6 Key Connectivity Requirements of Autonomous Driving Posted on : Oct 17 - 2018

Autonomous driving is both an audacious visionary goal and a highly achievable feat of technical engineering. The race to launching the industry’s first fully autonomous car is accelerating, as technology companies like Apple and Waymo battle car companies Audi, Ford, Tesla, Renault, Waymo and ride sharing companies Lyft and Uber to overcome technical challenges and enable an entirely new way of driving that will surprise and delight users.

Who will win the race? And how will driverless cars transform society? While the future of the automotive industry is still unwritten, here is what we know: Industry leaders will need to master connectivity to deliver the V2X (vehicle-to-everything) capabilities fully autonomous driving promises. Here’s an overview of six key connectivity requirements to make that happen.

Architectures Must Be Redundant and Real-time

Autonomous driving will increasingly demand more and more reliable network-based structures, requiring redundant, real-time architectures. These architectures will organize high performance clusters in functional domains and be connected via a central gateway in a high-speed data backbone structure. Group sensors and actuators will be organized hierarchically.

The Demand for High-Speed Data Will Only Increase

Driverless cars will have incredibly sophisticated systems, including high performance computers and an increasing number of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) sensors, such as high-resolution stereo and/or mono cameras, RADAR, and LIDAR, as well as future human-machine interfaces (HMIs), such as large 4K/8K screens or head-up displays (HUDs).

These systems will generate vast amounts of data, which will require sophisticated electronic support, including high-speed data nodes, links, cables, and assemblies. The inside of the driverless car will literally be an information highway, and data streams will run in parallel or different directions. They’ll be managed in switched networks with sufficient margin to ensure the car’s safe operations. View More