Vehicles are becoming increasingly connected and defined by software. These software-enabled features are driving more content and all this generates a lot of data. In the time it took you to blink just now, your vehicle would have exchanged 15,000 pieces of data. And by 2020, that jumps to 100,000 pieces of data -- all in the blink of an eye. So. how do we handle all this data and power distribution?
By completely re-thinking the vehicle’s architecture. Historically, when you added a new feature to a car, like heated seats, you just added a new control module and wiring. This is no longer manageable. Wiring in premium vehicles – known for being feature-rich – has grown from 1.5 miles to 2.5 miles. And looking ahead to Level 3, 4 and 5 automated/autonomous driving systems, it would take another mile in an unoptimized system. Imagine trying to fit 3.5 miles of mile of wires and connectors into today’s cars.
Bottom line: The historical vehicle architecture approach no longer works – it can’t support the growth in content and complexity. We have to engineer, design and produce an entirely new and smarter architecture for tomorrow’s cars.
This is where our expertise in smart architectures comes in. Smart vehicle architecture incorporates the full suite of our technology and we bring it together through our systems integration expertise. Aptiv is unique in that it can enable all the electrification, active safety, automation, and connectivity, driving this new mobility.
Vehicles today are packed with features – including everything from active safety and infotainment to autonomous driving systems. The only limiting factor to these features is the vehicle’s architecture, which is the relationship between its software, hardware, and computing power.
Enter, smart vehicle architecture. This is what Aptiv does better than anyone.
Supporting software-defined features
In order to adapt to quickly changing software needs, we have created a flexible software framework with a tailor-made computing, data and power distribution network designed to support it. It’s flexible, scalable and meets all of the required safety standards.
Need for speed
Aptiv’s revolutionary approach to architecture is broken down into what we call the brain and nervous system – and the combination of those two will unlock new features and functionality.
To enable the autonomous vehicles of the future, we must ensure that we have the networking capability to move data from the vehicle’s eyes and ears (sensors) to the brain (compute platforms) lightning fast. At Aptiv, we call this the nervous system – a reliable data network that gets the right data to the right place at the right time, like ethernet and HDBaseT to enable the high transfer speeds required.
Our supercomputing platform acts as the brain, taking in all of the data and using it to make decisions. The same types of decisions that we make when we drive.
No room for failure
Our smart mobility architecture is resilient, meeting redundancy requirements for the highest level of automotive safety, ensuring fail safe operation.
Aptiv’s smart vehicle architecture has three layers of protection. Our approach to system design considers power failure, network failure and even compute failure. It also has the ability to dynamically re-route and power network traffic and even decision making to bring an autonomous car to a safe stop.
Add to this an intelligent system with Edge Computing, providing on board diagnostics with predictive analytics, and you have a system that can grow and evolve in features, compute power and performance over the lifecycle.
Another critical component in Aptiv’s smart vehicle architecture is the Secure Connected Gateway. Vehicles are more connected than ever before. Connected to each other, connected to consumers, and connected to the surrounding ecosystem. As connectivity increases, so does the need for enhanced security around those connections.
Aptiv’s secure gateway serves as the single point connectivity hub, connecting the vehicle and its passengers to the world. It interfaces with both wired and wireless connections, and is responsible for security and data collection and analytics. Because the gateway is an independent node on the architecture, we can isolate the hardware and software, thereby meeting the most stringent functional safety and cybersecurity standards in the industry.
Aptiv’s revolutionary approach to vehicle architecture unlocks new features and functionality, making the future of mobility possible.
