Renesas Electronics and HELLA Aglaia Lead Front Camera Market with Open, Scalable ADAS Solutions

Renesas Electronics’ high-performance R-Car V3M SoC and HELLA Aglaia’s open application software help differentiate products and shorten time to market

Tokyo, Japan and Berlin, Germany, December 8, 2017 - Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, and HELLA Aglaia, a leading global developer of intelligent vision sensor systems, today announced a scalable front camera solution for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. The new front camera solution combines Renesas’ high-performance, low-power image recognition system-on-chip (SoC) R-Car V3M and HELLA’s field-proven camera software to meet the requirements of the new SAE International J30162 standard for Level 2 partial automation and Level 3 conditional automation. Designed for scalability, the solution enables system designers to build a wide range of front cameras to support the requirements of the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP, Note 1) up to Level 3 applications.

With vision sensors expected to become one of the main NCAP requirements in the coming years, the strong collaboration between Renesas and HELLA Aglaia will help expand the application market for front cameras. “In the next five years, driven by strong NCAP safety features market demand, such as automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning and traffic sign recognition, the market demand for front cameras is expected to exceed 200 million units. OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers are looking for open and proven solutions that combine performance and cost-effectiveness, so that they can freely configure front cameras with their own characteristics,” said Ian Riches, Director of Strategy Analytics’ Autonomous Vehicles Service.

“The market for NCAP front camera applications is growing rapidly, and customers are eager for an open and proven solution. To better meet their needs, we decided to combine HELLA Aglaia’s proven camera software with the Renesas autonomy ™ Platform,” said Jean-Francois Chouteau, Vice President of Renesas Global ADAS Center. “With this new solution, customers can configure their own market differentiation points in their applications, thereby reducing risk and shortening time to market.”

“With the Renesas autonomy Platform, Renesas offers an open, scalable platform paired with our open and proven software to help OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers develop low-end to high-end applications and add their own software to create added value,” said Kay Talmi, Managing Director of HELLA Aglaia. “The R-Car V3M is optimized for front cameras and is a perfect match for our application software for NCAP applications.”

The Renesas R-Car V3M SoC implements an innovative, energy-efficient computer vision platform using different accelerators, including a versatile data pipeline engine (IMP) and a computer vision engine (CVE), enabling the R-Car V3M to run convolutional neural networks for object classification and manage algorithms such as optical flow and object detection. The R-Car V3M also features an integrated ISP and a single DDR3L memory channel for further cost reduction. The R-Car V3M is part of the Renesas autonomy platform, a breakthrough platform developed by Renesas for ADAS and autonomous driving that provides a comprehensive end-to-end solution from the cloud to sensing and vehicle control.

HELLA Aglaia's software solutions will reduce development time and process risks for the next wave of front camera customers. As a Tier 2 supplier of industry-proven Level 2 and Level 3 autonomous driving camera software, HELLA Aglaia offers flexible, portable software that can be combined with Tier 1 or OEM software IP, allowing customers to focus on developing their own unique selling points (USP). The software is scalable from low-cost NCAP to Level 3 autonomous driving camera applications.

Availability

The Renesas R-Car V3M is available now. Application software delivered by HELLA Aglaia is scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2018.

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(Note 1) NCAP (New Car Assessment Program): A government-run automobile safety program designed to evaluate the performance of new automobile designs against various safety threats.

(Note 2) SAE International’s new standard J3016: Terminology and definitions for automated driving systems for road motor vehicles, provides a unified classification system and corresponding definitions, identifying six levels of automated driving from “non-automated” to “fully automated”.

About HELLA Aglaia

HELLA Aglaia Mobile Vision GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of HELLA KGaA GmbH & Co., one of the world's leading developers of intelligent vision sensor systems. With years of experience, HELLA Aglaia has strong technical capabilities in single and stereo camera systems, image processing and software programming to develop innovative industrial solutions and efficient products to support driver assistance systems, e-mobility and pedestrian flow monitoring. Many of HELLA Aglaia's products are internationally second to none, opening up new application possibilities and broad future opportunities.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) provides professional and trusted innovative embedded design and complete semiconductor solutions, aiming to improve people's work and lifestyle safely and reliably through billions of connected smart devices using its products. As a global leading supplier of microcontrollers, analog power devices and SoC products, Renesas Electronics provides professional technical support, quality assurance and comprehensive solutions for various applications such as automotive, industrial, home (HE), office automation (OA), information and communication technology (ICT), and looks forward to working with you to create an infinite future. For more information, please visit https://www.renesas.com/.