Coopetition in silicon! Two tech leaders join to launch an automotive safety solution in India.

Freescale Semiconductor and the Bosch Group’s Automotive Electronics division have joined hands to create a state-of-the art reference platform for an automotive airbag for the growing automotive safety segment in emerging markets such as India and China.

The solution was unveiled on the sidelines of the annual developer event, the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF), which opened in Bangalore on August 24. The new airbag reference platform is based on chipsets from Freescale’s Qorivva 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) family and Bosch’s Airbag ASSP family of analogue devices and works with sensors from both companies. OEMs would be able to add their own layer of airbag algorithms and source the reference platform from either Freescale or Bosch -- both of whom have significant operations in India. While the hardware is expected to be available in early 2012, it might be 2013 before airbags based on the new platform reach customers, engineers said at the Bangalore announcement.  Link for more technical details:http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=RDMPC560xP&tid=vanarp  

Scary accident statisticsThey also shared statistics from the WHO which showed that India’s automobile-related accident statistics were truly horrific: 145 deaths for every 100,000 cars on road, compared with 17 in the US. Airbags may reduce only the in-vehicle fatalities – but the stark fact was that India was one among a small number of countries where the fitment of airbags was not mandated. 
Another interesting display at the event, was a wireless airbag-cum driver’s jacket from Bering, meant for two wheeler riders. It was powered by Freescale’s Xtrinsic sensors.  Aug 24 2011