IOT in Automotive industry | Connected vehicles are safer and smarter

‘Automotive IoT’ means IoT technologies are used in automotive systems to develop new applications and solutions for smarter and more intelligent, facilitating, efficient vehicles to achieve comfortable and safe driving.

IoT technologies are used in solutions and applications e.g.:??

● Connected car?

● Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS)?

● navigation & telematics?

● predictive maintenance (Over the Air/OTA)

● Vehicle-to-Vehicle, Infrastructure and Everything (V2V, V2I, V2X)

● Automotive infrastructure (Toll systems, Theft protection, Parking)

IOT gateway platforms for automotive provide connectivity to in-vehicle sensors, helping to generate and deliver preventive and predictive maintenance alerts to the driver.?

In-vehicle sensors keep track of the vehicle’s functional metrics such as acceleration, tire pressure, engine temperature, fuel level, engine-oil, brake fluid level, emissions, and more, and notify the driver of any of the probable issues in advance.

Telematics connectivity is supported by radio access systems, provided by operators in cellular mobile networks to monitor and track a vehicle’s location, movements and other vehicle diagnostics details.?

Automotive telematics systems can track real time details of the vehicle like speed and idling, fuel usage, tire pressure, vehicle breakdown etc.

As well in IOT non-cellular low power networks are used for the automotive infrastructure e.g. LoRa for theft systems which alternatively also uses satellite communication.

IOT short Range technologies are used inside the car e.g. for phone connections and tire pressure monitoring too but as well outside the car for car toll system readers and parking systems.

So IOT Technology is in- and outside the car in the whole automotive domain and applications an essential component.

IOT and ADAS | Observe, protect and safe

ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems) is an umbrella term used for various types of active safety systems in vehicles which allow drivers to take timely control of the vehicle by alerting them of potential hazards on the road. ADAS systems scan the surroundings of the vehicle using vision, RADAR and LIDAR-based in-vehicle systems and provide assistance to the driver for a safer and more comfortable driving experience. Some key ADAS features include Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Lane Departure Warning Systems, Collision Warning Systems, Blind Spot Detection Systems, Night Vision Systems, and Parking Assistance Systems.

ADAS systems can be classified into three main categories based on the technologies they use: Vision-based ADAS systems,?RADAR-based ADAS systems, and LIDAR-based ADAS Systems.

Thaumatec use case: Automotive telematics box development

Challenge:?

• The main reasons for car accidents are distraction, attention, loss of control and misjudged actions of other drivers.?
• Currently the data used for calculating insurance fees are recorded vehicle data such as speed, cornering pitch, location and driven km/year.?
• Our client, a UK start-up requested us to develop a new box with many unique sensors to?increase safety and observation.

Solutions:?

• This device was the first telematics device that reports the FNOL and measures drivers' attention and moods, scoring the insurance risk better than other devices and increases the safety on the street.
• The First Notice of Loss (FNOL) is the initial report made to an insurance provider following loss, theft, or damage of an insured asset.
• The prototype consisted of 3 Cameras, 4 Microphones, 9-Axix Inertial Motion Sensor
• The Feature we implemented have been:?Trip Recording and storage, Face processing, Voice processing, Location and street map query, Trip Score processing, and drivers behaviour analysis.
• Connectivity and locations Services: OBD2 Interface (Speed, RPM,...), LTE Modem, GPS receiver

Engagement:?

o We designed, implemented, integrated the components such as Intel NUC board, PSU Power Supply Unit,?USB hub, Battery pack, various connectors for peripherals into the generic housing and tested HW and SW of the prototype of this comprehensive telematics device. The device was presented to the

Technology:

Qt, QML, Embedded C, Embedded C++, PostgreSQL, OBD2, LTE, GPS, Sensors

IOT and vehicle telematics | Connect the car, inform, measure, and control

Telematics systems supported by IoT technologies are transforming fleet management and vehicle transportation industry by enabling more accurate and in-depth tracking of vehicles. IoT technologies integrated with telematics systems enhance business processes by managing interconnectivity between in-vehicle devices, cloud architecture, and the systems located in fleet management companies to record, and interact with vehicles in-transit, in real time.?IoT solutions empower telematics systems to easily customize its services as per industry requirement and the nature of the business.

Telematics strictly adheres to informatics and does not support entertainment features in the vehicle. Telematics systems and their applications are mostly designed to serve a commercial objective through the vehicle, like fleet tracking solutions, navigations, telematics for insurance, two-way communication to send on-board vehicular data, vehicle diagnostics and maintenance notifications, sending alerts in case of vehicle collision, etc.

Telematics systems are very useful in tracking fleet operations. Some of the advantages of telematics systems in fleet management:

● Route optimization

● Reducing fuel usage

● Reduce operational expenses

● Improve driver safety

● Increase fleet security

● Remotely diagnose maintenance requirements

Thaumatec use case: Road Information Platform for autonomous cars

Challenge:?

For a German OEM, Thaumatec supported the development of Automotive ADAS Features including the tool chain while conforming to newest MISRA standards. Our team was part of a big R&D team consisting of different parties and companies, developing enterprise projects.

Solution:?

• Connected car Road Information Platform with ADAS Features in the Autonomous Driving area
• Navigation System Application?
• Cloud HD maps metadata processing
• Fusion of inputs from sensors and HD maps
• Car environment data provision for trajectory planning

Engagement:?

Our team was responsible for:

• Transitioning from CMake to Bazel
• Implementation of visualization plug-ins for RViz
• Modernizing of the CI system
• Implementation of the PoC of maps cloud processing

Technology:

HERE HD Maps Cloud, ROS, RViz, GitHub Enterprise, Bazel, Zuul, C++14 / MISRA, Scala

Over the Air (OTA) | Update the vehicle Software infrastructure and save service visits and costs

Over-the-air software updates is one of the trending automotive connectivity solutions. It keeps vehicles up-to-date with regular updates to its firmware and software and remotely fixes faulty software. OTA updates supported by IoT cloud connectivity are helpful in updating latest files to assist applications like infotainment, telematics, ADAS systems, ECUs, and more.

Thaumatec use case: Over the Air Update System integration

Challenge:?

The Client requested Thaumatec to:

• Integrate current OTA solution based on PC/Ubuntu to the reference platforms.
• Create platform-independent build & run environment.
• The HW used in cars was Renesas R-Car H3 and Intel MRB boards.

Solutions:?

• The solution was an OTA platform for upgrading SW and data content in secure and safe conditions in the automotive environment.
• The goal was to make it and its development platform independent and easy to integrate by car manufacturers with the help of Yocto platform.

Engagement:

Our team?integrated the OTA product on various target HW platforms and developed the platform independent environment for product coding and testing.

Technology:

Yocto, Docker, Python/Bash, Embedded C, Embedded Linux, U-boot/ABL (Automotive Boot Loader)

If you have any questions, if you need more?information or support do not hesitate to contact us.