge efforts that manufacturers have made in recent years too. BMW recently launched their 116d, the most fuel efficient BMW currently available, capable of over 50mpg and with CO₂ emissions as low as 118g/km. Many companies now offer stop-start technology which significantly reduces fuel consumption in city traffic, and companies like Mazda with their 2 and Volkswagen with their upcoming new Polo have worked hard to reduce weight, allowing smaller and more efficient engines to be used without compromising on performance. Volkswagen recently unveiled the new Polo Bluemotion concept at the Geneva Motor Show, which sips a gallon of fuel as infrequently as every 85 miles. It also manages to look very handsome indeed.

With cars such as these, expect the current trend to continue.

(Image: AutoBlogGreen)

Microsoft automotive platform

Since I have written som blog posts about open source software for in-vehicle infotainment I think I should mention Microsoft's platform as well, used for exmple in Ford's Sync. Here are some information I found:

• Microsoft Auto
• Open source vs. Microsoft: Automotive battlefield
• Peter Wengert - Inside Microsoft Automotive (TV show)
• Engineering TV: Introducing Microsoft's Automotive Division (another TV show)

Software architecture resources on the web

I found some resources on the web which I think are useful for people concerned with automotive software architecture, either as some kind of tutorial or as reference material. Some are more generally about software architecture while others are targeted to automotive software.

• Patterns & practices Application Architecture Guide 2.0
• Automotive Software Workshop, San Diego
• JASPAR (but you need to know japanese to get the technical details)
• Software Architecture Views and Perspectives from Brad Appleton's ACME Blog
• Software Architecture Quality Attributes also from Brad Appleton's ACME Blog

GENIVI and moblin?

I still have not found any solid technical description about the GENIVI platform, but some internet detective work directed me towards the moblin homepage which has a community directed to LINUX use for in-vehicle-infotainment.
Seeing that both initiatives are open source based on Linux, that there are common members between GENIVI and moblin (i.e. Intel and Wind River) and the goals of the projects are very similar I assume the technical solution will also be similar. The moblin architecture is described here...

Industrial research in student projects

I was asked to talk about my research in the course Research Methods and Technical Writing, at the IT University, together with a number of other researchers here at ITU.

My first thought was talking about case study research in the industry, but another speaker would talk about case studies so I dropped that idea. In the end I decided just to talk about doing students project in industry in general. I have supervised 5 thesis projects so I think I have som knowledge on the subject by now...

I have just finished the lecture and I'm not very satisfied with the outcome. I got very few questions and found it very hard to find any enthusiasm among the students. The original plan was that I would give the lecture a month ago, but various problems with finding a slot in my calendar postponed the lecture several times, so when I finally held the lecture most of the students had already selected topics for their projects.

I made a test of using LaTeX for making slides. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to share the resulting PDF in this blog. Suggestions are welcome...

GENIVI

Genivi is a brand new alliance to promote open source software for in-vehicle infotainment (official start March 2009). The founders include BMW, Wind River and Intel among others.
I have not heard about about the initiative before, but a quick google search revealed some introductory articles:

• http://www.genivi.org
• http://www.linux-magazine.com/online/news/bmw_in_drive_conversation_with_open_source
• http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/online/news/cebit_2009_bmw_and_partners_found_genivi_open_source_platform
• http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=3663

Unfortunately there is not yet any technical information on the GENIVI homepage, but I will certainly follow up on this...

Narcissism

This blog post will contain some heavy narcissism on my part...

I wrote an article named Experience of introducing reference architectures in the development of automotive electronic systems together with some colleagues. I also gave an appreciated talk at the second international workshop on Software engineering for automotive systems, which was one of the workshops at the 27th International Conference on Software Engineering in St. Louis, MO, USA (ICSE 2005).

ICSE is one of the most prestigious conferences on software engineering (the most prestigious according to some rankings) so the paper should have some academic merit. But it is almost impossible to find my paper in any academic database. The paper is not included in INSPEC, which is the biggest general database about engineering and science, event though INSPEC has articles from ICSE 2005. It is not found in IEEE Explore. The only databases I could find it is in ACM portal, besides Google Scholar.
So it is unlikely my paper will be referenced since nobody knows it exists...

You can find a full-text version of my paper here, courtesy the Mälardalen Research and Technology Centre at Mälardalen University.

Note: INSPEC is not free to use, the other databases should allow you to search, but not download material unless you have a subscription. But Google scholar is usually very good at finding a PDF somewhere on the net if you have the title and author of an article.

AUTOSAR questions

I got a comment referring to a blog from a guy working with AUTOSAR implementation at GM.

He got some questions in his blog about AUTOSAR. I don't believe I have any definitive answers, but here are some quick thoughts...

..........is the architecture migration expensive ?
This was asked from a concern that the necessary tool support for developing AUTOSAR systems would incur expensive licenings costs compared to native development. I don't think the tool costs would be any higher compared to present tools (i.e. UML code generation tools or Simulink/dSpace). The big cost in migration to AUTOSAR would be the necessary change in OEM and TIER1 development processes. The cost of an experienced programmer is wastly greater than the cost of a S/W tool.

..........is AUTOSAR ISO compliant ?
Don't know.

..........does AUTOSAR emphasize on all key areas of the Embedded system ?
No, there are several proprietary concepts used by Volvo Cars when developing embedded systems that are not within the scope of AUTOSAR. I imagine it is the same for other OEMs as well.

.........how is the current AUTOSAR classified ?
This question I don't understand...

.........scope of AUTOSAR ?
At least the german OEMs and suppliers are very serious about AUTOSAR (e.g. BMW, Bosch and Vector). They have put hundreds of man-years into developing the standard and adapting their products.

.........is AUTOSAR going to provide a "AUTOSAR Compliant Hardware System" blueprint for automotive electronic hardware manufacturing companies ?
Not to my knowledge. I think this is left to the various suppliers to solve. "Cooperate on standards. Compete on implementation". I can imagine a scenarion where hardware manufacturers like freescale would deliver an "AUTOSAR-optimised" CPU with associated H/W-abstraction layer (part of AUTOSAR BSW).