How connected vehicles process data: 3 common questions

Connected driving is already here, but there is still a lot of room for development. In the future, vehicles will communicate with drivers, other cars, roads and surrounding infrastructure, pedestrians and the cloud, while maintaining a constant connection with passengers.

As connectivity continues to improve, vehicles will be able to receive, understand and transmit data from within the vehicle and its surroundings, thereby helping drivers make driving decisions, providing convenience for passengers and increasing vehicle autonomy.

Today, we’ll tackle three common questions about the future of connected cars.

Q: What is V2X and how does it relate to connected cars?

A: Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) is a multi-point network that allows information to be passed between a vehicle and the world around it, including pedestrians, surrounding infrastructure (such as lamp posts, traffic lights and parking lots), other vehicles and the cloud/network. This ecosystem is shown in Figure 1.

At the heart of a V2X network is the Telematics Control Unit (TCU) – the brains of the telematics system, which is the central hub for nearly all wireless communications between the outside world and the car.

Q: What is the difference between DSRC and C-V2X?

A: Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) and cellular V2X (C-V2X) are two radio technologies that are expected to become the standard connectivity mode for V2X. Table 1 summarizes the pros and cons of each.

Table 1: Pros and cons of DSRC and C-V2X in automotive applications

Q: What are the keys to managing in-car data?

A: After the vehicle receives data from the external environment, there are several domains called gateways that are responsible for securely transmitting the data within the vehicle. There may be multiple gateways within the vehicle: a central gateway and multiple domain gateways. These gateways may include:

Automotive Gateway – is a central gateway module that manages and sends data to various network domains within the vehicle.

Smart Connected Car Gateway – This gateway represents the next evolution of the highly integrated TCU – the infotainment gateway module within the digital cockpit manages communications between the central gateway and the outside world, including emergency calls (eCall), vehicle tracking, electronic toll collection, diagnostics and over-the-air updates.

ADAS Domain Controller – is an ADAS gateway module that manages the communication between the central gateway and the powertrain to enable different levels of autonomous driving.

The race is on to design connected vehicles that deliver an unprecedented driving experience. I look forward to the day when this additional connectivity brings new benefits to the responsiveness of autonomous driving, making roads safer for drivers and pedestrians.