The current methods for updating the software in ECUs were designed for cars that were based more on mechanics and less on software. In view of sometimes more than 100 million lines of software code rethinking is necessary.
According to Frost & amp; Sullivan has a modern premium car more than 100 million lines of software code (LOC), a mid-size car comes to about 20 to 30 million LOC. This code is used in many areas of the car – from the radar and infrared sensors to the drivetrain, the chassis and the infotainment system. The embedded software packet size is about 10 MB for engine and transmission controls, while audio / infotainment systems in general, the largest and most complex pieces of software can be found, which often contain more than 100 MB of code.
Most of the innovative features in new cars based on software. The average investment is about $ 10 per LOC. This makes software to one of the most expensive components in the car. A recent Frost & amp; Sullivan study estimated that by 2020, accounting for about 40 to 50% of car costs on software. According to Coverity, a company that provides tools for software development, can be contained in a thousand lines of code on average 20 to 30 bugs. By the year 2020 is expected to be around 300 million LOC in the car. Add to that the Coverity numbers added, one comes to tens of thousands of potential defects in a car in 2020. These forecasts indicate more than clear that it is time to define a new strategy for the software life cycle – a strategy which will reduce the number caused by software callbacks that helps improve customer satisfaction and opens up the possibility to implement new features faster, especially given the rapid innovations in consumer electronics.
The weaknesses of classical Update -Prozesses
There are many control devices in a vehicle, most of whom are over the vehicle network (CAN, MOST, LIN, FlexRay) are connected. But only a few modules, usually the infotainment and telematics modules, have direct access to the wireless or Wi-Fi. In principle, smartphones can be used as a gateway to receive email updates and to transfer to internal vehicle modules when the device is connected.
Typical events to update the ECU software product recall (mandatory or voluntary) , scheduled maintenance actions and general updates on the production line. It is usually a problem with the vehicle functionality trigger for an ECU software update. In most cases this can be repaired by modifying the software in a control unit of the vehicle. Depending on how big the urgency to correct the problem and the pressure from authorities, decided by the OEM to determine whether the update is performed immediately or as part of a planned maintenance.
The traditional method for updating control devices doing quite complicated:
. 1 The corresponding ECU supplier is asked to provide a new software version.
. 2 The supplier is the software version of the OEM, which checks to quality.
. 3 The OEM notifies the dealer and owner in writing of the recall. The OEM sends the new software version on a CD by mail to the dealers.
. 4 The dealer will update the programming tools in the workshop with the contents of the CD.
Source: © Red Bend
5.. The vehicle owner drives the car to the dealer’s workshop.
. 6 The technician connects a serial communication unit to the vehicle bus in order to access to the ECU.
. 7 The technician starts the update process of the ECU and then checks whether the reprogramming worked.
. 8 The customer assumes the vehicle and the dealer will charge the OEM work for the callback.
The exact update time depends strongly on the size of the code, and also on the speed of the serial protocol. In general, however, the dealers are planning at least two hours for this activity. Since the necessary programming tools are relatively expensive, also available in a workshop only a limited number of programming spaces. Modern methods for updating software, such as a wireless “Firmware Over The Air (FOTA)” – update can help here ( Image 1 ). However, while several boundary conditions are the same note.
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