The Evolution of Automotive Electronics: From Basic to Advanced Systems

Comments · 105 Views

The first automotive electronics were wholly electrical systems, with their contemporary components starting to show up in vehicles after the turn of the 20th century, primarily in the form of light bulbs, the electric spark for the ignition system, and the electric starter. Prior to enter

 The automobiles of today could scarcely be more different than those of the turn of the 20th century, largely due to innovations in electronics. Where once necessity dictated the use of minimal electrical systems to power a few lamps and a car starter, nowadays complex networks of computers and sensors operate a multitude of vehicle systems, from engine control to highly automated driving. This article looks at the evolution of automotive electronics, from its simple beginnings to the advanced technologies that define today’s vehicles.

 

  1. The Early Days: Basic Electrical Systems

 

The Birth of Automotive Electronics

 

 The first automotive electronics were wholly electrical systems, with their contemporary components starting to show up in vehicles after the turn of the 20th century, primarily in the form of light bulbs, the electric spark for the ignition system, and the electric starter. Prior to entering the 20th century, one had to crank a vehicle to start it and use a gas lantern to see anything.

 

 However, the concept of using electricity or electronics in automobiles was first realised when Cadillac introduced the electric starter in 1912. Until that time, starting a car meant turning a crank, but sometimes it was extremely strenuous. The new electric starter made it easy and safer for less able bodied people to drive. Simultaneously, other basic electrical devices – headlights, tail lamps and the horn – were made standard while the evolution of electronics in cars truly began.

 

Introduction of the Alternator

 

 As automobiles became even more ubiquitous, more power and more reliability were needed for simple car electrification; by the 1960s, there emerged the alternator, which worked at lower engine speeds than its ancestor, the generator, producing more electricity and a more consistent electrical supply. More complicated electrical systems quickly followed.

 

  1. The Rise of Electronic Control Units (ECUs)

 

Engine Control Units: The First ECU

 

 The next step was the Electronic Control Unit (ECU), which began appearing in vehicles in the 1970s. Those early ECUs tended to be fairly simple – they integrated and replaced mechanical carburettors via fuel injection. They resulted in cars that used fuel more efficiently and produced fewer emissions. These were new, and much-needed technologies, given regulatory pressures to produce cleaner, more efficient machines, but on the whole they weren’t complicated systems.

 

 With further development of the technology, ECUs not only controlled fuel injection, but also ignition timing and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), which are methods of control that are not practical with mechanical fuel-injection systems.

 

Expansion of ECU Functions

 

 Initially, there was usually just one ECU. Now, over the course of a couple of decades in the 1980s and ’90s, we saw both more of these units installed and a faster increase in their complexity as car manufacturers started to use three, four or more of them, usually dedicated to one of the major vehicles’ subsystems (transmission, braking, climate control, etc). Another vital development, ensuing in vehicles becoming safer to use, was the arrival of the anti-lock breaking system (ABS) controlled by an ECU monitoring the speed of individual wheels and preventing the wheel lockup that usually accompany braking, thus preserving traction and driver steering possibilities.

 

 Then, a major step forward was the development of the Controller Area Network (CAN bus), the computer network that links the ECUs together, which appeared first on mainstream cars around 1988. Crucially, it gave each ECU a way to communicate with the other ECUs, allowing more sophisticated systems and features to be introduced as a result. CAN bus is the technology that lies behind today’s emergent electronics, making possible the intricate interplay of vehicle systems you see in today’s cars.

 

  1. The Digital Revolution: From Analog to Digital Systems

 

Digital Instrument Clusters and Infotainment

 

 A certain piece of evidence of the transition led from analogue to digital systems was the upgrade of the dashboards in cars. Large segments of the dashboards used in vehicles designed through the 20th century were upgraded to digital displays (ie, digital instrument clusters), replacing the original analogue gauges and allowing the car drivers to see more information at a glance, tailored to their needs and permitted by the higher technology, such as real-time fuel economy, navigation instructions, diagnostic alerts and more.

 

 The new era of infotainment was underscored by the ever more complex units that started to appear in cars at the turn of the 21st century. Very early systems were basic, pure audio units that aided only in playing the radio and a CD. However, they soon evolved into sophisticated multimedia centres with large touch-screens, satellite navigation systems and smartphone integration. Such systems provide a wealth of services and user conveniences for the driver, but also require increasingly sophisticated software and hardware to run in a fashion hardly distinguishable from the seamless operation of these systems at home.

