By Nicole DiGiose, content editor
Automotive or in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) has become an immersive and increasingly interactive experience, transforming the way we drive and paving the way to self-driving vehicles. In the age of ubiquitous connectivity, drivers expect to interact with their cars just as they do with their phones. Thus, IVI systems have evolved beyond audio and video entertainment and navigation to include driver and passenger safety features as well as vehicle diagnostics.
Automotive infotainment hardware and software systems enable a proliferating set of entertainment, information and safety features, such as GPS navigation, hands-free calling, touch-screen displays for backup-camera video and user input, rear-seat displays, wireless streaming, and voice recognition. “Infotainment solutions move from basic entertainment to information and safety,” said David Apriletti, marketing manager at ON Semiconductor. For IVI system developers, “two main focuses of infotainment are power and input/output. But the trend in infotainment is having everything integrated, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a backup camera, and navigation.”
A glimpse into the connected car. Image source: ON Semiconductor.
Sensors are key enablers for IVI safety systems such as integrated collision-warning cameras, car-to-car communications, and driver monitoring. “Lots of information is shared back and forth in the connected car, and ON Semi’s image sensor plays a big role in passenger safety,” said Jeremy Correale, automotive segment marketer at ON Semiconductor. For example, battery-free, energy-harvesting wireless sensors can be embedded in the driver’s seat to identify the driver’s position as part of a system that learns an individual’s driving style. “Because they require no wiring or batteries, the sensors minimize design complexity,” Correale said.
Data requirements are central to IVI system development. The extension of USB-C connectivity to automotive applications accommodates higher data rates to enable more advanced IVI systems. For example, automakers are adding diagnostic features that troubleshoot battery or other problems to protect the vehicle and, by extension, its occupants.
Safety on display
Among the many elements at play in designing systems that keep the connected car and its occupants secure is the need to deliver the best possible user experience. Displays are central to that experience, often serving as the command center of the vehicle and doing double duty as an interface for both entertainment and safety features.
Keng Ly, director of automotive sales at Rohm Semiconductor, noted that many cars now feature multiple displays, using them in the cluster panel, as the center stack, as heads-up displays, and for rear-seat entertainment.
“There are also more cameras in modern cars, like backup cameras when you put a car in reverse,” Ly said. “There are surround-view cameras, so you can get a bird’s eye view of your car as you’re parking, and then there are also cameras for autonomous driving, where there are two or three cameras in the front or rear of the car for detecting objects. These cameras send their video feed to a display, typically to the center stack display.”
Rohm makes high-speed serial communication ICs for this purpose, Ly said. “As more integration happens in infotainment, high-end graphics chips, such as those that were used for computers and servers or high-end gaming, are now being used in cars. Rohm is making power management ICs that will partner up with SoCs from vendors such as Nvidia, Intel, and Renesas.”
The connected car’s reliance on interrelated systems raises the question of what happens to the other elements when one element malfunctions. The International Organization for Standardization released the ISO 26262 standard several years ago to define functional safety requirements for automotive systems.
“Ten years ago, this safety requirement didn’t exist, so you’d have a cluster by itself, a center display by itself, or a stand-alone heads-up display,” said Ly. “But as you integrate these cockpit products that are also connected to the cameras, they have to have some kind of functional safety requirement.” The cluster or center stack, for example, must be safety-certified and meet Automotive Safety Office (ASO) ratings.
Rohm offers a chipset that Ly said is the first to support functional safety requirements for automotive displays. If an LCD panel goes out, a camera malfunctions, or a graphics or communications chip fails, the chipset still delivers safety-critical information. “So your check-engine light might come on, or your airbag light might come on,” Ly said. “It gives you ways to see critical information without actually receiving that signal.”
As for putting safety directly in the hands of the driver, Gualtiero Bagnuoli, product marketing manager of optical sensors at Melexis, is betting on gesture-driven interface systems, such as those being designed for BMW.
There is much concentration on HMI for automotive infotainment. Image source: Melexis.
“There’s lots of concentration on HMI [human-machine interface], voice recognition, and touch panels for automotive entertainment,” Bagnuoli said. “If something such as a navigation system is right in front of you, it’s convenient, especially if you can do something as simple as pointing left or right for it to understand you.” The benefit is that an infotainment screen can be placed outside the occupant’s physical reach but can still be operated with motions that are familiar to smartphone users.
Pair air gesture technology with voice recognition, and “you can improve the reliability,” Bagnuoli said. “If you can combine the voice with what the driver is doing with their hands, you can point your hand to the window to open it.”
Bagnuoli said the industry looks to consumer trends to guide the automotive user experience. A 3-D camera in the car, for example, can be used to detect how many people are sitting in a vehicle and “whether the people are tall or small, fat or slim,” he said. “If I’m changing positions, active safety, such as the airbags, need to be aware of that. Knowing how many people are in the car and where they are is important, and it’s important for the interior of the car’s energy, too.”
Read the full EV Special Report.
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