AMD chip to power auto supplier Aisin’s new automated car parking system

Aisin

16/11/2022 14:00

By Jane Lanhee Lee and Paul Lienert
       OAKLAND Calif/DETROIT, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. chip
design firm  Advanced Micro Devices Inc  AMD.O  on Wednesday
said Japan’s major automotive supply company Aisin Corp  7259.T 
has chosen AMD's micro processor to power a new system that can
help cars park themselves.
    “These parking systems have been very much a foothold in the
very luxury vehicle market today. Aisin's solution is designed
to make this more mainstream, because the solution itself is
designed to fit into a very cost effective module,” Wayne Lyons,
AMD’s senior director for the automotive market told Reuters.
    The chip is called the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC and was
developed by Xilinx, which was acquired by AMD this year. Xilinx
specializes in chips called FPGAs, or field-programmable gate
array. Their circuits can be reconfigured after the chip is
installed in things like cars. This will allow automakers to
update not only software, but also the chip, after the car is
sold, Rehan Tahir, AMD’s senior product marketing manager for
automotive told Reuters.
    Tahir said the Aisin auto parking system will start
production on 2024 models, but declined to say which car brands
would use it.
    Aisin is a member of the Toyota Group of companies. Toyota
Motor Corp.  7203.T  introduced one of the first parking assist
systems in Japan in the early 2000s. The system, which guides
vehicles into parking spaces, was offered in 2006 in the United
States on the top-of-the-line Lexus LS sedan, and now is
marketed on a wide range of Toyota and Lexus models, including
the Prius.
    Tahir said the Aisin system works with four cameras and 12
ultrasonic sensors on the car to parallel park and also back
into parking spaces. But the human in the car will have to
decide if that spot is in a no-parking zone, he said.
 (Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee in Oakland and Paul Lienert in
Detroit; Editing by David Gregorio)
 ((jane.lee@thomsonreuters.com; +1-415-344-3912; Reuters
Messaging: jane.lee.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))