An increase in self-driving vehicles has become more common over the past two years. From government-issued vehicles to hands-free controls to get to work, more and more people and organizations are expecting to rely on autonomous vehicles In the coming years.
Ajeya Gupta, a research engineer with the Advanced Networking Systems group at Ford Motor Company, and Kirsten Matheus, in-vehicle communication technology strategist at BMW in Munich, Germany, have been working to bring the self-automated vehicle to a certain level as companies are gearing up for more self-driving vehicles to become mainstream. The Automotive SerDes Alliance, a not-for-profit industry alliance of automotive technology vendors, promotes “ASA Motion Link”, a SerDes communications technology for in-vehicle connectivity ranging from 2 Gbps to 16/48 Gbps. s.
DesignConwhich took place this week from April 5-7 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, is the nation’s largest event for chip, board and systems design engineers and showcased the significant impact that autonomous vehicles are having in the world today, as well as what to expect from the most innovative technologies in this industry.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Ajeya and Kirsten, two prominent Drive World Conference speakers at DesignCon, about the latest advancements in autonomous vehicle technology and their sessions at the event.
Suzanne Deffree: Can you tell us about the new Automotive SerDes Alliance standardization?
Ajeya Gupta: There is a need for the industry to use a common communication protocol for in-vehicle use cases. Automotive SerDes Alliance (ASA) aims to fill this gap by developing an industry standard-based networking solution for in-vehicle applications such as cameras, infotainment, advanced driver assistance technologies (ADAS ), etc. ASA now includes members of an automotive ecosystem of 90+ Tier 1 automotive manufacturers, semiconductor suppliers, component suppliers and test labs.
Kristen Matheus: The Automotive SerDes Alliance houses ASA Motion Link technology, which provides cost- and power-optimized asymmetric high-speed communication as needed for in-vehicle camera, sensor, and display applications.
Suzanne Deffree: What challenges do you solve with this technology?
Ajeya Gupta: The widespread use of proprietary solutions to transport high-bandwidth data has become a challenge for the industry. This is quickly becoming a bottleneck as sophisticated use cases continue to grow. This is attributed to higher switching costs, a significant increase in non-recurring engineering (NRE), unintended vendor lock-in, etc. ASA was created with the vision to address these shortcomings and solve them by creating a standardized solution.
Kristen Matheus: Currently, car manufacturers must use proprietary, vendor-specific technologies to transmit high-speed video data inside cars. This limits each deployment to vendor-specific functionality (with potential vendor lock-ins). A standard enables a broad product portfolio with cost and power optimized products.
Suzanne Deffree: You spoke at DesignCon. What ideas did you share with the participants?
Ajeya Gupta: We were invited to be part of the panel focusing on the next generation of automotive communication technologies and associated testing challenges. Panelists bring diverse backgrounds ranging from automakers, Tier 1 suppliers, chip vendors and global representation. Audiences have the opportunity to experience the unique set of challenges faced by each level of the automotive ecosystem when it comes to supporting futuristic use cases for self-driving cars, an in-car infotainment experience improved, etc.
Kristen Matheus: If you’ve ever wondered why some technologies succeed and others that are technically as good or even better fail, the interactive session on “Role of Open Standards for the Long-Term Sustainability of Networking Technologies” might provide some answers. . If you want to learn more about new communication technologies, such as the ASA Motion Link and the importance and role of testing these communication technologies in cars, the “Test and Measurement for Automotive Standards” roundtable is the maid.
Suzanne Deffree: What motivates you to engage in person with your community at DesignCon?
Ajeya Gupta: Access to a wide range of technical discussions, panels and the convergence of electrical industry peers under one roof is both exciting and a great learning opportunity. Learning about development in other industries such as semiconductor and hardware development seems particularly interesting, and the hope is to apply it to automotive systems as well.
Kristen Matheus: To move the world forward, you need a good understanding of the problems to be solved and the space of technical solutions available, which will soon be available. Meeting people face to face is the only way to get a hook on both.
Register for DesignCon 2022 here to attend the sessions on its online platform on June 7 and 8, 2022.