Car makers are inching closer to a standard high bandwidth data network called FlexRay that should spark renewed interest in the development of brake-by-wire and other by-wire technology, according to Automotive News Europe.
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The first car maker is expected to fully utilise the FlexRay network on a production vehicle by late 2008, predicted Stephan Lehmann, strategic marketing manager for Freescale Semiconductor’s global automotive business.
Freescale is a founding member of the FlexRay Consortium that includes core members BMW, Robert Bosch, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Philips and Volkswagen. The consortium was created in 2000 to develop a more robust in-vehicle network that would become an industry standard.
Today’s in-vehicle networks have acronyms like CAN, LIN and MOST. But they are not capable of carrying the increasing amount of data in today’s vehicles and at the speed required by advanced systems like brake-by-wire require. The FlexRay network can transmit data 20 times faster than today’s CAN network, which stands for controller area network.
Although FlexRay was developed with advanced automotive control systems like brake-by-wire in mind, car makers are now considering this larger electronic pipeline as a vehicle’s primary network. With FlexRay’s high-bandwidth capabilities, large amounts of very detailed information can be communicated very rapidly, resulting in extremely quick and precise mechanical response.
It also can be used to tie all the existing networks together.
“The exciting thing about FlexRay for me is that it is enabling technologies or applications which would not have previously been possible because you couldn’t get data around the car quickly enough to make those decisions sensibly,” said Ross McOuat, automotive marketing director at Freescale Semiconductor. “So we see things happening that within the current architecture just would not be possible.”
FlexRay will improve existing systems today that are limited by the amount of information that can be exchanged on the CAN, McOuat said.
“Increasing the amount of data that’s available by a factor of 20 would dramatically increase the performance of the electronic stability programme, for example, McOuat said.
Despite several years of development, car makers are cautiously proceeding with FlexRay. BMW will be the first to use FlexRay, but for a specific function – to control dampers on the X5 suspension, said Chris Webber, vice president of Strategy Analytics’ automotive practice in the UK.
BMW says it won’t talk about a future model before it is launched, but said that the automaker does plan to use FlexRay first on a chassis system.
“But in general FlexRay technology will be implemented in BMW cars within the next years,” said Michael Blabst, head of BMW Group technology communications. “Details will be communicated when the car is launched.”
Car makers are looking at the larger picture as well.
“There’s a lot of interest now coming from its high-bandwidth capabilities,” Webber said. “It a more ambitious view of using FlexRay as the backbone in the vehicle.”
