Software Engineering for Automotive Systems: A Roadmap

[FarCenter]

From the pdf "Software Engineering for Automotive Systems: A Roadmap" https://sosa.ucsd.edu/ResearchCentral/download.jsp?id=148

As mentioned in the introduction, today’s premium class vehicles are equipped with as many as 67 processors that implement roughly 270 user functions that a user interacts with (one of the reasons for the huge number of processors being the organization of labor as described in §2.2). These functions are composed of as many as 2500 “atomic” software functions. These functions address many different issues including classical driving tasks but also other features in comfort and infotainment and many more. These functions do not stand alone, but exhibit a high dependency on each other. A telling example for the increased interaction among previously unrelated sub-systems is the central locking system (CLS) as found in most modern vehicles. It integrates the pure functionality of locking and unlocking car doors with comfort functions (such as adjusting seats, mirrors and radio tuners according to the specific key used during unlocking), with safety/security functions (such as locking the car beyond a minimum speed, arming a security device when the car is locked, and unlocking the car in case of a crash), and with HMI functions, such as signaling the locking and unlocking using the car’s interior and exterior lighting system. Many of these functions are realized in sub-systems that are distributed according to the major mechanical breakdown of the vehicle into engine, drive-train, body and comfort systems. In some vehicles this seemingly simple functionality is physically distributed over up to 18 electronic control units (ECUs). Reinforced by a trend to combine on-board with off-board IT, the car has turned from an assembled device into an integrated system.

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They are rather more complicated than I thought.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Apollo 11 eat your heart out... and there ought to be a cap on automotive

insanity. I just wanted to get some milk and eggs, not learn how to fly to the moon. Where they have taken automotive technology is beyond ridiculous.

[Fumesucker]

2. Do you want emissions controls? Antilock braking? Good fuel economy?

Air bags?

All of those depend on microprocessor controls, as indeed even the simplest of car radios these days.

It's not possible to meet modern emissions standards without computer control of the engine and possibly the transmission if it's not a manual..

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. I had antilock brakes and airbags 20 years ago and the complexity of the

vehicles then were maybe 5 percent of what they have bloated to today.

Here's something to think about while we are looking at our technological wonders.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/02/toyota_the_downside_of_hyper_g.html

All these changes and pressures required a huge increase in engineering man hours. Without sufficient growth in engineering resources, Toyota's development engineers became spread too thin. Overworked engineers make errors. Resources became particularly constrained in areas requiring joint development of software and mechanical design integration. In both U.S. and Japanese automotive firms, software specialists have low status relative to hardware engineers. Moreover in both countries, the best minds in software are much more attracted to working in high tech rather than in auto firms — hardly reassuring news for the average driver, given that software increasingly drives our cars.

As a result of constrained engineering resources, more engineering personnel came to be deployed over a much larger number of projects with less time allowed for completion. This occurred in an environment of an already highly complex and efficient production system based on the extremely tight sequencing of development steps linked in turn to tight production schedules. Toyota has been proud that it could move from the start of design to production in just 8 to 9 months but this puts enormous pressure on all contributors, especially suppliers. Inevitably there were occasions when there was not enough time for development engineers and quality control personnel to pursue and fully evaluate all possible failure modes, especially in increasingly complex systems.

[Fumesucker]

4. It depends a lot on the car..

A top of the line Bimmer or Lexus has a lot of electronics and processors, a bottom of the line Ford or Nissan, not so much..

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Well I've just been playing around with the Picoscope software suite in

demo mode... considering which type of small USB PC scope I might consider... and if you could just see what these guys have done as far as making much of this stuff understandable but more importantly testable... with just a scope mind you... as far as automotive troubleshooting goes imho, Picoscope rules.

[FarCenter]

8. The number of processors in a low-end car might surprise you

If you look at the feature charts for a car like the new Ford Focus, a big differentiator between the base model and the higher trim models is the number of electronic features.

The Ford-exclusive MyKey™ owner control feature has many of the per-driver car adjustment features outlined in the paper. http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/focussedan/features/

[Fumesucker]

9. That's why I mentioned "low end"..

By which I meant the base model versus the higher trim..

Yeah, you start adding things like navigation systems and active traction control and the complexity jumps pretty quickly.

[Greyhound]

5. Wow, I just decided not to post a reply that said much the same thing.

Industry in general, but automakers especially, got screwed bad for the short-term gain of Clinton's fire-sale export of IT.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Nothing runs like one btw... (greyhounds) I have a great deal of admiration for the

greyhound rescuers... and generally they are one of the sweetest breed of dogs I have ever seen.

[Greyhound]

11. They are wonderful (except when they get sick,big dogs, ya know?)

Sweet and lazy and beautiful and completely useless. :rofl:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Yours?? Beautiful creatures... useless not. n/t

[Greyhound]

13. No, I don't have any on-line pics, but the one in the middle could be my boys twin.

I lost my girl last March.

[ddeclue]

10. Actually a lot of this software is saving lives - a lot more than have been lost

(presumably) in the Toyota situation.

Automotive deaths are down to their lowest levels since the 1950's. This is in part due to vastly improved trauma care in the last 25 years. It is in part due to a cultural shift against drinking and driving. It is in part due to a cultural shift towards buckling up. It is also due to air bags, anti-lock brakes, and enhanced stability programs implemented in software which help the driver maintain control of the vehicle. In the last few years it has also given GPS based location systems and automatic emergency response for accidents which deploy the airbag in some cars, hands free cell phone operation, and infra-red night vision in others. Some high end Mercedes even have automatic distracted driver braking so that if it detects you are closing rapidly on a car in front of you because someone in front of you has slammed on the brakes, it will automatically apply the brakes to prevent you from rear ending that driver - the down side being that the guy behind you probably isn't driving a Mercedes so your Mercedes is about to get rear ended instead of rear ending someone else. The next feature should probably be something that can detect if the driver is drunk/stoned when he/she gets behind the wheel and prevents the car from being started.