Automotive connectivity, which can be understood as enabling the exchange of data, information and situational awareness between cars and their surroundings (or, in other cases, between cars and other cars, or cars and pedestrians) and in more recent years, has come to be recognised as a technology that is quintessential for autonomous and self-driving vehicle development.
According to a survey from McKinsey & Company that was released in January 2024, connectivity will be a crucial component for manufacturers to remain competitive, particularly within the battery-electric-vehicle (BEV) segment and in China. 55% of Chinese respondents and 57% of BEV customers said they were willing to change brands if they could get better connectivity; a sure sign that the automotive industry is shifting towards connectivity becoming a must-have.
What does this connectivity look like? How are companies thinking about their own connectivity solutions? Suman Sehra, Global Vice President of Connectivity Portfolio Management at HARMAN spoke to IoT Insider Editor Caitlin Gittins about their own strategy, the significance of connectivity and its future.
Sehra explained how HARMAN’s business model and approach to the development of its products has shifted in recent years from “bill to order” bespoke solutions, so to speak, to developing, testing and building products that address broader industry requirements and are “road ready” and certified. It means that only the last stages of development work – the final 10% or so, such as refining the user experience or human machine interface to suit the specific customer’s brand – is needed ahead of rollout into its vehicle models.
“When we have focus groups we have the benefit of working with research firms to understand the consumer sentiment and what they’re looking for,” he said. “Having that outside view, we looked at our portfolio and approach to the automotive industry by developing something that is a product business model.”
In other words, HARMAN is providing a range of industry-ready products that OEMs can specify in their vehicle models straight away. In doing so, it removes the traditional lengthy RFQ process, with HARMAN utilising industry insights and tracking what end customers are looking for to understand and build solutions that users want and need, rather than producing individual solutions for customers.
“We can give them a full buffet as opposed to an a la carte solution,” said Sehra.
The TCU: the “brains” of the operation
HARMAN’s answer to automotive connectivity is through their own solution, ‘Ready Connect’, a Telematics Control Unit (TCU) that effectively operates as the “brains” of the operation, an embedded system on board a vehicle that controls communications and is key to connectivity. “It’s a technology that is hidden in plain sight,” said Sehra.
“A TCU is also responsible for the telemetry of important vehicle diagnostics, important vehicle parameters, navigational updates, situational awareness updates – all of that is being routed through these specialised TCUs,” Sehra added. “What is different about Ready Connect? We interviewed OEMs and tried to understand what is unique and what is the lowest common denominator that would suffice.”
Sehra compared the TCU to an IoT gateway, in that both devices are used to draw information from sensors. “The IoT gateway typically would be the device where all of this data gets sifted through, to do basic analytics … now let’s take that device and put it inside a car.”
“What we were aiming for was to democratise connectivity as such that it is not seen as a differentiator for a premium brand,” Sehra continued. “Connectivity to me should be a basic right, a foundational feature. I believe technology can be an equaliser in many aspects whereby a solution such as this [Ready Connect] allows cost-conscious OEMs to ship products into markets that are cost sensitive.”
In an example of how connectivity in vehicles is being used to improve safety, a vehicle could detect an obstacle up ahead by pulling in information from traffic signals ahead of time and subsequently optimise its speed such as slowing down.
As Sehra posed it: “Let’s say your road conditions are slick. I live here in California and go up to the mountain quite often … If the snow is strong and the roads have become icy, am I starting to lose traction? Should I pull over? These are the very things that wouldn’t be possible if you had no way of getting this information inside the car.”
The future of automotive connectivity
Sehra said he saw the future of connectivity in vehicles being bright, in spite of adoption not being widespread just yet, depending on where you are in the world. In Europe, cars cannot be sold without having connectivity, as part of a regulatory requirement.
“Part of the reason why not a lot of cars are equipped today is the difference in the technology. In [the] early days there was an emphasis on direct short range communication (DSRC), which was using the Wi-Fi spectrum versus CV2X which uses the cellular spectrum,” he shared. “The industry went through a transitional period in terms of deciding whether to put out a DSRC-based device or C2VX and I think the industry at large has moved in favour of a unified standard.”
“We’re changing the mindset of OEMs in that they don’t have to pay millions and millions in developing a TCU,” Sehra concluded. “We’re pushing the industry to say we’re going to make a difference and Ready Connect is our start in doing that.”
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