“People often group safety and security together, even if they cannot articulate why or how these topics relate to each other,” Wood says. “This grouping is natural due to the overlapping properties that the topics are built upon. However, they are subtly different because safety focuses on the proper functioning of a system, while security focuses on the system’s ability to resist some form of intentionally malicious action.”

In particular, he notes, these center around safety worries about risks presented by passive adversaries, randomness in nature and human-caused accidents, and security worries about risks presented by active adversaries in the form of creative, determined and malicious human beings acting intentionally.

“This leads to a requirement to utilize additional security analysis tools and technical mechanisms that also affect safety. Security makes heavy use of cryptography, which is often resource-intensive, but active safety mechanisms should be deterministic.

“Processing of safety-related data often has short deadlines, which makes it difficult to ensure the required levels of data authenticity and confidentiality. Satisfying both safety and security will impact resources and the architecture.”

Wood notes that while the risks of self-driving cars may be reasonably overt to the layperson, increasing the level of connectivity between all autonomous vehicles comes with its own obstacles.

“The automotive industry is facing new challenges due to the extreme connectivity between self-driving vehicles and from these vehicles to their environment. These challenges range from fulfilling regulatory requirements and ensuring safety to protecting fleets and customers from cybersecurity attacks. Increasing connectivity means adding new interfaces between the control functions of connected vehicles, IT backend systems, and other external information. This rich attack surface creates considerable interest for malicious actors with various goals,” Wood explains, adding that safety and security are intrinsically linked.

“In short, we have advanced to a level where vehicles cannot maintain a safe state unless they also operate securely. Most importantly, cybersecurity principles and practices should be applied to ensure that attackers cannot gain control of a vehicle and that attacks are exceptionally difficult to scale to the point of exploiting multiple vehicles simultaneously.”

Founded in 1991 by general manager Charlotte Klein, EMV has a lab in Straubing near Regensburg in Germany and an office in Taiwan. The collaboration between the two will expand both companies’ footprints and broaden their scope of testing services, specifically enabling Element access to additional EMC analysis capabilities.

“We are extremely pleased to bring EMV Testhaus into the Element family. The German automotive industry is pioneering tremendous change with the rapid development of connected autonomous vehicles and electrification. Through the acquisition of EMV Testhaus we will expand our existing EMC testing capabilities. We will also be able to broaden our services to our automotive and medical customers, as well as expanding our geographical footprint in southern Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe,” said Charles Noall, president and CEO at Element.

Charlotte Klein, general manager at EMV Testhaus, added, “We are excited to join Element and to add our capabilities to such a strong global company. As we come together as businesses, we look forward to introducing our customers and colleagues to the Element Group’s strengths.”

Simpack is a widely adopted simulation software technology, and FTire is said to be considered the gold standard for physics-based tire modeling. Having established a virtual 3D dynamic model, rFpro delivers high-definition visuals for the simulation itself, and the data they deliver can then be used to assess ride comfort in comparison with vehicles from leading manufacturers.

AB Dynamics business director Dr Adrian Simms said, “This high level of realism is crucial for gaining accurate data and allowing a broader scope of test and development work to be completed on the driving simulator, which achieves considerable time and money savings from testing on a track. Accuracy is vital when it comes to autonomous driving, so this collaboration has enabled us to make significant progress in this area.”

“We were particularly impressed with the ride feel. The high fidelity of the multibody Simpack vehicle model and FTire models, combined with the class-leading performance of AB Dynamics’ AVDS motion platform, resulted in a drive that was ultra-realistic,” added Gerald Hofmann, partner and co-founder of Cosin.

The focus of such work, which will last a period of 12 months, will be to increase the efficiency of integrated electric drive units (EDU) for electric vehicles. With funding from Innovate UK (IUK), the two will also assess the effectiveness of new composites in terms of raising power density and reducing unit size to deliver greater efficiency.

The teams will try to increase EDU efficiency by harnessing the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) dampening properties of composite materials. Honing NVH tolerance gives engineers more freedom to work on balancing NVH levels with the efficiency of high-power-dense e-motors, in tandem.

