Is automobile manufacturing ushering in disruptive innovation? Aptiv officially launches intelligent vehicle architecture

Aptiv said that the megatrends in the automotive industry, such as electrification, safety automation, and connectivity, are bringing unprecedented changes to vehicle architecture. With the continuous increase of new in-vehicle functions, the current vehicle architecture is already overwhelmed and has exceeded the critical point. We have entered a new world of smart vehicle architecture (Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA)).

"Automakers need a new vehicle architecture to unlock software innovation and truly realize the innovative concepts shown at CES," said Kevin Clark, president and CEO of Aptiv. "As a complete system solutions provider with a unique position in the brain and nervous system of the car, we know that intelligent vehicle architecture is the right way to achieve the future of mobility."

Aptiv's basic view is that under the current trend of the four modernizations of automobiles, automobile manufacturing itself should abandon the basic electrical architecture that began in the late 1990s and begin to adopt a new generation of smart car design and architecture.

What is the urgency of this issue?

Aptiv said that the four trends in automobiles have driven a revolutionary change in the global automobile manufacturing industry, but have also brought about four most pressing issues:

1. How to add new functions, upgrade existing software, and port existing software to another new hardware without changing the existing car architecture?

2. How to apply new hardware to vehicles faster?

3. How can we ensure the safe operation of the vehicle even when a vehicle malfunctions without doubling the onboard software and hardware content?

4. How can the above requirements be met in the lowest possible cost and sustainable manner?

In terms of automotive infrastructure, system integration, and comprehensive product portfolio, the architecture launched by Aptiv can comprehensively solve the above problems.

Aptiv has made innovations in two major areas: data power center and open server platform.

The Launch Pad for Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA): Data Power Center

Aptiv said that the most common question asked by many vehicle manufacturers is: "How to realize intelligent vehicle architecture based on the existing architecture?"

Aptiv believes the answer is: the Power Data Center (PDC). This power center is called the universal docking station of the Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA), where the separation of computers and input and output is realized.

A Power Data Center (PDC) is like a docking station for a laptop computer, with multiple inputs that can act as an interface for other devices. When the laptop is docked, the power cord, USB drive, and display are all connected directly to the laptop computer.

The same concept is used between the Power Data Center (PDC) and the Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA).

Not only that, the Power Data Center (PDC) can also provide a powerful redundant power supply for the system to achieve safe automation. In addition, it is possible to achieve wiring harness automation and improve the integration of current controller properties and functions. Aptiv said that this innovative design is unique to it and has applied for a patent.

The establishment of the Power Data Center (PDC) has three major significances:

First, in terms of power, the Power Data Center (PDC) brings a digital intelligent fusion solution that can switch power supply within milliseconds in the event of a fault.

Second, in terms of networking, Aptiv connects sensors and peripherals to current network technologies such as Ethernet, CAN or LVDS, and connects them to redundant twisted pair backbones.

Third, in terms of regional control, Aptiv has added powerful application processors that enable us to integrate and control multiple attributes and functions within a specific area.

Aptiv said this is a very powerful and sustainable design architecture that can bring key benefits to the current Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA), allowing consumers to obtain a full set of Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA) solutions in the future.

A new, more logical central computing strategy.

What benefits will be achieved if the two architectural design bottlenecks are resolved, namely the separation of input and output from the computer, and the separation of hardware from software?

Aptiv said that the current automotive architecture used by mainstream car companies has logical domains, but the attributes and functions of each domain are highly dispersed on several physical controllers in the car. This will form a very complex architecture, making integration and testing very difficult, and there is no scalability and it cannot be applied to future situations.

When the Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA) moves the input and output ends out of the computer and has them managed uniformly by the data power center, a future-oriented central computing architecture is born.

Through the open server platform, the new architecture can customize the co-processor according to the overall computing needs of the workload in the vehicle. Just as cloud servers can handle tasks ranging from payroll to human genome analysis at the same time, Aptiv's open server platform can run a variety of applications at the same time, from backdoor control, infotainment, to data applications for autonomous driving.

Currently, all applications have reached automotive-grade reliability requirements. This open server platform not only enhances computing power, but also has a flexible software framework and intelligent abstraction, with the logical domain almost close to the represented entity.

Aptiv said the design breakthrough allows software developed or improved on the car's various controllers to be "detached," repackaged and integrated upstream onto a server platform.

Separating the software and hardware life cycles and achieving innovation is the general trend for future vehicle computers, and Aptiv is turning this goal into reality.

Application Roadmap of Intelligent Vehicle Architecture

The star topology in traditional automotive architecture has limitations: it is not flexible enough and cannot afford redundancy. In addition, the central node represents a single point of failure, and once a problem occurs in this node, it will affect the normal operation of the car.

The ring topology of the Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA) achieves flexibility and redundancy, with each node connected to two other nodes, forming a continuous path (a ring) that allows signals to pass through each node. This strategy is extremely efficient and can better handle larger loads than the traditional star topology, achieving redundancy in an affordable way.

In the process of transforming from traditional vehicle architecture to intelligent vehicle architecture, although the vehicle architectures currently being produced and developed by vehicle customers are at different stages, it is already necessary to quickly implement architecture upgrades.

Unlock new software-driven capabilities

Current automotive architectures are complex and expensive to develop. SVA, with its intelligent abstraction, standardized interfaces, and scalable computing capabilities, enables the development of software applications independent of hardware and the reuse of these applications across platforms, thereby reducing costs and scalable levels of autonomous driving.

Reducing vehicle architecture complexity

Currently, the functions of a car are scattered among various controllers. SVA can concentrate computing power into regional controllers that are easier to manage and allow new functions to be easily added. The regional controller provides interfaces for sensors, manages power, and provides regional computing power. The open server platform, which serves as the central computing platform, can dynamically allocate computing resources to ensure that the car can drive safely even if a critical part fails, thereby ensuring the safety redundancy of the car. SVA is designed to provide more performance and higher flexibility while optimizing costs, and can reduce the weight and space required for computing by 25% compared to traditional automotive architecture designs.

Speed ​​up development cycle

The development, testing and verification process of the entire vehicle must be carried out in sequence. The design of SVA separates software and hardware, and separates I/O from computing, thereby achieving independent parallel development cycles, shortening time to market, and allowing extensive software reuse. Aptiv hopes that SVA will reduce system integration and testing costs and software-related warranty costs by approximately 75%, while eliminating the need for model year upgrades.

Provides a modular architecture that simplifies manufacturing

The SVA architecture is designed for the factory of the future, where automated manufacturing will ensure quality and reduce costs. SVA's modular partition structure uses the Dock & Lock™ connection system to simplify vehicle manufacturing and assembly, and common sub-components can reduce SKUs by 25%. In addition, Aptiv believes that OEMs using SVA will reduce the factory floor space required to assemble the electrical architecture by 20%.

Unlocking new business models for the automotive industry

The server-based central computing open server platform supports wireless software and firmware upgrades to enhance performance and optimize data analysis through edge computing. It also provides an open platform and development ecosystem that can access third-party applications, such as various user experience programs, to unlock new business models for the automotive industry.