At CES 2021 in a far-ranging presentation, Aptiv PLC announced its next-generation Level 1-3 capable ADAS (advanced driver-assistance system) platform for improved vehicle safety, comfort, and convenience. It builds on the company’s Satellite Architecture, which is being deployed by multiple OEMs around the world on more than 10 million vehicles over the next few years.
The new platform is meant to span all vehicle segments by managing the software complexity and supporting features ranging from entry-level safety compliance to advanced highway pilot and parking assist. It has the ability to incorporate future technologies and features, including those developed in collaboration with the Hyundai/Aptiv autonomous-vehicle joint-venture Motional, providing further scalability to higher levels of automation.
“Our unique position as the only provider of both the brain and the nervous system of the vehicle makes Aptiv the partner of choice for developing software-defined safety solutions that can be democratized as they mature,” said Kevin Clark, Aptiv CEO and President.
Smart Vehicle Architecture
Aptiv’s efforts to enable a software-defined vehicle are aligned with the company’s Smart Vehicle Architecture (SVA) approach, “our ‘North Star’ for powering and enabling the advancements that consumers are demanding,” said Clark.
SVA represents Aptiv’s vision for the full electrical and electronic architecture of the vehicle.
“It includes all of the elements that we believe are necessary to simplify the feature-rich and highly complex vehicles of today while efficiently enabling the electrified, software-defined, and highly automated vehicles of tomorrow,” said Glen De Vos, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
Since SVA was unveiled last year, Aptiv has made key advancements in high-voltage electrification, domain compute, and zone control solutions.
“SVA is our approach to balancing performance and cost by adhering to three fundamental principles,” said Lee Bauer, Vice President, Advanced Engineering – Smart Vehicle Architecture. “We abstract (or separate) the hardware from the software, we separate I/O from compute. Each of those steps has its own benefits, but when we have those two levels of abstraction, we also have the ability to ‘serverize’ compute.”
SVA strategy applied to ADAS
As part of the company’s Smart Vehicle Architecture, the next-gen ADAS platform it showed at CES 2021 is compatible with emerging zone-control architectures, enabling new OEM business models via new features and services that can be updated over-the-air (OTA). Using the latest generation of driver-state and interior sensing, augmented by scalable software, the platform verifies if the driver’s eyes are on the road as well as recognizes and responds to body positioning, gestures, and eye movement to provide a higher level of safety.
The platform addresses the accelerating industry trend toward software-defined vehicles through scalable full-stack features and offerings, including differentiated and modularized software at every level and an open, centralized compute platform that allows for easy creation of new features and services.
It uses what Aptiv claims is the industry’s best-in-class exterior and interior sensing capabilities including radars, cameras, and LiDARs. Among the exterior sensors is the company’s sixth-generation corner/side radars and forward-facing radars, as well as its first 4D imaging radar that is said to provide twice the detection range versus its current market competitors. Interior-sensing offerings include radars, ultrasonic sensors, and cabin cameras to enable OEMs to develop brand-specific user experiences.
The platform supports advanced sensor fusion for the most advanced features through an environmental model. One of the platform’s differentiators comes in the form of advanced AI and machine-learning algorithms to fuse the 360-degree sensor inputs, providing a detailed rendering of the vehicle environment.
Aptiv uses machine learning strategically.
“Instead of taking a brute-force approach and applying machine learning to all of the raw data provided by, say, a radar, we first perform classical preprocessing and then apply machine learning to just those portions that make sense,” said Dr. Ing. Christian Nunn, Global Advanced Chief Engineer. “Without this interim step, an AI system would have to be extremely powerful, more expensive, and more resource-intensive. It would require long training sequences and would be difficult to troubleshoot.”
Aptiv says its approach is much more efficient.
Launching new radars
The best fusion and environmental models have to rely on the sensing inputs that feed them, so that is why Aptiv says it continues to push the envelope on sensor technology. At CES, the company announced two families of next-generation radars.
The SRR6 family of corner radars offers up to twice the detection range versus the previous generation while improving angular resolution by as much as three times. The FLR4 family is our next generation of forward-facing radars, providing twice the range resolution and three times the vertical field of view of previous radars.