“This project represents a unique opportunity to bring together leading driveline and composites expertise with the common goal of optimized EDU development. By working together from the outset, we are able to negate many of the development challenges traditionally posed when working with emerging technologies, materials and associated manufacturing techniques,” said Markus Hose, DSD’s head of mechanical engineering.

Aliya Valiyff, NCC’s automotive technology program manager, noted, “The NCC is looking forward to working with DSD to develop the tools and processes that enable efficient integrated drive units through targeted application of composite materials.

“As the country moves toward an all-electric transport system, there is a major opportunity for both the domestic and export markets. The NCC, DSD, and IUK will be helping to enhance UK skills in power electronics, machines and drives by cementing existing skills and developing new technology.”

Yann Brillat-Savarin, group strategy executive vice president at Faurecia, commented, “We are delighted to partner with Devialet because it allows us to address a complete range of audio solutions from personalized sound systems to branded audio systems. From software to technologies integrated in the vehicle’s surfaces and structure, Faurecia and Devialet will enable passengers to enjoy a more immersive and personalized onboard experience, whatever the type of music or content they are listening to.”

Franck Lebouchard, chief executive officer at Devialet, added, “We’re proud to be reinventing car audio with Faurecia using breakthroughs in audio hardware, software, and acoustics to deliver a truly immersive experience and unmatched emotional impact through sound. This partnership is a perfect illustration of what Devialet stands for: putting our technology and expertise at the service of purposeful innovation and bringing incredible sound to the widest possible audience.”

The companies will demonstrate the first fruits of the new partnership at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2020 (January 7-10). This will include a range of sound systems from Devialet, which Faurecia has integrated into numerous vehicles.

“Visitors to CES will experience how we expertly integrate advanced Devialet audio processing technologies to bring the exceptional sound fidelity, clarity and precision people usually enjoy at home into the vehicle environment,” said Jean-François Rondeau, immersive sound experiences product line director at Faurecia Clarion Electronics. “Faurecia will also have a separate sound room where potential buyers can enjoy an immersive experience of Devialet’s sound staging and reproduction expertise.”

The first phase of the record attempt was focused purely on gathering information on how the car behaved at transonic speeds. Driver Andy Green ended up going faster than intended on his final run. “I’m absolutely delighted with our first 600mph run but personally I’m a tiny bit miffed because my job was to control the car as precisely as possible and take it to 605,” Green said. “When I took my foot off the throttle, the engine gave me power for another half second or so and pushed us up to 628mph. The point is that the jet engine’s performance changes above 600, so lesson learned for next time. All that said, this is a good result to go home with.”

The car is covered with pressure tappings, strain gauges, temperature sensors and accelerometers to provide data on how it reacts under extreme loads at high speed. After every run, the team checked the data against their computer-generated predictions from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tests. The team was delighted to learn that there was a 90%+ correlation between the expected and actual data, which is extremely encouraging given that they will return to the desert next year with the extra power of a Norwegian Nammo rocket mounted beneath the EJ200 jet engine.

“With the data we’ve generated from the high-speed testing, we’re able to start budgeting for the next phase of the project, which will need to be funded through sponsorship,” said Bloodhound LSR owner Ian Warhurst. “We know it will require up to £10m (US$13m) and the incredible social engagement with our testing program has proved that sponsors will see a return on investment and be a part of history as we develop the monopropellant rocket and prepare the car for supersonic speeds.”

Having achieved the sixth-fastest speed ever recorded by a car, the Bloodhound team will ship the vehicle back to the UK before making an attempt to achieve the land speed record in the next 18 months.

Watch the Bloodhound LSR in action here and here.

By 2025, the group plans to have invested €7bn (US$7.8bn) in the project and have a 10,000-strong workforce of software experts from VW, Porsche, and Audi delivering pioneering developments. At the moment, VW’s in-house share of software development is only 10% but the new organization will manage at least 60% of the connected car and device platforms within five years. The arm will also establish a uniform software architecture for departments including intelligent body and cockpit; automated driving; vehicle motion and energy; and digital business and mobility services.

