Visteon partners with Dongfeng Motor Co

China's second largest vehicle manufacturer, Dongfeng Motor Co has selected SmartCore cockpit domain controller technology from Visteon Corporation for a future domestic Chinese light vehicle program. This will be Visteon's first SmartCore application in China, the company's largest market and the world's biggest automotive market.

Visteon will supply the SmartCore domain controller, with an integrated center information display and thin-film transistor (TFT) instrument cluster display, for a high-line variant of a high-volume Dongfeng light vehicle scheduled for production starting in 2018.

Visteon also will supply a reconfigurable instrument cluster and infotainment system for other variants of the vehicle.

Visteon is the first supplier offering an automotive-grade, integrated domain controller approach that can independently operate the infotainment system, instrument cluster and potentially other features on one System on Chip (SoC).

This is Visteon's third new business award for SmartCore. Visteon is scheduled to launch the first SmartCore - based solution in 2018, for a European vehicle manufacturer. Earlier this year, Visteon announced a second SmartCore program, also with a European automaker, offering instrument cluster and infotainment features and expanding the platform to high-end applications with a 3-D display and augmented reality head-up display capabilities.

"This latest business win with the second largest vehicle manufacturer in China further validates SmartCore as a viable solution to manage the increasing cost and complexity of in-vehicle electronics," said Sachin Lawande, Visteon president and CEO. "Visteon is well-positioned to lead the consolidation of electronic control units in the cockpit space, and we are in active dialogue with several more automakers in China and elsewhere around the world to adopt this technology in their vehicles."

The SmartCore architecture is fully scalable and cyber-secured through virtualization of the different cores and controlled firewalls. This enables independent functional domains with different levels of ASIL requirements "“ initially driver information and infotainment "“ while future domains can be added to operate separately and securely.

"For the automaker, SmartCore offers a cost-effective, space-saving cockpit electronics solution that is fully scalable and can be updated over-the-air," Lawande continued. "Drivers and passengers benefit from an enhanced instrument cluster and infotainment experience, boosted by a single seamless human machine interface, offering access to multiple levels of information."

SmartCore is designed to integrate infotainment, instrument clusters, information displays, head-up displays, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and connectivity "“ providing a foundation for the evolution to autonomous driving.