What is Ethernet? In-vehicle Ethernet data harness solutions

In cars optimized to use automotive Ethernet, where everything is consolidated onto a single network, the potential for system-wide access via a single compromised component is greater. Thankfully, the protection is also greater.

"What we need to protect against is what's called a man-in-the-middle attack," Bar-Neve said.

This refers to an attack where a hacker effectively pretends to be an authorized system within the car, connecting with other systems and using them to access data within the car.

One way to thwart such attacks is to use hardware security modules (HSMs). These generate digital keys inside the car, encrypting and digitally signing all data passing through the vehicle. This technology is usually only used in high-end enterprise digital networks, and its presence in the car ensures a similar degree of mobile security.

Costs and Benefits

Between the fancy cabling, switches, and HSMs, not to mention all the software that runs it all, running a car on Ethernet instead of the more basic but redundant domain model that existed before, might sound like an expensive proposition.

“Yes and no,” said TechInsight’s Riches. “Yes, Ethernet is more expensive than the slower existing CAN links in vehicles. However, it is a fundamental building block for the new vehicle architectures needed to enable on-demand features as well as the high-speed communications required for autonomous driving.”

In other words, there’s no way around it. Riches said Ethernet is “the only game in town” if you want to do anything that requires a lot of data. But the cost of the network hardware to connect them will be minuscule compared to the cost of other sensors, such as the 3D laser scanners installed on the new Lotus Eletre.

In fact, in some cases, switching from a domain to a zone architecture, and removing all redundant components in the process, can actually save money. “There is also a long-term view that as compute performance is centralized, savings can be achieved at the vehicle level by removing many of the existing discrete ECUs today,” Riches said.

According to Bosch, a Tier 1 supplier to many OEMs, switching to this architecture could reduce the cost of these in-vehicle networks by 10%. Future cars would also require 20% fewer in-vehicle components, such as microprocessors, according to Bosch, with persistent shortages of such components still plaguing the industry.

Therefore, the move to in-vehicle Ethernet could mean that cars will not only be smarter, cheaper, and lighter, but also less difficult to find in the future.