Point to point

Driving automotive electronics

While one of the most exciting and dynamic markets out there, the automotive electronics market is demanding on several fronts. And, no surprise, cost appears to require the most attention—at least that was the consensus of members of an industry panel that convened for this month’s Automotive/Transportation Electronics Forum (see page 70).

The 10-person panel included representatives from manufacturers of sensors, ICs, passives, displays, LEDs, and other product categories. Referring to cost, one participant said, “Once we go through the costing and pricing exercises, most customers (95% or more), immediately resort to a set up which avoids using CAN or LIN, especially in the mid- to low-range car systems that are more cost-sensitive than higher range vehicles.”

Other topics included:

Networking/communications standards such as LIN, CAN, MOST, and JasPar: “… in terms of the different network standards out there, they’re definitely proliferating …”

X-by-wire: “… the term X-by-wire is a dangerous term because it suggests that this is one big topic that can be answered in one way or in the other. And actually, you have to differentiate it very much …”

Convergence: “… there’s an expectation from the customer that the home theater experience is going to be transported into the car, which causes a lot of trouble for the automobile makers …”

An unabridged version of the forum as well as the Automotive /Transportation product roundup—featuring products specific to this market—can be found at http://electronicproducts.com under the Current Issue section.