26 AFTERMARKET MARCH 2024 TECHNICAL/AFTERMARKET OF THE FUTURE www.aftermarketonline.net Focal Point aims to boost trust by thwarting GPS spoofing According to a new survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) specialist Focal Point Positioning, 48.9% of consumers still believe selfdriving cars will make roads more dangerous. Key concerns, the Cambridgebased company found, relate to the reliability of the technology, liability for accidents, vulnerability to cyberattack, and potential subscription costs. Of particular interest to Focal Point was the threat of GPS spoofing, which it says is on the rise. Spoofers broadcast fake signals to confuse the GNSS receiver, potentially interfering with ADAS and automated driving systems. Manuel Del Castillo, VP of Business Development at Focal Point, said: “GNSS sensors are a marvel of engineering, able to compute an absolute position – latitude, longitude and altitude – anywhere in the world. However, they can suffer from accuracy problems in urban environments due to all the reflections off buildings, and they can also be subjected to RF cyberattacks. “To combat this, our S-GNSS Auto software can run in the GNSS chips of any of the major suppliers, to generate a 'trust zone' around the GPS sensor. It can also be useful in improving the performance of suboptimal antennas, which VMS sometimes use because they don’t interfere so much with the design.” A partner in not one but two of the major Government-backed self-driving projects announced by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) last September, Hampshire-based simulation software specialist, rFpro, is branching out from its automotive and motorsport roots. Managing Director Peter Daley explained: “Yes, we’re a consortium partner in two Commercialising CAM Supply Chain projects – DeepSafe and Sim4CAMSens. “DeepSafe will develop simulation-based training to help automated vehicles handle edge cases, supporting verification and validation (V&V). Project leader dRISK bring a way of analysing unexpected driving scenarios, and other partners include Imperial College London, Claytex Services and DG Cities. “Claytex, with whom we work closely, are also taking the lead in the Sim4CAMSens project, which has a focus on sensor modelling and evaluation. Other partners include the University of Warwick, National Physical Laboratory, Syselek, Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult, Oxford RF and Techworkshub. “At rFpro, we’ve been investing in driving simulation technology for years, allowing our customers to develop, test and optimise vehicles more quickly, efficiently and effectively than they could by real-world testing alone. We create very detailed large-scale digital models of real-world environments, and offer high performance software which allows people to interact with those. “Our real-time simulation software is used by many leading OEMs and professional motorsports teams, including in F1, in vehicle dynamics, human factors and other use cases. However, the level of visual realism from images rendered in real-time using rasterising technology still wasn’t high enough to be used on its own for the training and testing of automated vehicle (AV) perception systems. Our new Ray Tracing technology addresses this. “With Ray Tracing, we can reliably simulate the huge number of reflections created by multiple light sources in a scene, even taking into account the properties of the materials the light is hitting, and apply this to every element in the scene as perceived by a vehicle-mounted sensor. “Ray Tracing can be applied to the modelling of cameras, radar and lidar sensors. Our solution accurately replicates things like camera shutter effects, depth of field, lens distortion and light saturation across different weather and light conditions. Sensor vibrations from an uneven road surface are allowed for, as is the effect of motion blur from the relative motion between sensor and objects, such as other vehicles, pedestrians or road signs and markings. “This new technology replicates what cameras and sensors really ‘see’ and presents it in ultrahigh definition (UHD). It is a big leap forward and, taken together with rFpro’s renowned realtime solution, unique in the marketplace.” CCAV turn to F1’s rFpro for super realistic simulation software Neil Kennett looks at cutting-edge auto tech coming to a workshop near you soon AFTERMARKET OF THE FUTURE A commentator on the UK aftermarket since before Concorde was grounded, Neil is Editor of Carsofthefuture.co.uk, providing news and views about driverless vehicles, and Director of Communications at Selfdrivingpr.com, experts in automotive/autonomous media and public relations
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