EPN Automotive Electronics Blog

Ethernet drive

Happy new year, dear readers - welcome to the future! One vision of the future is the ‘connected car’, and many drivers seem to want that. As consumer demand for in-vehicle connectivity continues to grow, automotive manufacturers are under pressure to deliver competitive, innovative features while minimizing cost. A major stumbling block is cabling - it’s heavy, difficult to design and expensive.

When cars communicate

It seems to be a sure deal that vehicle-to-vehicle communication is the next big thing. It may not be a mature technology and there are many unclear issues concerning the communication protocol and, most important, security. Apart from those practical things, it isn't even totally clear what V2V will be good for. However, researchers and semiconductor companies are busy preparing for this future of automotive technology.

Signal conditioning

Among the most used electronic components in modern cars are sensors. Since they are omnipresent, they came into focus for space saving. Most (analogue) sensing components can’t shrink much but the ‘back end’ like signal conditioning can.

All in one

EMBEDDED WORLD 2011 – Virtual dashboards, car navigation and camera-based driver assistance from a single chip - impossible? Maybe, but Fujitsu says it can, with the SoC MB86R12 ‘Emerald-P’ with integrated APIX2 interface. It seems that the Doubtless, in cars of the future the is the virtual display will be the primary interface with the driver, replacing traditional instruments such as pointers, knobs and buttons and maybe even the view of the road ahead. It could bring entirely new applications into the car, not only increasing comfort but also safety, as is the case with camera-based driver assistance systems such as night vision assistance and head up display applications, the engineers of Fujitsu are convinced.

embedded world 2011: Infotainment-SoC

For me it is not terribly clear why one needs high-definition video in a car’s dashboard, since one is not supposed to watch the newest Coen brothers movie there and even a Sat Nav doesn’t need 1080p, much less the »virtual« tachometers. However, nowadays it’s even being installed in mid-range cars, so there seems to be some kind of demand. A good thing for semiconductor manufacturers.

Model truck

Inefficient driving techniques can increase carbon emissions and raise fuel consumption by as much as 10%. For a company with 20 trucks, each driven 120,000 kilometres a year, this translates to 200 tons

Safety for Safety

Camera systems have become an important automotive safety component, typically combining multiple camera modules with advanced image analysis to help drivers monitor road conditions, detect hazards and avoid collisions. These cameras need to be controlled with as less as possible delay and the transmitted data has to be checked for safety and security reasons, so fast and reliable connections are mandatory.

A tiny controller in a big car

More electronics, increasingly complex software: Modern cars are embedded systems on wheels. While communication between ECUs (Electronic control units) and other on-board systems has become more or less standardized with bus systems like CAN, LIN and sometimes already MOST and Flexray , there are still many proprietary communication solutions in the powertrain area.

MOST for the masses

It took quite a while for the “Multimedia-Bus” MOST to penetrate even the luxury car segment. Now it's becoming available in an entry level car, the Audi A1.

The future at your fingertips

Just imagine you wouldn’t need to press button anymore? Just with a soft fingertip you’ll start the car, point where you want to go or start the infotainment system by intuitively using your fingertips to quickly and easily adjust temperature, change audio volume, or find a location on the map. This all could be possible, promises Cypress Semiconductor  as the company has introduced the “world's broadest Automotive-Qualified Touch-Sensing Portfolio featuring industry's first capacitive touchscreen solution”, acclaims Hassane El-Khoury, Automotive Business Unit Manager at Cypress.