“We will create an ideal platform for pioneering software development in the Volkswagen Group,” said Christian Senger, VW management board member responsible for in-vehicle software services. “We will increase our competitiveness in the Volkswagen Group by controlling a much larger share of the value creation in the digitalization of our vehicles. For this reason, we will also develop software on a cross-brand basis in the Car.Software organization. This will allow us to achieve important synergies and economies of scale for all brands.”

“We are creating clear structures and building up expertise in areas that will be important in the future,” added HR board management member Gunnar Kilian. “Together with employee representatives, we have agreed that the new Car.Software organization will have competitive working conditions based on collective bargaining agreements. These conditions will reflect both the future orientation and challenges of the software industry as well as our attractiveness as an employer.”

In the first phase of investment, Audi aims to apportion funds to the 30 electrified models in its range, of which 20 will be fully electric by the middle of the next decade. In the same five-year timeframe, Audi believes 40% of its sales will be electric or hybrid vehicles, but this can only be achieved by working with Porsche to develop architectures for premium electric cars. Audi will then team up with Volkswagen to develop a modular e-drive system.

The company’s management and employees have also agreed to contribute toward Audi’s competitiveness by optimizing market-oriented production at its plants, promoting apprenticeships, and extending their employment guarantee until 2029. It’s these measures that are expected to free up the second phase of investment capital.

“With this new strategy, we are accelerating our roadmap towards electrification. Our investment planning takes this into account. At around €12bn, we will spend more than ever before on electric mobility by 2024. With the ATP, we have significantly improved our spending discipline and our focus on investment. The course has been set for Audi to deliver an operating return on sales within a target corridor of 9-11% in the medium term,” said Alexander Seitz, Audi’s management board member for finance, China and legal affairs.

For the Japanese market, the car has the option of carbon-ceramic brakes, and it also benefits from being nearly 290 lb lighter than the basic RS Trophy. More than 50 vehicles have already been reserved by Renault Japan, which has overtaken Germany and France as the most popular market for Renault Sport’s RS range.

“The new Mégane R.S. Trophy-R has set a record in its category at Suzuka in Japan. This performance is particularly meaningful for the 10,000-strong local community of Renault Sport and Trophy-R fans. It demonstrates the effectiveness of the testing campaign we conducted on-site to meet their expectations. This is enough to further strengthen the relationship with our international customer base,” said Patrice Ratti, Renault Sports Cars’ general manager.

“We’ve learned lessons from previous versions and kept a close eye on the competition so that we can offer benchmark performance levels right from the launch of the car. It’s a very competitive market, one in which all the major manufacturers operate. The engineers develop simulations that help us improve the performance of previous models, despite the fact that launch windows and lead times are tightening all the time. New technologies also mean that we have to review everything constantly,” Hurgon added.

The all-titanium construction Type 4988-A mic has a laser-welded diaphragm and operates in the frequency range from 20 to 20,000Hz. It has a dynamic range of 29dB(A) to 146dB and is paired with a constant-current line-drive (CCLD) preamplifier. The corrosion-resistant unit is also suitable for acoustic testing in strong magnetic fields. It is said to have excellent stability in temperatures from -20 to 80°C and all humidity levels, plus minimal spread in frequency response between units.

The Type 4988-A is particularly useful for taking measurements in acoustic chambers and test boxes where reflections occur, as well as in unpredictable sound field conditions, in testing systems, and as a reference microphone for tuning larger arrays with active noise-cancelling systems.

Dr Rémi Guastavino, Brüel & Kjær’s acoustic domain specialist, said, “The Type 4988-A is the perfect microphone to be used in the automotive industry. Its small size allows it to fit nearly anywhere in the cabin; the all-titanium construction enables it to be used near electric motors producing strong magnetic fields; and the flatness of its frequency response – all microphones are flat ±1dB – saves the user time because they do not need to make corrections for each individual microphone.”