Software Platform for Heterogeneous In-Vehicle Environments

Abstract

Modern technologies lead to more sophisticated hardware, while software is becoming more complex. These trends are widely present in consumer electronics and do not bypass automotive electronics either. There is an evident recent growth in in-vehicle infotainment, telematics, advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs) and cluster development. The number of electronic control units (ECUs) in vehicle constantly grows. Since typical vehicle ECU is providing one function per vehicle, it becomes harder for manufacturers to manage these ECUs due to diverse nature of the system, hence a rising demand for ECU consolidation exists. With the availability of sophisticated hardware, powerful system-on-chips (SoCs) can be used for multiple functions inside a vehicle. The transition toward less ECUs is an ongoing process, in which software needs to be aligned first and then transferred to the same SoC. This paper presents the software platform for heterogeneous immersive in-vehicle environments, providing a step in software consolidation, by allowing same abstractions for diverse applications executing on various hardware platforms. It proposes a framework for the scalable development of ADAS from consumer level to different automotive safety levels, provides unified access toward algorithm building blocks, multi-sensor real-time environment and easy integration of algorithms, thus enabling shorter development time.