Autonomous Driving: It’s Not About Technology, It's About Trust

By Barbara Kolbl - 2018-09-27

We don’t believe that the central challenge in the development of self-driving vehicles is the technology. It’s trust. Trust in the safety, reliability and experience that the technology will enable. – Ford 2018

Similar to Ford, Micron is working on enabling future technologies in the automobile. We have the engineering resources, we have the technology, and we have the fabs. What makes Micron the trusted advisor in the automotive industry is our 28-year heritage of supporting the automotive market and continued commitment to working closely with the OEMs, tier one vendors, and chip set vendors. This differentiation manifests itself in our process controls, test coverage, customer support, and our products.

Process control: devices destined for automotive applications go through a stringent process control. The wafers are only eligible for automotive grade if they meet very strict criteria that ensures compliance to the most stringent of industry standards. Materials not conforming with automotive datasheets and stringent standards are removed from the automotive line.

Text Coverage: devices destined for automotive applications must go through additional, extensive testing, such as HTOL – high temperature operating life which employs accelerated temperature and voltage to further exclude non-conforming parts from the automotive line.

Customer support: with 13 customer labs around the world to support customers across 4 critical areas to ensure the faster time to market with the lower risk. These 4 areas include: design support services, system/platform validation services, qualification services, and failure analysis activities. Examples of these services include: PCB analysis and simulation support, system performance testing and tuning, power and thermal cycling analysis, and root cause analysis for when things go wrong.

Micron takes its role as trusted advisor and commitment to the automotive market seriously. Micron’s products and processes are designed from the ground up to meet the most stringent automotive requirements. This enables automotive OEMs to have confidence that when they choose Micron, they can trust that they will deliver an automobile that will delight their customers.

Bruce Franklin

Barbara Kolbl

Barbara Kolbl, senior product line operations manager, is fascinated with the changes memory is driving in the automotive industry. Her previous role in marketing communication for the automotive market segment along with her current role in LPDRAM operations allows her a front row seat to the changes happening in this dynamic market.

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