Comment Driving factors
Ravi Kadabi looks at how new technologies will help to redefine automotive development and production
E
merging technologies are fast redefining automotive development and production. The cycle time for development to production of a new vehicle has drastically reduced from 18-24 months to 12-18 months.
In-vehicle electronics is increasing at over 30% every year which is redefining the way traditional development has been undertaken. Currently the average cost of electronics is $300 in a low end car and $1000 in a high end car respectively. In recent years the automotive industry has rapidly moved to replace or enhance mechanical systems with electronics, referred to as the “Mechatronics” system. The complexity of these distributed electronic systems – hardware/software, the connecting networks and wiring - is growing at an exponential rate. This fast paced growth in electronics content in vehicles calls for innovative techniques, methods and processes for product development.
Recently we have also seen the opening up of never before explored markets owing to the volume production of low cost(~$ 15,000) and ultra low cost(~$5000) cars. This is opening up the market to the next billion cars, providing the freedom of mobility to masses in emerging economies. Further, as governments are bringing in legislation to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and dependency on fossil fuels, environment friendly, fuel efficient cars have become an increasingly important part of the automotive market. Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) are one alternative to the traditional gas guzzlers and are expected to capture more than 20% vehicle market share by 2020. OEMs are beginning to focus on building common platforms based on which various derivatives can be spun off through tie-ups with local OEMs and Tier1/2 suppliers. These tie-ups help in harnessing local competence, dealership, marketing network services and defining better user experience. The collaboration between global players and local players is increasing as next generation cars are brought to
38 July/August 2010
market in the shortest possible time. The technologies should be scalable, portable, reliable and safe in order to release the products early to market. The demand for high-end features in mid-segment cars is increasing and implementing them will be a challenge. This trend will drive the next generation of Geo-specific localised vehicles.
Other key trends for the next generation of vehicles in terms of in- vehicle electronics are the connected vehicle and efficient mobility. These will bring a whole new gamut of vehicle development technology to enables engineers to design energy efficient connected cars.
Connected vehicle
The connected vehicle aspires to make the vehicle as comfortable as possible, as longer commute times are forcing people to spend more time in their cars. Car buyers are expecting device connectivity and rich media content support from home and office to the car. This connectivity supports driving, entertainment and information including rendering mobile phone output to an navigation system in terminal mode.
The volume of vehicle traffic on city roads is continuously rising due to urbanisation so efficient mobility will be addressed through Powertrain, transmission and vehicle electrification. In addition alternate renewable energy sources like Bio-fuel, solar energy and electricity and traffic information shall enhance efficient mobility.
Areas of Framework Solutions ■ Seamless integration solutions for
Design engineers are currently facing new challenges of scalable, portable and reliable architecture besides enhancing the lifetime of vehicle and subsystems. Also multi-core processors, higher MIPS, latest memory and tools usage bring in new challenges for design engineers to reduce the cost & time to market.
As mentioned, EV & HE vehicles will provide vast opportunities for solutions and service (SAS) providers to address the industry trends and challenges including System On Chip (SoC), verification and validation and power electronics. The changed eco-system will require new ways of development using modeling, simulation and neural networks to enhance system capability. Multifaceted technologies such as G2V and V2G allow SAS providers to work on vehicle identification (Key Fob, RFID VIN number), vehicle connectivity, usage pattern analysis, fleet management and timed power transfer.
Among the solutions for vehicle electrification are Battery Management Systems (BMS) that look to combine efficient energy management and also lets the user know battery health parameters. The framework is extendable to alternate energy sources like wind energy and solar energy.
platform, tools and development environment
■ Adopting new standards( like AUTOSAR and Flex Ray)
■ Grid and Utility companies and OEMs work on Dynamic Electric Load Management
■ Open Source Platform like Linux ■ Mobile apps with connectivity to vehicles for Remote management of information and security control.
■ Charging the storage via Alternate sources of Energy like Solar and Wind
■ Cloud computing ■ Smart Grid Infrastructure Utility, Smart metering services
Enablers for Solutions ■ Collaborative Software Application Life Cycle Management
■ Platform Agnostic Solution ■ Coding Agnostics using System level Modeling , Simulation and Auto-coding
■ Smart Algorithms to reduce hardware components(MATLAB and Neural Network)
■ Battery Management Solution
The growing demand for EV & HE vehicles will open avenues for new sources of revenue generation for players in the automotive ecosystem. This multifaceted new generation of vehicle electronic systems not only need to be efficient & connected, but also need to use new design techniques, tools and methodologies. As a result the opportunity for existing and new automotive industry players will be great but will require them to work with standards bodies as well as create consortiums that will have to work together to develop new standards, business models, framework, solutions, tools, methods & processes.
Wipro Technologies |
www.wipro.com Ravi Kadabi is Practice Head of Powertrain and Vehicle Electronics Applications in the Automotive Group of Wipro
Components in Electronics
www.cieonline.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44