Central Vehicle Computer Design: Software Taking Over

To prevent each vehicle manufacturer from “reinventing the wheel” and spending vast amounts of time and engineering, a paradigm shift is needed. Transferring the vehicle design to standardized hardware would enable software to take the key role and allow the horizontal approach in design, where each feature may be added as a module. This sets the stage for a central vehicle computer—a brain for next generation vehicles which is everything but easy to design. This article discusses one such design and identifies the required building blocks for this rising market.