Implementing Ethernet as a common standard across the automotive industry can optimize vehicle performance by reducing the number of electronic control units (ECUs) and associated cabling, leading to smarter, cheaper, and safer cars of the future.

New car buyers often say, "It feels like I'm piloting a spaceship." And, in some ways, the feeling makes sense - under the hood, modern vehicles (like spaceships) operate like supercomputers. As a result, Oems are under increasing pressure to simultaneously improve their vehicles' ability to rapidly process growing amounts of data while shrinking vehicle network architectures.

As vehicles continue to evolve and offer everything from more immersive entertainment features to safer, more precise autonomous driving, the problem will worsen. However, a solution that originated in the 1970s has the potential to enable the next evolution of the automobile: Ethernet.


Implement on-board Ethernet

Robert Metcalfe and his colleagues at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center invented Ethernet in the 1970s and, in Metcalfe's words, Solves the problem of connecting a building full of personal computers without creating a centralized "rat nest" of wires. Simply put, Ethernet is the single cable solution that Robert and his team finally created.

In automotive capacity, Ethernet serves much the same purpose: when combined with a sufficiently advanced chipset, it greatly reduces the complexity of a typical vehicle networking system. In the automotive space, this is equivalent to domain vehicle architecture versus Ethernet-based centralized vehicle architecture. However, automotive Ethernet can withstand more difficult conditions than typical data centers face - automotive Ethernet can operate in different climates and environments with different toughness terrains.

Today's vehicle architectures are evolving from domain-centric controllers, so vehicle network capacity must be able to handle the higher data rates required for advanced applications such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving (AD), and wireless delivery (OTA). The challenge is that the vehicles of the future must meet these needs while providing greater reliability and safety.

Ethernovia's Ethernet-based architecture is designed to meet this need by integrating advanced networking capabilities for the software-defined vehicle of the future to enable a seamless, holistic and simplified hardware and software system.


So why switch to Ethernet now?

Ethernet actually started appearing in mainstream automotive implementations a decade ago. Back in 2008, BMW was the first to introduce Ethernet in consumer vehicles; Since then, more than 90 percent of automakers have integrated Ethernet into their vehicles.

Then, several features paved the way for the widespread adoption of Ethernet in cars. The Ethernet "T1" transceiver is designed to meet the stringent OEM EMI/RFI requirements of the automotive market and reduces copper cables by 75% by running on a single pair instead of the four pairs used for enterprise Ethernet. This reduction has a significant impact on the weight and cost of the harness. In addition, Ethernet's open standards environment means that there are multiple vendors creating solutions for certain legacy automotive technologies rather than a single vendor solution, driving innovation and providing second-source options that are critical for automotive Oems.

Finally, the enhanced network protocol takes the traditional "best effort" Ethernet and provides time-bound, guaranteed on-board data transmission.

Over the past decade, with the continued momentum of available features and speeds, we have seen Ethernet shift from deployment for diagnostics and infotainment to deployment for all areas of the vehicle.


Enabling smarter cars

Many different networks exist in cars today to connect ECUs in vehicles. With the advent of new features that make cars smarter, the amount of bandwidth in cars is constantly increasing to support these applications. Oems need more and more computing resources to process this data while simplifying vehicles by integrating ECUs.

What was the result? There is a huge demand for high-bandwidth, low-latency and secure network technologies to move data efficiently in vehicles.

In 2022, Forbes asked technologists for their predictions on the features they expect to see in the cars of the future. The range of predictions is wide: autonomy, of course; The car as a fully functional office space with 5G connectivity; Advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities; Enhancing privacy and cybersecurity; Augmented reality navigation; And more.

However, given the increased demand for processing needs, future vehicles with these features can never be built on top of the network infrastructure that most automakers currently have. However, with Ethernet-based end-to-end networking solutions as the backbone, automotive engineers and designers will be able to realize the intelligent "car of the future" that the technology industry and automotive evangelists predict today.


Enabling safer vehicles

A subset of smart cars are ADAS and AU, which have come a long way in the last decade. The two exist in six levels of complexity:

Level 0: Manual driving
Level 1: Driver assistance
Level 2: Partial automation (" Feet off ")
Level 3: Conditional automation (" no intervention ")
Level 4: Highly automated (" look away ")
Level 5: Fully automated (" absent-minded ")

Most cars today actually exist at level zero - fully manual - while newer vehicles implement levels 1 and 2. Exceeding these levels requires exponential bandwidth.

However, such advances are necessary to ultimately improve road safety. A 2017 report by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that human error was a "major factor" in 94 percent of fatal crashes. A 2018 report by Automotive Management states:

The growing popularity of ADAS, such as automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring and lane assist, will lead to a 15% reduction in the number of accidents in four major European markets (France, Germany, Italy and the UK) by 2030.

Sufficiently advanced ADAS and AU technologies start with a powerful vehicle network, and that starts with Ethernet and silicon-based solutions.


Enabling cheaper vehicles

Going forward, Oems are working to further integrate ECUs and functions. Ethernet aggregates traffic into a single backbone, reducing the need for complex wiring harnesses, associated connectors, and countless required legacy transceivers. This convergence offers significant cost savings to Oems and the added benefits of safety, simplicity and, very importantly, weight reduction with the "T1" single-pair automotive transceiver.

For consumers, lighter vehicles equate to better fuel economy. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, "a 10% reduction in vehicle weight can result in a 6-8% improvement in fuel economy." The Department of Energy also stressed the importance of weight reduction to achieve electric vehicles with longer range:

While lightweight materials can be used in any vehicle, they are especially important for hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles. The use of lightweight materials in these vehicles can offset the weight of powertrains such as batteries and electric motors, thereby improving efficiency and increasing their all-electric range. Alternatively, the use of lightweight materials could lead to the need for smaller, lower-cost batteries while keeping the plug-in car's all-electric range unchanged.

Citing a 2022 study by EY, the World Economic Forum noted that about a third of drivers worldwide expressed concern about driving long distances in these vehicles, with range anxiety being one of the main issues that hindered wider purchases of electric vehicles.

Thus, by reducing the weight of vehicles, Oems can reduce manufacturing costs, consumers can extend fuel range, and the planet can benefit from the widespread adoption of carbon-free vehicles.