the whole car? OTA, autonomous driving, and intelligent networking are the general directions of intelligence. Correspondingly, the current electronic and electrical architecture can no longer bear such demands, and new changes are already taking place quietly: next, the word domain controller will constantly appear in front of everyone.
before the article begins, we should first clarify two concepts: ECU((Electronic? Control? Unit, electronic control unit) and? DCU（Domain? Controller? Unit, domain controller).
in the process of automobile development, ECU? It is a very important thing. In most cars now, it is widely used in the bottom executive parts such as vehicle engines and gearboxes, and plays a decision-making role. 7、8? Even hundreds? ECU, the architecture based on it is also called distributed architecture.
and so many? ECU? As a result, the wiring harness layout is complicated, the vehicle weight is increased, the cost of the whole vehicle is high, and the coupling between software and hardware is deep. There may be dozens or hundreds of suppliers involved in a vehicle, and some suppliers may not be one, which leads to the prolonged product verification cycle, which is not conducive to more software integration development or even self-function definition.
So, under this trend, DCU? It was born. The first thing to say is that we don't want myth. Compared with the traditional domain controller? ECU? It hasn't changed much, but it's more like an integration, with hundreds of vehicles? Where is the ECU "concentrated"? 5? A? At present, DCU is divided into five domains: autopilot domain, power domain, chassis domain, cockpit domain and body domain.
Take the autopilot controller as a good example. A8? Yes? zFAS? Domain controller. There are many chips integrated on it, among which? Mobileye? Yes? EyeQ3? Responsible for identification, such as traffic signs, pedestrian detection, lane line identification, etc. NVIDIA? Nvidia? Tegra? K1? Used for image processing; Altera? Cyclone? To preprocess the sensor data; Infineon? Aurix? Used to provide security protection. At that time, this domain controller can be said to be very advanced, representing the forefront or even the highest level of traditional enterprises.
but at that time, domain controllers were extremely expensive, and? zFAS? It is also more like the product of Audi's technical verification. But now, we see a trend: the automobile architecture has really ushered in new changes, and it is changing from distributed to domain centralized, and the industry is about to usher in the era of "domain controller".
the transformation of self-owned brand electronic and electrical architecture is accelerating
domain controllers are coming out
During the Beijing Auto Show, Chery New Energy released @LIFE? Platform, based on this platform, released its new generation of electronic architecture technology with independent intellectual property rights, 22? 28 is its crucial year. @LIFE? Will the platform change from tradition? CAN? Bus distributed electronic architecture, domain controller+Ethernet +CAN? Transformation of converged electronic architecture.
Further, we can see that Chery New Energy wrote: "Cooperate with ZTE to develop China's first domestic chip (Horizon Journey? 2) Self-developed and mass-produced autopilot controller (support? OTA? Upgrade).
and in tiggo? 8? On this model, is it carried in mass production? Hypervisor? Architecture Renesas? M3? Cockpit domain controller. Obviously, on the road of reform, Chery moves quickly and goes very radical.
on the eve of Beijing auto show, lectra also officially released its exclusive pure electric architecture, named "SEA? Vast. " When it comes to architecture, Link emphasized its hardware software. What is known is, "SEA? OS? The vehicle intelligent development system, based on the electronic and electrical architecture from three-domain integration to central integration, forms a complete development system through hardware and software, software algorithms, cloud computing and application scenarios. Its core chip components will be independently developed in the future, which have been realized at present? API? Interface exceeds? 4? Can you realize the whole scene and the whole life cycle? FOTA。
and on top of this framework, there are already more than? 7? Brands, totaling more than? 16? A new model started research and development and laid out different market segments. President of Geely Holding Group and Geely Automobile Group? An Conghui, CEO and president, said, "According to the existing plan, 221? Since 28, a variety of new models based on the vast architecture will be put on the market one after another. 221? 28 will be the full-speed year of Geely's technological transformation and the development of intelligent electric vehicles.
this year? 7? In June, the Great Wall officially released the Lemon Platform, which is compatible with various power forms (pure electricity, internal combustion engine, hybrid and fuel cell). This is not the key point. What is important is that we have seen the transformation from the electronic and electrical architecture and embarked on the road of domain centralization. The electronic and electrical architecture is divided into four domains: audio-visual domain, driver assistance domain, body domain and driving control domain.
among the new forces, this change is also in progress. This year? 4? In June, Xpeng Motors was in? P7? Put it up and down based on? NVIDIA? DRIVETM? AGX? Xavier? The automatic driving domain controller based on, naturally, aims to achieve stronger automatic driving capability, and Xpeng Motors's subsequent models will continue to carry it? NVIDIA? Yes? AI? Automatic driving computing platform; This year? 9? In June, a similar scene was staged again, with LI, NVIDIA? And? Desai Siwei has reached a cooperation, and the ideal will be in? 222? Full-size augmented intelligence launched in 28? SUV? Based on? Orin? System on a chip (force? 2TOPS) automatic driving domain controller.
as for weilai, the leader, there must be relevant layout and planning inside, but I haven't told anyone for the time being. In addition, Nezha Auto also said that a brand-new electronic and electrical architecture will be adopted in the future. The new architecture will be based on Ethernet and divided into four domain controllers: intelligent cockpit domain controller, autopilot domain controller, power domain controller and? AI? Domain controller.
foreign giants are gradually following suit
Of course, foreign giants are also actively participating in this change.
