The autonomous driving system has been a major research and development focus for many OEMs and new startups recently, however, most of the systems are designed for specific vehicles and unique purposes, and many of its components cannot be shared and are not interchangeable. On top of that, it takes lots of time and money to meet the regulations, testing standards, and certifications of different countries.To achieve the goal of an Open and Agnostic ecosystem, the Autonomy Working Group drafts a series of standardized interfaces for both hardware and software with the addition of modern development tools, aiming at lowing the entry barrier for hardware and software vendors. Autonomy Working Group demonstrated some of the achievements at the booth:The Sensor API provides information around the vehicle, such as images and distance to objects, just like the driver’s eyes. The collected sensor data can be used to recognize the surroundings and the future driving path, just like the driver’s brain. Control of the vehicle is done through DbW (Drive-by-Wire) API, which acts as the driver’s hands and feet. More functionalities can be implemented with additional support from Map API, such as route planning, speed prediction, or even reducing range anxiety when coupled with charging station location and vehicle battery management system (BMS).Using a cloud development platform to reduce development time. By using the same APIs that communicate with a real vehicle, couple it with simulated sensor data, traffic conditions, and weather. The system can be developed and optimized on the cloud first and then deployed to a real vehicle through Over-the-Air (OTA) later for on-road testing.
【Energy Management WG】
Driving distance is the key factor a driver will consider when purchasing an electric vehicle. All car OEMs put significant efforts into developing various technologies to extend driving distance. Among all impact factors, battery and Battery Management System (BMS) are the most significant factors. The goal of the MIH Energy Management Working Group focuses on optimizing overall EV power efficiency in order to extend the best driving distance.MIH Energy Management Working Group proposed 3 architectures to achieve power efficiency optimization.
Open BMS Architecture
In order to achieve overall power efficiency optimization, MIH proposed an Open BMS architecture. With open APIs, the power usage information can be exchanged and communicated. Through detailed power management, it can achieve whole vehicle power efficiency optimization. 2. Power-Level Battery HIL (Hardware-In-the-Loop)In our booth, we demonstrated a Power-Level Battery HIL system which collaborated with NI (National Instrument). This system can combine real road conditions (such as uphill/downhill, curvature, and temperature) and feed into the battery test set. It can simulate road conditions and retrieve real battery performance, and further acquire the best battery performance. 3. Battery Swap SystemMIH designs a battery system combined with a “fixed battery” and “swap battery”. The driver can find the nearest battery swap station and swap the “empty-power battery” with a “full-power battery” within a very few minutes. Our battery swap system could provide immediate power and driving mileage for both daily and emergent usage.
【Security & Over-the-air WG】
Our objective of MIH Security & OTA Working Group is to provide a seamless automotive security framework that will protect your vehicle from design, developing, manufacturing, running, and scrapping for cybersecurity and data privacy. Currently, the market challenge is most vehicle cybersecurity are closed systems that cause vehicles is hard to change different cybersecurity systems. Our framework uses Open Architecture & Open API to shorten the integration & testing. The vehicle can adapt different cybersecurity solutions for localization. Our in-vehicle solution is thru the hardware security module, software system access control, intrusion detection and prevention system, and anomaly detection to protect your vehicle. We also use the cloud vehicle security operation center and over-the-air updates to keep your vehicle security in the state-of-the-art. By using the framework, we provide two demonstrations.The first one is Remote Diagnostic System. Collect the sensor data, system log and abnormal system status and send them to the cloud. In the cloud, we co-work with HW diagnostic company and the SW cybersecurity company to provide an integrated solution for users to solve the HW/SW/Cybersecurity issues.The second one is the MIH mobile app. We use the decentralized Identifier technology as the user's identity. We also use NFT technology for the vehicle owner's contract. By using these two technologies, we provide a transparent and provable resume for the vehicle that includes the maintenance, repair, insurance, and loan history. This will help to provide a trustable record for the secondary market.
【EEA WG】
The Electrical and Electronic Architecture (EEA) is the most important subsystem for an electric vehicle, like the neural system for a human body. The system responsible for bridging different components of a vehicle include computing platforms, power delivery and data exchange. Under the trend of software-defined vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles, how to design a multi-purpose EEA with Over-the-Air technology at a reasonable cost is a problem. MIH EEA working group believes an open platform can solve the system complexity issue caused by cross-hardware and multi vehicles support. The working group plan to use standardized middleware interfaces and two other software projects to solve the issue. The details of the reference design are shown bellowThe Middleware interface is standardized to solve the problem of rework caused by cross-platform. Applications implemented through the middleware interface standard can be executed on different hardware through the same middleware.MIH.SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) plans to establish a service-oriented software library on the middleware standard interface. By establishing a software library for automotive applications, the development time of vehicle software can be dramatically reduced.MIH.Buck connects vehicle components with middleware to form a hardware integration platform that can be controlled through the middleware standard interface.The open platform is a vertical integration system composed of open API, open software, and open EE buck. The platform allows developers to implement applications for different vehicles through the same API. The API is based on the standardization of middleware which supports different hardware and it can build an ecosystem to reduce vehicle development lead time. On MIH Demo Day, the EEA working group revealed the detailed plan and timeline of the whole system, including MIH.SOA, MIH.ZONE for a software project and open EE buck for a hardware project. All these projects are designed by modulization, customers can build their own vehicles by combining specific hardware and software components.
【Thermal Management WG】
There are several major market challenges nowadays in thermal management. First is on charging, people are looking more at faster-charging solutions; second, a longer e-range is able for users to travel a longer distance, with thermal control, less energy is used, which enables a longer e-range; this then leads to total cost savings for the customer and helps the environment. With an effective thermal management system, more Mobility as a Service can be elaborated in the vehicle.Our solution is based on heat pump system. Traditional thermal system uses PTC heater, but with heat pump system, it uses refrigerant to pass through standard parts and battery, and has less energy consumption up to 60%, resulting in battery be charged faster comparing to traditional system.So technology-wise we focus on standardizing and modularizing the circuits and parts, with effective heat flow we are able to manage energy usage. And the list of modular parts can flexibly provide the needs from the customers and enhance cost management.Ultimately, standardization and modularization can help to reduce the total development lead time by having the testing and certification compressed.We expect that outcome of this working group can bring benefit to the vehicle project development and provide the best and cost effective product to the market.
【Powertrain WG】
The mission of the MIH Powertrain Working Group is to research and develop technologies for corresponding EDU system based on the spirit of the Open/Agnostic platform.The design follows the platform spirit of (open):Establish a Reference Design while standardizing and modularizing sub-systems and components and exposing interfaces and signals, enhancing the diversity of product portfolios.Three key components follow the platform spirit of high compatibility (Agnostic):Motor: We have observed two major trends in the motor field from the mainstream market: first, miniaturization and high speed, and second further integration of EDU system. In terms of power requirements, we will fix the motor's outer diameter and flexible stack lengths as a vehicle platform drive scheme.Gearbox: We have adopted the 2 Speed Gear Box technology with a standardized assembly surface, which can take into account the acceleration ability, maximum speed of passenger vehicle, and the loading of the commercial vehicle at the same time, and more importantly, it can reduce the specification requirements and weight of the motor and battery. Further solves the problem of high-cost of manufacturing and energy consumption of user Range anxiety.Through the above-mentioned two values of Open and Agnostic, platform partners can recombine components and use them in different classes or models of vehicles. Also, this high degree of flexibility helps partners build a diverse product portfolio and expand market opportunities.
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