The 3rd Intelligent Cockpit and User Experience Conference of Gaz Automotive 2021 was successfully held, and HARMAN unveiled the market-leading cockpit domain controller mass production solution and brand audio upgrade solution, attracting the audience to stop and experience. On December 27th, Mr. Sun Yanfei, Head of Global Hardware Systems at HARMAN, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Intelligent Cockpit Architecture Design Centered on Intelligent Cockpit Domain Controllers" as an invited guest, sharing HARMAN's insights in the field of intelligent cockpit research and development for industry colleagues.
HARMAN mass-produced smart cockpit solutions; Image credit: HARMAN
HARMAN's entry-level audio upgrade program; Image credit: HARMAN
Convergence of vehicle functional domains, new human-machine interactions, consumer electronics user experiences, regulations and technological advancements are the major factors driving the current smart cockpit forward. All of these trends require the architecture of the entire cockpit system to have higher computing power, stronger rendering power, greater memory throughput, and provide rich peripheral interfaces, while placing new demands and challenges on automotive functional safety and system safety.
Sun Yanfei, global director of hardware systems at HARMAN, believes that the reconstruction of automotive electronic and electrical architecture is promoting the convergence of functional domains to an architecture based on spatial domain and central computing. However, going from a domain controller to a central computing doesn't happen overnight. In the transition phase of evolution from functional domain to spatial domain, the smart cockpit will still exist as a separate functional domain. Feature-rich cockpit design requires hardware and software decoupling to better cope with future iterations of hardware updates. In the next generation of automotive electronic and electrical architecture planning, the vehicle system will be connected by a central gateway to multiple functional domain controllers and area controllers, the existing functional domain will be integrated into the cockpit domain and the automatic driving domain as the center, and the TCU will be used as a separate on-board control unit to realize the interconnection of vehicles and the cloud.
HARMAN proposes a modular, composable approach to cockpit collaboration
New trends have led to new thinking, and HARMAN's hardware platform planning for cockpit domain controllers will no longer be limited to a single SOC. Through multiple SOCs deployed and integrated, more complex and diverse cockpit functions can be achieved. With more than 15 years of development experience in the field of in-vehicle LGA modules, HARMAN currently supports chip products from more than 10 SOC vendors, enabling perfect compatibility between different SOC versions and even across SOC vendors. HARMAN's self-developed upgradable LGA module system resources are flexibly configured, the external support is rich interface, can drive more than 5 high-definition displays, and can integrate L0~L1 level ADAS functions such as DMS, OMS, SVM and so on.
On the software platform, HARMAN provides a very flexible cooperation model for car companies and their partners, from providing hardware and underlying drivers, providing virtualization and operating system level support according to the requirements of car companies, and then extending upward to middleware and application software to adapt to the division of labor and cooperation development mode of different customers. Considering the more functional requirements of the smart cockpit in the future, HARMAN's new hardware and software architecture will also support multiple operating systems, such as adding a second Android or FireOS system to support co-pilot or rear entertainment.
Iterations are frequent, and time is productivity
As more and more functions are integrated into the smart cockpit, many car companies have reserved 30% or even more than 40% of the resources in advance to expand functions and improve performance in order to cope with future major upgrades of the entire cockpit operating system. Software and system cost optimization for continuous update iterations also places a requirement for upgradeable hardware capabilities. HARMAN enables rapid hardware iteration by standardizing cockpit controller hardware designs, helping automakers quickly bring products to market during the shortening new vehicle development cycle.
With leading smart car R&D capabilities and deep accumulation in the automotive and technology fields, HARMAN continues to release the data resources and technological potential in the cockpit to increase the value of the car. As a strong partner of automakers, HARMAN will continue to use its advantages to help car companies lead the consumer experience and build a desirable third living space!