It was the public who first woke up and started to do this, just now? zFAS? The domain controller is made by Volkswagen Audi. In order to accelerate the electrification transformation, Volkswagen released? MEB? Pure electric platform, ID3? As the first mass-produced pure electric vehicle, it will be equipped with a name? E3? Cross-domain converged architecture based on.
219? Year? 5? In June, GM released a new generation of electronic and electrical architecture to support the whole vehicle? OTA, data transmission speed? 4.5? TB/ hour, which is more than their current? Global? A? High architecture? 5? Times. At the same time, this new architecture also reduces the number of controllers through system integration, which has better scalability and higher performance. More information is known, which is the first pure electricity of GM Cadillac mass-produced two years later? Liriq? The cockpit controller of the supplier Bosch will be adopted.
follow bosch. According to the data, this year? 4? In June, Bosch has won the first local cockpit control project, which will be held in? 221? Achieve mass production in the fourth quarter of 28; 222? Year? Q1? The first global cockpit controller project was mass-produced.
this year? 6? In May, Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA reached a cooperation, and the two sides will build a new in-vehicle computing architecture based on the NVIDIA autopilot platform. AI? And self-driving car applications, including? SAE? L2? Level and? L3? Class function and automatic parking function (up to? L4? Level), and the new architecture is deployed on the next generation Mercedes-Benz car, and the time node is set at 224? Years.
There are countless similar cases, so I won't say more here. You can clearly perceive that both OEMs and suppliers are turning to domain controllers. This year will be the first year for domain controllers to be applied on a large scale.
what is the reason behind it?
I think that as soon as this subtitle appeared, those three words appeared in everyone's mind: "Tesla".
careful friends may find that among the car companies I just mentioned, the only one that I didn't mention is the leader Tesla. When everyone is still transitioning from distributed to centralized, and completing the leap to multi-domain, Tesla has reached the next step, cross-domain integration, no longer dividing each domain according to function, but dividing it by region (autonomous driving and entertainment domain control module? Autopilot? & ? Infotainment? Control? Module, right body controller? BCM? RH? And the left body controller? BCM? LH), one position ahead of peers.
I was with Valeo China? CTO? When Gu Jianmin was chatting, he said, "Tesla's greatest contribution to the industry is not electric cars, batteries, or electrification, but architecture. It is the first to push the integrated architecture, the first to push? OTA, and we can do a lot of things on this architecture. I quite agree with this view.
it is true that Tesla has played a great role in promoting the industry. However, this is only one of the reasons.
With the gradual penetration of intelligent driving and intelligent networking, higher requirements are put forward for the computing power and processing capacity of automobiles. Simple, take our mobile phone as an example, the previous photos may only need dozens? KB? However, with the increasing pixel and photo resolution of mobile phones, how many photos are casually uploaded? MB, which requires the mobile phone to have more memory, now? 64G、128G? At the beginning, with more and more data to be processed, the computing power of the corresponding mobile phone chip is getting higher and higher. Put it in the car, the same is true.
the distributed architecture that has been used before can't meet this growing demand. ECU? The computing power cannot be coordinated, which causes great waste, and at the same time, hundreds of distributed architectures? ECU? Different suppliers make it impossible to carry out unified maintenance and upgrade, and at the same time increase the difficulty of software development.
as far as autonomous driving is concerned, with the increasing number of sensors, the demand for data processing and collaboration will be higher and higher, and it is also on-board? ECU? The main reason for the increase in the number is that a more powerful centralized architecture is needed to replace the distributed architecture, which is why both Ideal and Tucki adopt domain controllers.
in addition, of course, there are also OEMs? The urgent need to reduce costs and increase efficiency? . The appearance of domain controller reduces the wiring, reduces the cost of the whole vehicle, reduces the difficulty of software development, and shortens the cycle of vehicle integration verification. In addition, it brings better over-the-air software update (OTA) capability.
With this ability, OEMs can diagnose vehicle problems through the car-linked network, directly through remote? OTA? Completing the repair is another good way to reduce the cost for the main engine factory. At the same time, OEM can bring better user experience to users. OTA? Update, bring about the improvement of vehicle performance and interconnection, and maintain good interaction with the owner throughout the vehicle life cycle.
even, based on this, we can find new channels and opportunities for realizing cash. Tesla has already done this, like spending money to accelerate, turn on the seat heating function, and unlock? FSD? Functions are all similar operations. The point is that Tesla also made money. Later, Mercedes-Benz also made it clear that it wanted to? OTA? Remote wireless upgrade and subscription service become the focus of its layout.
Summary
What we can see is that the appearance of domain controllers has also brought subtle changes to the relationship between OEMs and suppliers. The decoupling speed of automobile software and hardware is accelerating, the value of software is rising, and OEMs are paying more and more attention to software R&D capabilities. Enterprises such as Volkswagen and SAIC are already making efforts to build their own software R&D teams, taking the core things into their own hands. The original supplier pattern has been broken, industry rules are being reshaped, and the relationship between OEMs and suppliers has entered a new adjustment period.
In terms of electronic and electrical architecture, these new trends that have appeared this year are enough to excite me. Next year, we will see more and more vehicles equipped with domain controllers. Based on this centralized domain architecture, what new gameplay will the OEM come up with? What kind of new cooperation mode will emerge with suppliers? I am looking forward to it.
This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.