How did Whetron Electronics enter the International intelligent vehicle market with key sensing technologies?

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Nov 08, 2022, 04:01 ET

TAIPEI, Nov. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/-- This article is based on an interview undertaken by FusionMedium's technology online media, TechOrange, and published with permission:

Honda, Ford, and Mazda's EV sensors are all made in Taiwan

More and more sensors are being used in both gasoline-powered and electric vehicles (EVs) to meet with the expectations among drivers for safety, convenience and comfort. With the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) having very much become standard in virtually all new cars, sensors will undoubtedly be given more emphasis on the path to intelligent and driverless cars.

Whetron Electronics was established in 1983 as a provider to the automotive electronics sector. Over the 40 years of the company's existence, its lineup of sensing-centric vehicle systems from anti-theft, parking assistance to ADAS has excelled in performance.

"The sensors in a car are no longer single sensing units operating on the basis of a single technology, but rather a collection of different sensors, each with its own purpose, with the result that the number of sensors in the vehicle of today is several dozen times what was needed 10 years ago," said Alex Cho, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Whetron Electronics.

Core technologies and hard work make for good industry performance

Whetron Electronics got its entry into the automotive electronics sector as soon as the firm was established in 1983 and started providing remote control anti-theft devices to Ford. Over the next 40 years, the company has become ubiquitous with sensing-centric vehicle systems from anti-theft and parking assistance to ADAS. The company's accumulation of experience and technology over the four decades has led to itscapabilities in automotive sensors being widely recognized by many of the industry's majors, among them, Ford, GM, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Nissan ,and Mitsubishi.

With superior technology and service, Whetron Electronics has maintained close, long-term relationships with customers and became the exclusive supplier of Honda's ultrasonic radar in 2015, establishing its leadership position in intelligent vehicle electronics.

How did Whetron Electronics win the favor of these manufacturers? "Technology is the key, while long-term experience and hard work are the foundation," emphasized Cho. The world's roads, traffic conditions, geography, and climate environments vary greatly, and the proper working of the sensing system under various scenarios requires experience and repeated iteration. "There will always be many unexpected situations."

Alex said, for example, when the vehicle is being driven along steep up-and-down mountain roads, it becomes impossible for the front and rear millimeter wave radar to detect objects outside the vehicle correctly and respond as the slope is too inclined and the radar angle is fixed. This is unacceptable to car manufacturers. To improve radar discrimination accuracy to more than 95%, the company repeatedly conducted road tests with automakers over an eight-month period and kept modifying the algorithm until a satisfactory solution was found. This is just one of many cases where the company leveraged its rich measurement experience to overcome blind spot challenges and provide drivers with superior quality and service.

From a single sensor to multiple sensing, making progress by working hand-in-hand with carmakers

As vehicle sensing systems gradually transition from a single sensor to multiple sensing, the challenges facing sensing system manufacturers become ever more complex. The technology-centered advantages of Whetron Electronics are expected to become even starker in the highly competitive automotive electronics market.

To start off, a single sensor can't meet the requirements of the multiple sensing systems installed in today's intelligent vehicles. A or even several multiple sensing systems with different functions need to be integrated and connected before drivers can access and benefit from the massive amount of vehicle information to achieve optimum driving safety. In addition, the sensor-related software must be updated in real-time to ensure that the vehicle is always equipped with the latest advances in quickly evolving technology.

To overcome these challenges, it behooves sensing system manufacturers to work closely with automobile manufacturers. The tacit interaction and trust relationship established between Whetron Electronics and carmakers over the last 40 years has laid a solid foundation for the development of intelligent and driverless cars and led to the design and provision of the most beneficial sensing solutions.

"For the whole life cycle from development and design, mass production and manufacturing to after-sales service, we do everything well, so the continuous improvement in competitiveness is inevitable as evidenced by our many achievements and data." Alex also mentioned that in the process of the company's pursuit of progress, the AI on Chip Industrial Cooperation Strategic Alliance established by the Smart Electronics Industry Promotion Office (SIPO) of the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs provided information sharing across the sector, exchanges leading to collaborations with domestic and foreign manufacturers, access to international resources and business opportunities assistance. All the support has proven invaluable to Whetron Electronics and helped the company achieve the goal of accelerating expansion into the global automotive electronics market.

Keeping pace with the times and being at the forefront of the EV's "integrated driving and parking" trend

By being among the first to collaborate with carmakers and manufacturers of car engines, Whetron Electronics was an early entrant into the market for intelligent EVs with integrated driving and parking functionalities.

Alex noted that the parking and driving functions of vehicles in general have always been controlled by two independent systems, while the whole electronic and electrical architecture of the vehicle has gradually shifted from a distributed to a centralized one. Reductions in cost, power consumption, and vehicle weight have made it so that the integration of driving and parking systems is no longer a challenge. In addition, the relevant sensing functions must match the integrated vehicle system. Whetron Electronics has already readied itself to fulfill this need.

To cater to the transition to intelligent EVs and autonomous vehicles, Whetron Electronics, as a key component within the supply chain of Taiwan's automotive electronics industry, is confident in the market, "Taiwan excels in both ICT industry hardware and software and has important ADAS research advantages. Combined with complete production chains and industry clusters, as well as ample investment from multiple sectors, we believe that the island is ideally positioned to play a key role in the EV and autonomous vehicle markets." concluded Cho.

SOURCE Fusionmedium