“The FLR4+ is Aptiv’s first truly 4D imaging radar, capable of meeting the most demanding applications at an attractive price/performance ratio,” said Dr. Ing. Gabor Vinci, Global Product Line Manager. “It improves range detection by 60% over previous generations, and its elevation target discrimination, combined with machine learning capabilities and signal processing, allow vehicles to figure out at long range and high speed whether they can drive over an object.”
Both of these sensor families have the flexibility to support either satellite or smart sensor configurations.
Pioneering zone controllers
Key offerings within the company’s Smart Vehicle Architecture are zone controllers that Aptiv says reduce vehicle complexity and total system costs, distributing high-speed data and power between sensors and peripherals while separating input/output (I/O) from compute in the vehicle. Enabling the software-defined vehicle, the zone controllers allow OEMs to break apart the vehicle’s physical complexity into more manageable zones and further drive up-integration of distributed ECUs, reducing the weight and lowering total system costs in the vehicle.
Clark believes Aptiv is perfectly positioned to help customers optimize the performance and cost of their vehicles “thanks to our unique position with both the brain and the nervous system of the vehicle. Aptiv’s powerful zone controllers sit at the intersection of these capabilities, helping them reduce complexity, weight, and cost while putting customers one step closer to the software-defined, electric vehicles of the future.”
Aptiv’s expertise in advanced vehicle software and hardware architecture, including insights from over a decade of automated-driving experience, informed the development of the zone controllers.
Intelligent power management enables the zone controllers to manage power distribution throughout a vehicle. Smart fusing allows for wires specified to the physical limit of the load over a specified period of time, enabling the zone controllers to be flexibly located, which simplifies packaging and reduces cost.
The use of zone controllers has several benefits, according to the company. They can act as an up-integration point for multiple single-purpose ECUs. Up-integration reduces physical complexity by eliminating individual boxes and redundant power supplies, housings, and connectors that go with them. In one study for an OEM, Aptiv found it could remove over 8 kg (17.6 lb) of weight, while significantly reducing cost.
“Zone controllers are a less expensive upgrade point as the need for additional I/O expands over time,” said,” said Christian Schaefer, Director, Electrical and Electronic Systems. “For example, if you were to add another radar, you would only have to swap in a new zone controller to physically connect to it, while leaving the more expensive domain controller in place and avoiding the additional certification that would go with it.”
Putting user experiences in production
As traditional and new OEMs try to differentiate themselves, they are looking to develop unique brand-specific user experiences. The concept has gotten a jump start as new entrants have entered the space looking to disrupt how vehicles address rapidly changing customer desires.
“Aptiv has the software capabilities and architecture vision through SVA to meet those challenges and collaborate with [customers] to develop fantastic user experiences, with ways of working aligned to your individual strategies and capabilities,” said Alwin Bakkenes, Vice President Europe & Global Product Lines, Aptiv Advanced Safety & User Experience.
Aptiv has deployed solutions across major platforms—most notably Google’s Android—while tailoring the solutions to customer- and region-specific requirements. Bakkenes revealed a few key examples of the company’s recently launched systems in customer vehicles.
Aptiv’s Android software and hardware platform allow full application abstraction on the Volvo XC40 and Polestar 2, the first cars to market with native Android Automotive running Google Automotive Services, enabling the deployment of Google Services globally while seamlessly deploying a different regional ecosystem provider.
The Audi/Porsche MIB3 is one of the world’s most complex and capable integrated cockpit controllers ever developed, first launching on the Porsche Taycan and is now rolling out on other vehicles.
Great Wall Motors’ V3 integrated cockpit controller was the first to be deployed by a Chinese OEM, this system first launched on the Haval and Wey brands implements two functional domains—an ASIL-B cluster and Android for infotainment that hosts Tencent’s TAI app ecosystem.
“At Aptiv, we believe that a more connected user experience starts with open platforms, deeply integrated with the sensing, compute, and interface devices that support them,” said Bakkenes. “As a result, our next-generation platform takes a highly centralized and software-defined approach, which represents our Smart Vehicle Architecture, and provides the most comprehensive in-cabin user experience platform available.”
Aptiv says its customers can go from Google release to deployment in 6 to 9 months with the help of Aptiv’s Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) services.
“Our CI/CD infrastructure enables all developers to have access to the latest source code, regardless of location across the full software stack,” said Bakkenes. “With multiple functional domains, automotive software IP, and life cycle services, Aptiv offers a complete product platform for developing best-in-class in-cabin user experiences while reducing the cost of ownership.
