Innovation in Vehicle Electronics

16.10.2019  — 

Berlin. At the Electronics In Vehicles Congress (ELIV) from October 16 to 17 in Bonn, IAV presents its developments for new mobility, entertainment and software architecture for autonomous driving. IAV’s engineering solutions offer comfort and innovation for the full scope of mobility, from urban last-mile deliveries via personalized entertainment through to safety concepts for autonomous driving.

Cargobike – last-mile solution with smart fleet management

IAV’s Cargobike is a connected solution with a wide range of possible uses for (sub-)urban deliveries, focusing particularly on the last mile. Food and medication, clothing or everyday necessities – today, nearly everything can be delivered to the door. But making the deliveries is a constant challenge for providers and delivery services as well as the recipients and consignees, particularly in cities. Growing pressure on time and costs, a lack of parking space, restricted flexibility and ever stricter regulations in terms of environmental demands are just some of the problems confronting the logistics sector on a daily basis.

“We are working at various concepts to reconcile heavy traffic and limited traffic areas with the growing demand for mobility. Our focus is not on complex individual solutions. Instead, our aspiration is to offer connected services that can be combined as modules in an end-to-end mobility platform”, says Jean Wagner-Douglas, Executive Vice President for Connected Software Systems & Services and Vehicle Dynamics at IAV.

The Cargobike makes everyday delivery routines easier with a camera-based follow-me function which recognizes the previously registered courier and follows him/her automatically. On short journeys, this eliminates the need for the courier to constantly get on and off the bike or to have to push it. In the event of a hindrance, such as a pedestrian suddenly appearing in its path, it stops automatically and prevents a collision. Nor does the courier have to worry about securing the shipments being delivered: the cargo is stored in a spacious transport box that can only be opened when the courier is in the immediate vicinity, thus preventing unauthorized access.

The courier is not the only one to benefit: a central dashboard permits optimized fleet management together with clearly structured routing and deployment planning. The operating and maintenance parameters of all vehicles are visible online at any time for evaluation. When a limit value is detected, such as low tire pressure, the system automatically informs the driver and fleet operator so that countermeasures can be taken.

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Side window entertainment: entertainment and information on the side window

Playing digital games directly on the side window, reading information about places of interest or restaurant tips: IAV’s side window entertainment turns the window into an augmented reality display.

Two cameras make it work. An outside camera films the surroundings, while a 3D camera inside the vehicle monitors the line of sight of the passengers. The vehicle’s GPS data and automatic object detection tells the system what the passenger is looking at. A transparent OLED display on the side window marks the places of interest with small touch points; touching these reveals information about buildings, parks or rivers. Side window entertainment is an exciting development for passenger cars and also buses, trains, ships or aircraft. “In future, infotainment systems will play an ever increasing role as a competition factor on the vehicle and mobility market. Here we are sure to see more intensive use of augmented reality windows. Our solution gives our customers a genuine competitive edge”, says Karsten Gierke, Executive Vice President for Electronics & Electrical Systems at IAV.

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Active safety layer: software architecture for autonomous driving

With the evolution towards autonomous driving, vehicles are taking over an ever greater share of driving tasks. They must therefore be capable of dealing autonomously with critical situations.

“The growing complexity of automated driving functions is a great challenge for current development and validation methods. IAV has therefore developed a functional multilayer architecture that makes it easier for autonomous vehicles to distinguish between dangerous and harmless situations and to react accordingly”, says Winfried Schultalbers, Executive Vice President for Intelligent Driving Functions at IAV.

The multilayer architecture divides the system into a comfort layer and an active safety layer. The comfort layer is responsible for safeguarding comfortable execution of the respective automated driving tasks, from negotiating an urban junction to driving on the highway. As soon as there is a risk of a hazard occurring, the active safety layer takes over. It intervenes in an acute emergency and reacts to the respective hazard appropriately with drastically reduced comfort requirements. The active safety layer avoids accidents or makes accidents less severe and restores the vehicle to a safe state before handing back to the comfort layer.

IAV’s solution for multilayer architecture with an active safety layer and comfort layer reduces overall system complexity while enhancing both validation and performance.

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