Automobiles today are much more than just a means of transportation. Along with other modern devices, they are leveraging human-computer interaction (HCI) to become mini-centers of communication, information, and entertainment. Innovations in automotive technology—enabled by constant data collection and analytics—are driving connectivity and automation at unprecedented levels.

Data and technology are coming together to provide a whole new world of in-vehicle experiences to drivers and passengers. Apart from enabling mapping and tracking of a host of vehicle and environmental parameters, automobiles are analyzing the behavioral patterns of passengers to continually deliver advanced lifestyle choices.

Ultimately, the automotive industry is aiming to create autonomous vehicles (AVs) that can run safely with little human intervention while providing comfort and rich experiences to passengers on their journeys. Technology frameworks such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are making this possible using vehicular AI and sensor technology.

These systems enable instant decision-making in real-time to ensure safe and comfortable driving with little-to-no human intervention. Currently, AVs with Level 3 capabilities (conditional automation) are expected to be commonly seen on the roads by 2024, while those with Level 4 capabilities (high automation) could begin pilot programs on highways as early as 2025, according to Automotive World.

These automotive systems generate and process a tremendous amount of data. For example, an early Google autonomous car was said to generate about 1 GB/s. Given that the average car driver in the U.S. drives about 600 hours a year, this would mean a data storage and processing requirement of a staggering 2 petabytes (PB) per year per car.

And the automotive storage requirements don’t stop there.

There is the question of connectivity. A 2020 study by Dell indicated that there will be 90 million connected AVs by 2030 that will collectively generate 1 zettabyte (ZB) every day.

Adding to the requirements are IVI (in-vehicle infotainment) systems, which have now been around for decades. These include audio-visual entertainment systems for passengers as well as navigation and telematics that provide 3D maps, directions, traffic conditions, etc.

Even though streaming options exist, data connections are not always reliable. To address this scenario, most streaming services offer the option of downloading local copies while at home. This trend is not likely to go away, further increasing the need for in-car storage.

The obvious lesson here is that OEMs, Tier 1 automotive suppliers, and storage/memory providers need to begin planning right away, if they haven’t already, to meet this demand.

 

The increasing demand

As noted, memory and storage requirements in today’s cars are going only one way—up. While every automobile manufacturer tries to beat the competition by offering more data-driven features, we anticipate a range that increases over time such as:

  • Telematics and V2X applications: 8 to 64 GB
  • Infotainment: 64 to 512 GB
  • HD mapping: 16 to 128 GB
  • Dashboard camera: 8 to 128 GB
  • Digital instrument cluster: 8 to 32 GB
  • ADAS: 8 to 128 GB
  • Accident recording: 8 to 256 GB

All in all, the daily data storage estimate for a modern car per day comes to 3 to 4 TB per day. Soon, these requirements will only rise as AVs become the norm.

While much of this data can be eventually transmitted and stored in the cloud or even edge servers, many of the real-time and automatic actions require local processing and analysis. This requires high-capacity, high-performance, low-latency storage within the car.

 

Key considerations and challenges

Less than a decade ago, automakers wouldn’t be talking directly to storage companies; they discussed chipset options with Tier 1 vendors. However, NAND (Not AND) flash storage now forms a significant part of the bill of materials, forcing automakers to engage directly with the storage device and flash manufacturers and even take up data storage design in-house. This is a substantial growth opportunity for the NAND flash and SSD industries; the automotive market will become a major customer segment as it moves toward connected and autonomous vehicles.

Cars and trucks today are expected to provide an experience that goes beyond what cell phones can do today. Customers want to see next-gen applications in infotainment, ADAS, and cloud connectivity with different memory needs in terms of capacity, interface, speed, functional safety, data integrity, reliability, and lifespan. This means that eMMC (embedded multimedia controller) is good for maps and GPS navigation, UFS (universal flash storage) can support IVI with high-speed read operations, while PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) NVMe (nonvolatile memory express) is great for staying in sync with a centralized vehicle architecture and AI (artificial intelligence)/ML (machine learning)-based applications.

 

Four key parameters

The following four considerations are key to evaluating automotive storage systems.

Performance: Automakers are increasingly turning to PCIe SSDs to meet as many storage requirements as possible. PCIe SSDs have faster sequential as well as random read/write performance compared to UFS and eMMC. Furthermore, SR-IOV, Zone Namespace, and dual-port that are supported by NVMe are important elements that can enhance the efficiency of multiple virtual machines running on the centralized system in a car. They work extremely well for infotainment as well as ADAS applications.

Quality: The auto sector has stringent quality requirements, bound by regulations in many scenarios. Automakers require an extremely low DPPM (defective parts per million) ratio, which is a tough ask for any flash, chip, or controller manufacturer. IATF 16949 certification emphasizes the development of a process-oriented quality management system that provides for continual improvement, defect prevention, and reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain. Storage suppliers must be compliant with it to get any automotive business.

Reliability: NAND storage is optimized for endurance across a typical range of operating temperatures from 0° to 80°C. However, automakers require storage devices to operate in temperature ranges of -40° to +125°C. Specifically, they look for the AEC-Q100 certification, which means the device has passed specific stress tests and guarantees a minimum level of reliability.

Safety: For automotive semiconductor companies, compliance with the ISO 26262 functional safety standard is required by major international manufacturers. Functional safety is defined as the absence of unreasonable risk due to hazards caused by failures or unintended behaviors of electrical and electronic systems. In practical terms, it means that designers must walk through every failure scenario and ensure they can be detected very quickly. All devices must provide a fallback safe state if something goes wrong. The functional safety certification is an important point of validation and a milestone in the journey to build automotive storage solutions that lead to safer vehicles.

 

For best results

It’s critical for the industry to deploy products that have built-in error detection and correction mechanisms that lead to consistently better quality and near-zero failure rates for automotive partners. Understanding the sensitivities and regulations in the automotive market reinforces quality management at the design level to ensure the best results for both automakers as well as vehicle consumers.

 

This article was written for Futurride by Phison Electronics’ Sebastien Jean, CTO, and Rick Wang, Product Manager, Technical Marketing.