A self-driving hybrid vehicle made by the Mobility Taiwan Automotive Research Consortium (mTARC, 台灣車輛移動研發聯盟) is to operate at Hsinchu’s Nanliao Harbor (南寮漁港) after being granted a license, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) said at an exhibition in Taipei yesterday.
Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) signed a memorandum of understanding with ITRI to allow the institute to test its self-driving vehicles in the city.
The institute said that it hopes the test could help improve the vehicles’ functions and safety systems.
“We want Hsinchu to be Taiwan’s first testing ground for self-driving cars, because we have a strong talent pool in the region,” Lin said.
Earlier this month, Lin said he hoped self-driving vehicles could be used to ease traffic jams in the city.
The main theme of mTARC’s exhibition this year is “intelligent mobility, connectivity and sharing.”
The consortium added “mobility” to its name this year, Ministry of Economic Affairs Department of Industrial Technology Director-General Lo Ta-sheng (羅達生) told a news conference yesterday.
Larry Chang (張念慈), director of ITRI’s Mechanical and Mechatronics Systems Research Labs, said that the autonomous vehicle is still being tested.
The institute has tested its self-driving vehicles in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park (彰濱工業區) for three years, accumulating total mileage of more than 2,000km, he said.
Nanliao Harbor has sufficient roads and infrastructure for driving tests, Chang added.
The self-driving programs for a Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷) fossil-fuel car, designed by the Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC, 車輛研究測試中心), and a Chrysler hybrid car, designed by ITRI, are to be tested at Nanliao, Chang said.
ARTC is also developing electric shuttle buses, center researcher Tsai Hung-yih (蔡汯嶧) said.
mTARC develops autonomous driving for hybrid cars, fossil-fuel cars and electric buses to target different customers, he said.
“mTARC is a platform for various institutions to share technology and seek different possibilities,” Tsai added.
At the exhibition, the consortium displayed 23 research results in self-driving technology, such as sensors and thermographic cameras that locate and show pedestrians in all kinds of weather, image recognition systems that can distinguish objects on the road, intelligent LED headlights that can automatically avoid creating glare for oncoming drivers, sensors that can detect a driver’s status and an alarm system that warns a driver of obstacles in their blind spots.
Cameras and sensors installed in the self-driving vehicle collect and send data, which could be analyzed to show road status, traffic flow, parking lot status and pedestrian flow, Chang said.
Lin was presented a smartphone app that could start the engine of mTARC’s self-driving vehicle outside the exhibition hall.
The vehicle’s passenger safely exited the vehicle after sitting in the back seat for a few minutes.
The products displayed by mTARC are the result of research by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Institute for Information Industry (資策會), ITRI, ARTC, the Metal Industries Research and Development Center (金屬工業研究發展中心), the Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co Ltd (華創車電技術中心) and 16 companies.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS