Flexray Protocol Picks up Support
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THE HANSEN REPORT ON AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS. A Business and Technology Newsletter VOL. 15, NO. 5◆◆ RYE, NH USA JUNE 2002 Auto Electronics FlexRay Protocol Picks Pioneer Dennis Wilkie Speaks Out Up Support The battle over which safety-critical, but we have been unable to confirm that Dennis Wilkie has seen automotive by-wire communications protocol gets Volkswagen, Renault and Toyota have electronics from both the carmaker side picked by the auto industry is heating up. chosen TTA. Engineers at Renault are and the supplier side. After completing a As the FlexRay consortium spreads the divided—there are advocates there for Ph.D. in control theory he spent 28 years news that its membership is growing— each of the communications protocols. at Ford, where he worked on some of the Ford and Texas Instruments announced While Toyota is listed as a core TTA earliest developments of electronically- they will soon officially join—the com- member, Ichiro Hosotani, an engineer at tuned radios, cruise and engine controls. peting TTA consortium counters that Toyota’s control software development He held key positions in Ford’s Electrical TTA is still very much a contender. center, told us that Toyota won’t decide and Electronics division, including assis- FlexRay was founded by BMW, Mercedes, on a particular protocol until the third tant chief engineer, reporting to Jerry Motorola and Philips in the fall of 2000 quarter of 2003. In April 2002, Toyota Rivard, another industry pioneer. Mr. after Mercedes and BMW stopped work- and Volkswagen attended the FlexRay Wilkie served as general manager of Ford’s ing with the TTA (Time Triggered Archi- consortium meeting in Munich, Germany. Glass division and later as director of elec- tecture) consortium and its leading Along with VW, Renault and Toyota, the tric vehicle programs. In 1996 he joined proponent TTTech Computertechnik TTA consortium also lists Delphi, automotive electronics supplier Motorola, AG, of Vienna, Austria. TTTech owns TTTech, Honeywell and Airbus as core where he held a number of management rights to the TTTech by-wire link. members. positions in the Automotive and Indus- While the final decision hasn’t yet FlexRay carmakers Ford, GM, BMW trial Electronics Group and was on the been made, The Hansen Report has re- and DaimlerChrysler account for about staff of the president of Motorola’s Inte- cently learned that PSA Peugeot Citroën 21% of the world’s light vehicle produc- grated Electronics Systems Sector. He re- could join FlexRay. PSA is still studying tion. It now seems inevitable that other tired from Motorola in March 2002, and both FlexRay and TTA by-wire communi- carmakers will jump on the FlexRay band- in May was named senior vice president of cations approaches, and while research wagon, making FlexRay the de facto com- Compass Group, a management consult- people are working on a prototype by-wire munications standard for high-speed ing and executive search firm based in system, development engineers are work- safety-critical automotive applications. In Birmingham, Michigan, and Oak Brook, ing on a FlexRay prototype. The develop- July of 2001, Bosch decided to become a Illinois. Mr. Wilkie serves as chairman of ment engineers now favor FlexRay, and core member of FlexRay, and in April the board of the Convergence Transporta- one engineering manager close to the 2002, Ford and Texas Instruments an- tion Electronics Association, which orga- project told us that PSA is almost certain nounced their intention to sign on as as- nizes the biennial International Congress to opt for FlexRay. Other carmakers will sociate members. on Transportation Electronics, meeting do likewise, he said. PSA has signed non- next on October 20, 2002, in Detroit. disclosure agreements with both the FlexRay Membership We interviewed Mr. Wilkie in May, FlexRay and TTA groups so it maintains Core Members and he discussed some of his ideas for two separate groups, one to handle BMW bringing automotive electronics closer to FlexRay and another to handle TTA. Bosch its potential for making vehicles safer, The TTA consortium continues to DaimlerChrysler more reliable, more fully featured, and less claim publicly that PSA is a consortium General Motors costly. member, despite PSA’s requests that it not Motorola do so, and despite the news that PSA is Philips Problems Between Carmakers leaning strongly toward FlexRay. TTA Premium Associate Member and Suppliers also claims that Audi, Volkswagen, Ford (will join soon) With Compass Group, Mr. Wilkie in- Toyota and Renault have joined with Associate Member tends to work with carmakers and suppli- TTA. Walter Streit, responsible for Audi’s Texas Instruments (will join soon) ers to help them improve systems electrical systems integration, confirmed Turn to Wilkie, page 2 that Audi is definitely advocating TTA, Turn to FlexRay, page 8 Wilkie... Continued from page 1 engineering and help them work together tronics guys are trying to rip them off and systems engineering,” said Mr. Wilkie, more productively. He believes the two maintain egregious margins. ... It’s hard to “but even these two carmakers could ben- sides can do a better job harmonizing overcome the mindset of some carmakers efit from a greater application of it.” their efforts. “Today,” said Mr. Wilkie, who believe electronics suppliers should “the two sides behave as if there is an im- not have higher margins than the Network Computing pedance mismatch between them.” Im- carmakers. That’s not right.” Mr. Wilkie Mr. Wilkie sees huge potential for what pedance is opposition to the flow of believes that to stay competitive, elec- he calls the networked car. “I would love alternating current. When there is a mis- tronics companies need to maintain a to see the vehicle electronic architecture match, energy is wasted. Likewise in the higher level of investment in R&D than behave much like the Internet behaves— automotive electronics market, “It’s diffi- do carmakers. “Lately, it’s as hard as it’s where mechanical, electrical, electronics cult for each side to overcome the imped- ever been for suppliers to make money in or software components could be added to ance mismatch between electronics and automotive electronics. More suppliers are the vehicle without a lot of reconfigura- the car,” said Mr. Wilkie. That mismatch on the ragged edge of walking from the tion and reengineering.” He elaborated: leads to many of the problems carmakers auto industry.” “There are a number of fundamental de- and suppliers have with each other. For ◆ Carmakers tend to over-control sign approaches using active networks, example: their suppliers. This over-control mindset functional decomposition and shared ◆ Suppliers tend to over-promise. relates to the enormous cost associated computing, which could be borrowed from “One of the things that bothers me the with quality problems and recalls. How- the computer industry. These approaches most is when suppliers grossly underesti- ever, this makes it difficult for the best would allow true plug and play, the ability mate the difficulty of the automotive en- suppliers to improve designs and combine to upgrade vehicles already in service, and vironment,” declared Mr. Wilkie. Much of functions in order to reduce costs, and it to lower cost and improve reliability the disappointment within the telematics significantly delays progress. through low cost redundancy, shared in- industry is a result of suppliers who pro- formation and computing power.” mote new technology and features that Systems Engineering While implementing this approach to are not truly ready for automotive use. Good top-down systems engineering vehicle architecture will admittedly be “You’d get tantalized by what could get would solve many of the problems that difficult, Mr. Wilkie believes that it is do- done and believe them, but then they limit the potential of using more electron- able and well worth the effort: “It will wouldn’t deliver,” he said. ics in the vehicle. “The industry has used yield cost reductions, improvements in ◆ Suppliers don’t appreciate the auto- the words “systems engineering” for years, reliability, improvements in vehicle func- motive prove-out process.“There’s a kind but unfortunately true systems engineer- tions and updating capabilities even after of arrogance among electronics suppliers ing has not been happening on a vehicle the car is on the road. The first automaker that auto industry guys are a bunch of level as it needs to. ” said Mr. Wilkie. “To to do this will reap huge benefits.” ◆ hammer mechanics and that electronics is get the proper outcome, systems engineer- on a higher plane, more intellectual,” ex- ing must be done pervasively and thor- THE HANSEN REPORT ON plained Mr. Wilkie. “But it isn’t the intel- oughly at the total vehicle level.” AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS lectual mistakes that can kill you, it’s the Each carmaker should have a dedicated simple stuff that can’t live in a car envi- vehicle system office that manages the © 2002 Paul Hansen Associates, 11 Went- ronment, or cross-talk within networks. … electronic and mechanical configurations worth Road, Rye, NH 03870, USA; Tele- People don’t appreciate the auto industry of the car. That office should establish the phone: 603-431-5859. Fax: 603-431-5791. and the development process and time- fundamental architecture for the vehicle E-mail: [email protected]. All rights lines and the discipline of meeting dates and specify which protocols and interfaces reserved. Materials may not be reproduced with quality,” he said. should be used. “You really need to start in any form without written permission. The ◆ Carmakers have less clout with systems engineering at the very top of the Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics is electronics suppliers. “OEMs are used to design process in order to make each part published 10 times a year, monthly; July/ dealing with a supply base whose very ex- function cohesively within the system.” August and December/January are com- istence relies on key relationships with a One of the many obstacles to true sys- bined issues.