AUTOMOTIVE TESTING
Conundrum of I
t’s already been a very long time since there was anything remotely simple about the cars we drive or the ability to recognise problems, self diagnose or even attempt to repair them without detailed knowledge or specialist
equipment. Now, with electrification, different powertrain options, driver assist systems, high levels of connectivity and, ultimately, autonomy, private transport is certainly not going to become any simpler. With this rise in complexity comes a degree of
consumer anxiety about reliability, repair costs and long-term resale value as noted in a recent AA motorist survey, which revealed that this anxiety, along with purchase price, are the root cause of a reluctance to purchase electric vehicles in as many as 3 out of 10 drivers.
COST ESCALATION While the additional functions, features and safety benefits of partially autonomous, ADAS equipped vehicles are all very welcome, there is a significant cost penalty that is ultimately borne by the consumer and which needs to be factored into the total cost of ownership when purchasing decisions are made. One case study of a US automotive manufacturer
showed that the bill-of-materials cost of a brake light system had grown from $67 to a staggering $450 due to the addition of sensors, detection systems and cameras for ADAS features. While some of this cost is for the extra hardware installed, there is also a significant cost burden resulting from development, prototyping and testing the system. Taking large chunks out of this cost while still maintaining the additional new functions is the conundrum of complexity facing the automotive industry. To understand what tools are available to the
industry to unravel this problem, I travelled to National Instruments’ (NI) UK headquarters in Newbury to speak to Jeremy Twaits, a senior field marketing engineer there.
DESIGN OPTIMISATION Taking cost out of the design, development, test and validation loop is something that Twaits is certain can be achieved by using the correct design optimisation tools, as well as performing validation exercises at each stage of the process. “By using such tools at every stage of the
30 /// Environmental Engineering /// September 2018
❱❱ Driven by trends towards electrification, above, and autonomous operation of vehicles, engineers must contend with drastically increased system complexity while dealing with ongoing cost and time pressures; a typical ECU tester block diagramme, above right, in which the tester receives commands from the ECU and dynamically simulates real time sensory responses
development cycle, rectification costs can be avoided. These can be significant and tend to escalate by an order of magnitude, the further along the design cycle you go,” he says. He went on to explain that design optimisation
using software tools such as LabVIEW can help to detect bugs and errors early enough to avoid functional redundancies and inefficiencies.
RELIABILITY As product complexity increases, the subject of reliability becomes more focused. For a consumer product, the perception of reliability can be a crucial factor in making purchasing decisions, especially for emerging technology. With few electric or autonomous vehicles being in
existence that have been through a full life cycle, there is understandable consumer anxiety about full life cycle costs and about maintenance costs if maintainability hasn’t been correctly modelled. I asked Twaits whether this was something that can be built into the design model. He explained that the software is very flexible and
so such things as maintainability and part replacement costs can be put into the workflow to give a picture of field service requirements. Twaits went on to say that there were other
factors in serviceability that need to be taken into account as well as continued test capability in the field. “It’s expected within a 15-20 year lifespan of a new vehicle that the test programs will change many times but a capability to test at all versions and iterations will remain a necessity,” he says.
Jonathan Newell visits National Instruments UK HQ in Newbury to discover how Veristand can help
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