The S32V breaks the mold of current "assistive" technology focused on driver convenience. By utilizing technology that meets various automotive standards, it has realized a function where the vehicle collects and processes data to actually take control alongside the driver when faced with dangerous situations. This represents an essential intermediate step toward evolving from current "assistive" technology into fully automated vehicles of the future.

The S32V microprocessor was manufactured in accordance with Freescale’s SafeAssure functional safety program and, through its structural design, not only meets the strict ISO 26262 functional safety standards but is also engineered to meet automotive quality standards measured in parts per billion (ppb). This stability is combined with the advantage of the excellent performance-to-power ratio of the second-generation CogniVue APEX image recognition processing technology, and also provides the ability to combine the visual data collected by the S32V device with various other data streams, including radar, LiDAR, and ultrasonic information, thereby enabling the achievement of optimal resolution and image recognition accuracy.

Luca De Ambroggi, Senior Analyst for Automotive Semiconductors at market research and analysis firm IHS, stated, “For autonomous vehicles to advance to the next level, automated systems capable of accurately processing information, making decisions, and taking necessary actions are crucial. This requires a level of reliability rarely found in consumer semiconductors, and without massive investment in system power or specifications, this essential failure-resistant reliability cannot be achieved with consumer semiconductors.”

A mindset that strives for flawlessness

The S32V is built upon Freescale’s long-standing expertise, having provided processors of exceptional reliability to the quality-first automotive market for decades. The unrivaled safety of this microprocessor is made possible by Freescale’s structural automotive technology and its expertise in optimal stability. Support for redundant signal paths, software error checking, hardware fault detection, and hardware partitioning of the on-chip processing area enables system shutdown or controlled rebooting without affecting braking or steering.

In addition, the S32V features secure boot, a network-grade encryption engine, and secure key capabilities, and meets the security hardware extension regulations set by several of the world's leading automotive manufacturers. With this exceptional level of security, the S32V not only protects vehicles from the theft of software algorithms or interference by other IPs but also enhances overall vehicle safety by blocking external attacks and unauthorized access to vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. Furthermore, individual encrypted domains provide an additional layer of protection within the vehicle network; thus, even if a hacker gains access to one node of the vehicle system, they cannot access other nodes, effectively isolating and containing hacker intrusion attempts.

Bob Conrad, Vice President and Senior General Manager of Freescale’s Automotive MCU business unit, emphasized, “Many automotive vision systems currently on the market are built on consumer semiconductor solutions originally designed to enhance game graphics performance or run smartphone apps. However, using consumer semiconductors is fundamentally illogical to usher in a new era where the car acts as a trusted co-driver. It is absolutely unacceptable to use products that are technologically inferior to automotive semiconductors for controlling the vehicle and making critical decisions while driving. This is for the sake of my family and customers, as well as myself.”

Technical Information and Linkage System Support

The S32V Vision microprocessor is equipped with high-performance CogniVue APEX-642 core image processing technology and robust hardware including four ARM® Cortex®-A53 cores.

The sophisticated software platform of the S32V includes Green Hills Software’s INTEGRITY®. This is a safety-certified real-time operating system (RTOS) equipped with powerful development tools that are ISO 26262 and ASIL-D certified and optimized for the target solution. In addition, this platform includes Neusoft Corporation's advanced real-time object recognition algorithm capable of seamlessly detecting parts of objects, allowing the S32V to identify and distinguish road hazards and pedestrian danger situations.