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APPROACHING AUTONOMY: THE PROMISE OF
FUTURE MOBILITY
Today’s cars are equipped with dozens of electronic control
units (ECUs), transmitters, receivers, actuators, sensors and
other electronic components. Many of them work together in
highly refined advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to
support the driver and make the car safer, more connected,
comfortable, energy efficient, environmentally friendly and
easier to drive. To meet these goals, the car needs to gather,
process and respond to an enormous amount of data that will
only increase as cars take on more autonomy.
DATA DILEMMAS MEET NXP SOLUTIONS
Managing and distributing all that data in a cost-effective,
efficient way is a significant challenge. ADAS functions
can strain the data capacity of an in-vehicle network (IVN)
already taxed by an onboard entertainment system with its
own demanding bandwidth requirements. Each evolution
of ADAS and infotainment systems will require even more
bandwidth. For self-driving cars to become an everyday
reality, designers first need to find a way to manage all the
data and processing required to support autonomy. Then,
they need to do it in a way that both increases safety and
adds convenience, all while reducing overall cost.
NXP is an integral part of recent technological advances that
help designers increase bandwidth and manage complex
autonomous driving requirements. As we anticipate future
requirements for ADAS, IVNs and onboard entertainment,
we see enormous potential for automotive Ethernet in
a distributed vehicle network as the best solution for
automotive data management. It enables broadband
connectivity with the necessary latency and predictability
required for advanced control functions and full-motion
video. At the same time, it reduces vehicle weight, saves
power, increases efficiency, enables upgrades and makes
autonomous driving more affordable.
THE DISTRIBUTED VEHICLE NETWORK
In an automotive Ethernet setup, multiple vehicle systems
simultaneously access high bandwidth over a single UTP
cable. The Ethernet becomes the backbone of the vehicle
network and supports higher levels of data processing
and more communication types. Using traffic engineering
features such as VLANs means each port receives
dedicated bandwidth and the entire backbone is capable
of IP connectivity. We envision a backbone architecture
made of hierarchically organized domain controllers, with
IP-based routing and high communication bandwidth.
Instead of supporting individual high-bandwidth functions,
the architecture supports all the high-bandwidth functions
that reside on the same physical network but use logically
separated virtual networks.
By using automotive Ethernet in a distributed vehicle
network, manufacturers can move components out of the
head unit and place them closer to where they’re needed
throughout the vehicle, freeing space in the head unit while
also increasing operational efficiency and performance.
For example, if a designer moves the tuner module closer
to the antenna, they can reduce heat in the head unit and
dashboard area and significantly reduce cabling costs.
LEADING THE WAY TO AUTONOMOUS DRIVING
Real-time processing and in-vehicle networking technologies
of the next decade will likely revolutionize how we move
around, how we interact with our vehicles and how our
vehicles react to the infrastructure and each other. At NXP,
we envision automotive Ethernet as an essential part of this
revolution.
Working with Ethernet in the car, however, means a
paradigm shift in next-generation IVN system designs as
automotive designers connect different domain networks,
transport various data (control data, streaming, etc.)
and meet strict requirements for extended temperature
ranges and EMC performance. We believe this new way of
designing is worthwhile because it increases bandwidth,
reduces vehicle weight and lowers costs so designers can
introduce new and desirable functionality without enormous
cost increases.
MARKET VISION