by Sarah LaLiberte
As the Marketing Chair of AVCC, I’ve been closely monitoring the rapid evolution of automotive technology. As we approach 2025, the industry faces several critical challenges in vehicle computing and connectivity that will shape the future of mobility.
Let’s explore the top five hurdles that OEMs, suppliers, and tech companies must overcome to drive innovation in the automotive sector.
One: High-Performance Computing
At the heart of modern vehicles lies the need for powerful and efficient computing systems. This challenge is multifaceted, encompassing both hardware and software aspects.
Scalable Computing Platforms: The race is on to develop flexible and scalable computing architectures that can support a wide range of vehicle types and functionalities. Companies like NVIDIA and Intel are leading the charge with innovations in automotive-grade SoCs (System on Chip) and GPUs. NVIDIA’s DRIVE platform, for instance, offers scalable solutions from ADAS to full autonomy, while Intel’s Mobileye is pushing the boundaries of vision-based autonomous driving technologies.
The challenge here is not just about raw computing power, but also about creating platforms that can be easily upgraded and adapted as vehicle capabilities evolve. This requires a modular approach to both hardware and software design, allowing for seamless integration of new features and functionalities over time.
Energy-Efficient Processing: As vehicles become more electrified, optimizing the energy consumption of computing systems is crucial. ARM and AMD are pioneering low-power, high-performance processors tailored for automotive applications. ARM’s Cortex-R series, for example, is designed specifically for real-time processing in automotive systems, balancing performance with energy efficiency.
The challenge extends beyond just processor design. It encompasses the entire computing ecosystem within the vehicle, including memory systems, storage, and networking components. Innovations in packaging technologies, such as advanced 3D chip stacking, are being explored to further improve energy efficiency without compromising performance.
Two: Safety and Security
As vehicles become more connected and software-defined, ensuring their safety and security is paramount. This challenge has two critical components:
Functional Safety: Developing computing platforms that meet stringent automotive safety standards (e.g., ISO 26262) is critical. Companies like Mobileye and APTIV are at the forefront of creating functionally safe systems for autonomous and ADAS applications. These systems must be designed to handle failures gracefully, ensuring that even in the event of a component malfunction, the vehicle remains safe to operate.
The challenge here is not just in designing individual components to be safe, but in creating an integrated system that can maintain safety across all operational scenarios. This requires extensive testing and validation, including the use of advanced simulation technologies to model a wide range of potential scenarios.
Cybersecurity: Protecting against hacking and ensuring secure over-the-air updates are essential. BlackBerry’s QNX and Green Hills Software are developing robust solutions to safeguard our increasingly digital vehicles. The challenge is multifaceted, involving not just the protection of the vehicle’s internal systems, but also securing all communication channels between the vehicle and external networks.
As vehicles become more connected, the attack surface for potential cyber threats increases dramatically. The industry must develop comprehensive security frameworks that can protect against a wide range of threats, from direct hacking attempts to more sophisticated attacks that might exploit vulnerabilities in the vehicle’s software or communication systems.
Three: Software-Defined Vehicles
The modern car is becoming a software-driven platform, requiring new approaches to development and integration. This shift presents significant challenges:
Standardized Software Architectures: Developing common software platforms that can be shared across different vehicle models and brands is crucial. The AUTOSAR consortium and Google’s Android Automotive OS are leading efforts in this area. The challenge lies in creating architectures that are flexible enough to accommodate the diverse needs of different vehicle types and brands, while still providing a standardized foundation for software development.
This standardization is essential for reducing development costs, improving interoperability, and accelerating the pace of innovation in the automotive industry. However, it requires unprecedented levels of collaboration between traditionally competitive companies.
Continuous Integration and Deployment: Implementing efficient processes for software updates and new feature deployment is key. Companies like Wind River and Vector are innovating in this space with advanced development tools and platforms. The challenge is to create systems that can safely and securely update vehicle software “over-the-air,” much like smartphone updates, but with the added complexity of ensuring that these updates don’t compromise the safety or functionality of the vehicle.
This shift towards continuous software updates represents a fundamental change in how vehicles are developed and maintained over their lifecycle. It requires new approaches to testing and validation, as well as new business models for delivering ongoing value to customers through software updates.
Four: Connectivity and Data Management
Vehicles are becoming nodes in a larger connected ecosystem, presenting both opportunities and challenges:
High-Bandwidth, Low-Latency Communication: Integrating 5G and beyond technologies is essential for enabling advanced services and autonomous capabilities. Qualcomm and Huawei are at the forefront of automotive connectivity solutions. The challenge is not just in implementing these technologies within vehicles, but in ensuring consistent connectivity across diverse environments, from dense urban areas to remote rural locations.
This high-speed connectivity is crucial for enabling real-time services, from advanced navigation and traffic management to remote diagnostics and over-the-air updates. It also plays a critical role in the development of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication systems, which will be essential for the safe operation of autonomous vehicles.
Edge Computing and Data Processing: Managing the vast amounts of data generated by modern vehicles requires advanced edge computing solutions. IBM and Amazon Web Services are pioneering in this field, offering tailored automotive edge computing platforms. The challenge lies in processing and analyzing massive amounts of sensor data in real-time, often with limited connectivity to cloud resources.
Edge computing in vehicles must balance the need for real-time processing with the limitations of onboard computing resources. This requires sophisticated algorithms for data prioritization and compression, as well as innovative approaches to distributed computing that can leverage both onboard and cloud-based resources as needed.
Five: Interoperability and Standardization
Ensuring that different systems and components can work together seamlessly is a major challenge for the industry:
Open Standards Development: Creating and adopting open standards for automotive computing is crucial for fostering innovation and reducing development costs. Organizations like AVCC itself, along with the W3C Automotive Working Group, are leading these efforts. The challenge is in developing standards that are comprehensive enough to ensure interoperability, yet flexible enough to accommodate rapid technological advancements.
These standards must cover a wide range of areas, from software architectures and APIs to data formats and communication protocols. They must also be designed with future technologies in mind, allowing for the integration of emerging capabilities like artificial intelligence and advanced sensor systems.
Cross-Industry Collaboration: Facilitating collaboration between traditional automotive players and tech companies is essential. Initiatives like the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium are working to bridge these gaps. The challenge lies in aligning the different cultures, development cycles, and business models of automotive and tech companies.
This collaboration is crucial for addressing the complex challenges of modern automotive computing, which require expertise in areas as diverse as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and advanced materials science. It also presents opportunities for innovation at the intersection of these different fields.
As we navigate these challenges, collaboration across the industry will be key. At AVCC, we’re committed to fostering partnerships and driving innovation to overcome these hurdles and shape the future of automotive computing technology. The path forward requires not just technological innovation, but also new approaches to collaboration, standardization, and regulation.
The automotive industry stands at the cusp of a technological revolution. By addressing these five key challenges, we can pave the way for a future where vehicles are not just modes of transportation, but integrated, intelligent systems that enhance our lives and transform mobility. The journey to 2025 promises to be an exciting one, full of innovation and transformation in the world of automotive computing.
