Mentor Blogs

  Last week I had the opportunity to experience Visteon’s e-Bee concept car (http://e-bee.visteon.com), which is based on a Nissan Leaf but has a remarkably different interior – one much roomier than I’m used to. The car is Visteon’s take on what a car might look, feel, and act like in 2020, by which time Visteon expects that car sharing and short-term rentals will be more common than they are … Read More

e-Bee concept car, Nissan Leaf, Bluetooth, Visteon

  Visteon used Dassault Systèmes 3DSwYm cloud-based social application, which is part of Dassault’s  3DEXPERIENCE platform, during development of Visteon’s e-Bee concept vehicle. The e-Bee represents Visteon’s vision of mobility in 2020. Among other characteristics, it allows a set of preferences for each user to be stored in the cloud and retrieved when the driver enters the car. Visteon achieved … Read More

3DSwYm, Dassault Systèmes, 3DEXPERIENCE, e-Bee concept vehicle, Visteon

At Electronica in Munich last month Visteon unwrapped its e-Bee concept vehicle, which represents the company’s vision of mobility in 2020. Visteon expects more car sharing and short-term rentals as alternatives to private vehicle ownership by then, and to accommodate that trend the concept car allows a set of preferences for each user to be stored in the cloud and retrieved when the driver enters … Read More

Japan Display Inc. (JDI), Human-Machine Interface (HMI), TFT (thin film transistor), blind spot detection, Bluetooth, BAE Systems, turn-by-turn navigation, head-up displays (HUD), heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit, Visteon, collision avoidance warning, e-Bee concept vehicle

The increasing complexity of cars has taught automakers the value of cooperating with competitors on technology that customers won’t see and don’t care about but would be prohibitively expensive for a single automaker to develop in-house. Automakers and suppliers formed the GENIVI Alliance, for example, to create an open source (Linux-based) development platform for in-vehicle infotainment, facilitating … Read More

Jaguar Land Rover, intel, Genivi Alliance, Visteon, Microltron, MontaVista Software, QNX, Linux, Android, PSA Peugeot Citroën, in-vehicle infotainment, Magneti Marelli, Mentor Graphics, XS Embedded, Renault, Delphi, Microsoft, ARM

I wasn’t able to attend the Consumer Electronics Show this year so I appreciated Visteon’s invitation to tour their CES exhibit at their headquarters near Detroit. Highlights included their C-Beyond and Growth Market demo vehicles, but I was also intrigued by an application that helps vehicle occupants find the music they like wherever they are. Visteon says its C-Beyond vehicle includes more than … Read More

CES, Consumer Electronics Show, 3M, Visteon, TerreNet, TNet

Two images come to mind when I think of driver coaching. One is the green leaves that appear on the dashboards of Ford Fusion (and Mercury Milan) hybrids when drivers do the right thing consistently. The other is Bugs Bunny in the passenger seat wearing a sweatshirt and holding a whistle. Visteon may have been thinking leaves more than wabbit when it included “driver coaching” among the attributes … Read More

Estech, Bugs Bunny, Visteon, Mercury Milan, Paris Motor Show

It’s nice to see that some groups can work together for the common good. I’m thinking of the companies participating in the GENIVI Alliance. BMW, Delphi, General Motors, Intel, Magneti Marelli, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Visteon, and Wind River formed the Alliance a year ago to create an open source in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) reference platform. The initial version of the platform was released just nine … Read More

Magneti Marelli, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Delphi, ARM, Visteon, Graham Smethurst, Will Tu, in-vehicle infotainment, General Motors, Wind River, Genivi Alliance

DENSO’s Blue Harmony is among the more recent in-vehicle communications and infotainment systems to hit the market. Like others in the space, Blue Harmony promises compatibility with current and future devices for consumers who want to stay connected while in their car. DENSO says Blue Harmony will allow drivers to access their consumer electronics devices and off-board information and services safely. … Read More

In-Vehicle Communications, DENSO, Infotainment, App Store, Visteon, Voice Recognition, AutoLinQ, 802.11, iSuppli, Consumer Electronics Show, Phil Magney, Continental AG, Telematics, Blue Harmony, Bluetooth Hands-Free Calling

How long will it be before we start referring to car dashboards as a user interface, or is it already happening? It seems like only yesterday, and probably was, that automakers were concerned about offering hands-free Bluetooth. Now it’s smartphone connectivity. Cars are fast becoming another network node. An extension of our connected consumer electronics lifestyle; where we want to do whatever we … Read More

Visteon, Human-Machine Interface (HMI), Bluetooth, Mercury Milan, Range Rover, Jaguar Land Rover, Lincoln C Concept Vehicle