Renesas, one of the leading suppliers of electronics to the automotive sector, says it is developing a new range of products which it plans to launch towards the end of this year, according to a report in Automotive News.
The company plans to market the new range of products under the label of “Renesas Autonomy”, and it will include such things as an image-recognition system which works with automotive cameras, around-view monitors and lidar systems.
The market for automotive electronics has been accelerating at a fast rate and is seeing consolidation in the chipmaking business, with Qualcomm having bought NXP, which previously bought Freescale.
Demand is expected to continue to grow for electronics systems in autonomous vehicles – which include a range of sensors, microcontrollers, microprocessors, and other technologies, much of which Renesas produces and supplies.
One of the reasons for the growth is that governments and regulators are becoming more involved in setting rules in an effort to make things safer for consumers.
Shinichi Yoshioka, Renesas’ vice president in charge of automotive microprocessors, says: “This is really what’s driving volume. We are covering most of the areas.”
Renesas supplies integrated technologies which can cost around $800 to beyond $3,000 for a small box to be fitted in cars to make them autonomous.
One of the main shareholders of Renesas is NEC, which sold some of its shares recently. Other shareholders include Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric.
Renesas has also launched a new system on a chip, which it calls R-Car V3M and is part of the chipmaker’s new hardware platform for autonomous vehicles.
