If ten years ago electronics in a car accounted for less than 10% of its value, today it exceeds 35%. The reason for the near-exponential growth is that it is the main way to add new features and streamline traditional ones in a dynamic and saturated global market. Add to this the trend of end users increasingly choosing vehicles based on amenities offered rather than brand loyalty, and we can better understand why automotive electronics developments generate sustained interest and high profitability.
An important role comes with great responsibilities. Creators of automotive connectivity, mobile devices, and internet services provide access to additional traffic information, remote diagnostics, and other conveniences, but they also add significant complexity to vehicle architecture and provide additional entry points to critical systems related to road safety and access to personal data. Information.
Connecting to the Internet, collecting and protecting data, processing it quickly and adequately visualizing various devices in the cabin is a new challenge for automotive engineers, but, ultimately, this is the main factor in increasing market share in this “mobile” revolution.
One of Europe’s largest car manufacturers is gearing up to bring several models to the global market in 2018 with the industry’s first cockpit domain controller, which provides the ability to control all electronics and displays in a vehicle from a single module. The product was ordered to be developed by a team of over 100 engineers in Bulgaria and the news was officially announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January.
The SmartCore platform, developed in the Bulgarian development center Visteon, is a logical continuation of the team’s many years of experience in the development and creation of software for dashboards, displays, head-up displays and modules for connecting to mobile devices and external infrastructure for the most popular models of the world’s leading automotive companies.
New in the technological solution is the integration of various automotive functions controlled by different operating systems (Android, Integrity, QNX, Linux) on separate processor cores in a single microcontroller. Each of them takes care of a strictly defined area of functionality — navigation and multimedia, installing additional applications, information from other systems in the car, connecting to mobile devices and Internet services. The platform is scalable across models and hardware levels, and in its most sophisticated form will coordinate two 12.3-inch TFT color touch screens, a projection display, and up to 4 tablets using a Wi-Fi connection. Successful development will allow the driver to manage information more intuitively and flexibly, get more data to optimize an individual route,
The SmartCore™ concept is in direct competition with the largest developments of several other major US companies that have recently tried to enter the automotive sector. However, unlike them, Bulgarian engineers already have their first major client.
Benefits
For many technological and regulatory reasons, the likelihood of seeing fully autonomous vehicles before 2020 is very low. Until then, however, high-tech driver assistance systems will play a key role in preparing legislators, consumers and companies in various sectors for the expected full automation of driving.
Automotive companies are gradually beginning to develop long-term strategies for collecting and analyzing vehicle data to provide predictive maintenance, facilitate car sharing, and plan for future model improvements accordingly.
Insurance companies in some countries offer better terms for customers who agree to share information about how they use their cars and encourage additional discounts on safe driving.
Making decisions about the design and management of road infrastructure is greatly facilitated by the fact that vehicles provide information about their average speed and the most frequently used route. Faster travel and easier parking in urban areas is also a priority for car manufacturers, as drivers in major cities increasingly experience more stress than the ease of owning and driving a car.
Automotive electronics is a relatively underdeveloped sector compared to telecommunications technology, and this is an attractive opportunity for young professionals to develop themselves in an area with little competition and big horizons. However, preparing the required curricula is a challenging task for technical schools and therefore collaborating with companies in the sector is key to positioning major development centers on the world map. Big projects always need talented engineers.
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