Page 15 - Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (January 2020)

Emerging Technologies

Mentor

AVs rely on a dense network of powerful sensors and computers to detect and react to highly dynamic driving scenarios.

Architectural optimizations smaller wires and new materials. Ultra-thin-diameter
Automakers are investigating new electronic/electrical wiring (0.13 mm2) is a notable example. Unfortunately,
(E/E) architectures that will simplify the harness design the industry still is struggling to develop sufficient
to minimize cost and weight. Such designs can reduce terminal substitutions for all currently existing termi-
the wiring needed to support vehicle functionality and nals that can crimp to such a small diameter. The avail-
offer an opportunity to reduce mass while making auto- able products on the market currently do not support
mated production easier, driving down cost. And OEMs a large-scale migration to ultra-small diameter wiring.
have begun consolidating electronic components, such as The same applies to aluminum wiring. For small-
ECUs and sensor modules, moving from highly distrib- diameter wiring, pure aluminum is too brittle and thus
uted to increasingly centralized architectures. The archi- not a feasible option. Terminal suppliers are developing
tectural consolidation is driving reduced bills-of-material optimal aluminum alloys for the specifications of their
(BoM), which directly impacts harness complexity. terminals. This has led to a multitude of different alloys
ECU consolidation has become a popular strategy on the market that, in most cases, are incompatible
as automakers integrate more powerful integrated with other suppliers’ terminals. To use these wires, a
circuits (IC) and microprocessors into their vehicles. vehicle would have to use one supplier’s connectors
The increased computational capabilities of these across the full vehicle, which is not realistic.
chips enables a single box to manage tasks that used Finding alternatives to specialty cables will further
to require multiple units. As a result, vehicle architec- reduce weight/cost and bundle diameters of harnesses.
tures are converging with powerful domain controller The number of data-intense sensors and displays will
units using sensor fusion and artificial intelligence only increase in the future, making it crucial to develop
algorithms to pre-process sensor data before sending solutions to transmit video and other data-rich signals
it to a centralized processing unit. via standardized wiring. Alternatively, finding ways to
However, there is a balance to be struck with consol- multiplex signals onto a single shared specialty cable
idation. An architecture that features only one or two while multiple devices tap in will have the same effect:
control units managing all vehicle functions will require reducing weight/cost/bundle diameters.
an immense amount of wiring to connect with all the
components that are necessarily distributed around the Leveraging digitalization
vehicle. OEMs will need to perform dozens of analyses In concert with architectural and harness optimizations,
to determine the optimal balance between distribution adopting E/E software solutions to support development
and centralization for harness functionality. flow will be crucial. Software solutions need to enable
OEMs and Tier 1s also are developing technol- rapid tradeoff studies to optimize module locations
ogies that directly reduce harness weight through and identify any module that can be combined to save

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING January 2020 13