 

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)

 

 It also opened up a path towards the use of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) comprising a range of sensors, cameras and radar to help the driver stay in a lane, maintain a safe distance from the vehicle ahead and prevent collisions by applying the brakes automatically. ADAS will be the system that makes the car safe enough not to need the attention of the driver.

 

 This evolution benefitted from developments in sensor technology and the processing power of automotive ECUs, which enable ADAS. Such systems depend on processing huge amounts of data in a short amount of time and illustrate the importance of electronics in the car.

 

  1. The Era of Connectivity and Autonomy

 

Connected Vehicles

 

 For years now, the ‘connected vehicle’ has gone from a distant expectation to a partial reality: almost all newly built vehicles offer some kind of connectivity, from basic telematics – the communication of driver information and vehicle status back to a central control centre for emergency services and vehicle tracking – up to more complex feeder systems, or features such as over-the-air software updates and remote diagnostics that allow a dealer to diagnose and reset a vehicle’s systems remotely. Smart home devices that can be used to unlock and start a vehicle (such as a Ford vehicle and compatible Alexa) can even be integrated into the car.

 

 Connected cars rely on a variety of means – cellular networks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – to communicate with external systems, and the cloud. Communicating in this fashion will allow data to flow in real time, and vehicle software to be pushed out over the airwaves. This could mean you no longer have to go to the dealership to update your software. Connected cars also make a host of other, new business models possible: perhaps you can pay for just the navigation or entertainment functions that you use in a subscription-based package.

 

Autonomous Driving Technologies

 

 Perhaps the most profound and disruptive change in automotive electronics is the rise of autonomous driving. These cars, known as autonomous vehicles (AVs), rely on multiple sensor arrays, cameras, lidar, radar and numerous ECUs that read in and evaluate the environment to enable the car to navigate, make decisions and execute vehicle control actions without human intervention.

 

 Though fully autonomous vehicles aren’t yet on the road, semi-autonomous cars, some of them with fairly advanced capabilities, are starting to appear. For example, Tesla’s Autopilot, General Motors’s Super Cruise, and other Level 2 autonomous driving features can handle things such as highway driving with little to no human intervention.

 

 While nowadays rudimentary driver-assistance systems are already very common, the race towards autonomous driving has pushed the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning applications and sensor fusion to another level. And these are only the fields that directly affect automotive electronics.

 

  1. The Future of Automotive Electronics

 

Electrification and Energy Management

 

 This type of thinking will only become more relevant to the automobile as it continues to electrify. In electric vehicles (EVs), sophisticated battery management systems (BMS) are required to effectively manage the battery. Similarly, the power electronics inside an EV have to be much more sophisticated than in a petrol-powered car, as they are used to manage and control electric motors. Proprietary energy management systems are also required to manage range and efficiency, which is especially challenging on vehicles with sophisticated and adaptive features.

 

Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Communication

 

 The next major automotive electronics revolution is expected to be with Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication. In V2X, vehicles can talk to other vehicles, to infrastructure such as traffic lights, road signs and pedestrians, which should increase traffic flow and reduce accidents. It will also prime the way for completely autonomous transportation.

 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

 

 Artificial intelligence and machine learning are also going to be critical for the future of automotive electronics. They will further enhance the driver experience with automated driving modes such as autonomous driving, intelligent predictive maintenance, and personalised driving. As vehicles become smarter, they can learn from their surroundings and from drivers themselves, making them safer by providing a human-like experience to optimise driver safety, reaction speeds and overall comfort.

 

Conclusion

 

 The recent history of automotive electronics is absolutely fascinating – it demonstrates how cars have evolved from mechanical systems into connected, intelligent information systems that can be remotely controlled via the World Wide Web. In this article, I will trace the development of automotive electronics by examining the technology that powers your car – from the first primitive cars with relatively simple electrical equipment (by today’s standards) to the highly integrated systems that power connected and autonomous vehicles. I will also look into the future of automotive electronics to identify key trends and explain why electronics continue to be one of the most important technologies driving change in the automotive industry.

Comments