What’s Driving Development of the Connected Car?
By Paul Golata, Mouser Electronics
It wasn’t too long ago that what most people wanted from their automobile was simply more cup holders. But times
have quickly changed. Now putting an extra spot or two to hold one’s 7-Eleven Big Gulp is not enough.
Millennial-age consumers are used to their smartphones being with them everywhere and using them in a myriad of
ways. Now car owners want their automobile to match the capabilities of their smartphone that they have become
accustomed to in our connected world.
Figure 1: Automobile (Source: Murata)
New and exciting car companies, like Tesla Motors, are setting new bars as to how cars of the future will employ
technology. Consumers are expressing a great degree of interest in what electronic features are included within
the car. The ongoing desire for freedom, convenience, and personal flexibility has people spending more time in
the car. To make use of this time; they desire that their personal transportation also be a major communication
platform, not just a vehicle to take one from point A to point B.
Automobile manufacturers are responding to this rising market demand. They are immediately moving to make their
cars have the type of connected technologies that consumers are employing throughout their everyday life. The
level of this technology change, happening inside the entire car, is nothing short of a revolution to ensure
that the automobile is on a par with the technology customers are holding in their hands and placing upon their
bodies. This aggressive rollout of new features has often to date been seen in the infotainment center of the
car, but will continue to develop in all phases, including safety features such as collision avoidance and
autonomous vehicles and communications. This has led to automobile manufacturers working expediently to catch up
and then in the near-term future hopefully exceed consumer expectations.
The Connected Car
The use of RF wireless technology, such as Bluetooth® (2.4GHz
–2.485GHz), is capable of exchanging data within a localized environment and Wi-Fi® (2.4GHz and 5GHz) is also being incorporated into the development of new
vehicles. A key objective is to enable the vehicle to connect and communicate with both the consumer’s home as
well as their personal portable devices. The plan is to use Long-Term Evolution (LTE) as a standard downlink. In
the future, one will be expected to be able to add one’s car to the family’s mobile/data telecommunication plan,
using the car as one access point.
At present, a typical automobile usually contains more than forty kilometers of wire and cabling. With the
addition of cameras and more sensors in the future, internal wireless communication is the way to go to reduce
the mass of the vehicle and simplify the ability to work in a connected environment.
Besides communications between the owner and the vehicle, another large change is under way. Automobiles will
also be communicating with each other in what is called Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication. As an
enhancement to Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11p defines this communication method, known as Wireless Access in Vehicular
Environments (WAVE) (5.85GHz–5.925 GHz). This will primarily help with the issue of safety. To be able to handle
fast-moving cars that are continually changing their relative positions, it requires a very fast packet data
rate and processing to allow for sufficient time to have the automobile process and make appropriate decisions
including collision avoidance. The addition of proximity and radar sensors will add a host of semi-autonomous
and autonomous features to the car well beyond yesterday’s cruise control. Take, for instance, lane departure
warning systems, designed to minimize accidents due to driver error, distraction, or drowsiness—all main causes
of automotive collisions. Automatic braking systems also continue to evolve and are one step closer each day. As
time moves forward, the car continues to make more and more of the decisions by its detection and processing of
its surrounding environment.
Manufacturers are also working on Vehicle-to-Cloud (V2C). In this scenario, the data obtained from the car is
also sent into the cloud. The cloud processes and helps make the decision, drawing upon the entire landscape
with which it is interacting and utilizing information and then makes an intelligent decision that is performed
by the automobile. Leading car manufacturers such as Daimler AG are presently engaged in conceptualizing and
enacting this idea. Correspondingly, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) conceives of a system whereby there are
appropriate sensors on the road and at every light. Any relevant data of the surrounding infrastructure could
then be communicated to the vehicle, including data such as from a weather center, road temperature, atmospheric
conditions, and the like. This offers many present challenges because manufacturers have to work with cities,
counties and states to develop agreed upon standards to adopt. This takes many trials and tests so that everyone
feels comfortable and gets on board with the concept.
The driving rate of innovation is forcing System on Chip (SoC) and wireless IC makers, to work together; so, each
company does not have to start from scratch. Instead, they can work together and get the process of new
innovation rolling. These types of partnerships are a necessary step for rapid development in this market place
because they allow the partnerships to cooperatively share information and test results on any SOC developments.
This is making many of the SoC companies step out of their historical method of operating. The need to enable
and deploy wireless in general and across a specific operating system (OS) requires specific expertise that may
require the assistance of others. Compounding the issue is the need for ongoing software changes to be
implemented to perform these complex interrelationships.
One company that is aggressively working to develop solutions and products in all these areas is Murata. Murata is a $12B worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of wireless
connectivity modules, ceramic passive electronic components, and power conversion technologies. Murata, as a
renowned innovator of electronic solutions and components, recognizes that the rate of innovation is happening
very fast in the automotive marketplace, and they are committed to establishing themselves as developers and
enablers of wireless connectivity modules solutions. To continue to achieve all the necessary speed and have at
their fingertips the necessary technology, they have partnered with other leading semiconductor companies in the
consumer space such as NXP Semiconductors. NXP is a $9B leader in
innovative, high-performance mixed signal solutions, which are focused on enabling secure connections and
infrastructure for embedded applications and is driving innovation in the securely connected vehicle. Partnering
with NXP allows Murata quickly and easily to get their connectivity at a baseline component level. Murata and
NXP have jointly partnered to work on all next-generation connectivity product evaluations. In addition to NXP,
Murata is also closely aligned with Cypress Semiconductor, a $1.6B
company that delivers high-performance, high-quality solutions at the heart of today’s most advanced embedded
systems, ranging from automotive, industrial and networking platforms to highly interactive consumer and mobile
devices. Cypress recently completed the acquisition of Broadcom’s Wireless Internet of Things Business (July
2016).
Mouser Electronics offers a variety of Murata Wi-Fi®/Bluetooth® Modules and Development Kits for NXP i.MX evaluation kits for engineers
to review and design RF wireless solutions from in a low-cost, feature-rich development platform that allows
designers to work with various processors and their software. Let’s take a look at one of the specific types of
wireless modules with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that Murata is presently offering to get some insight into the
state of wireless technology modules that are being adapted to ultimately be incorporated inside of automobiles.
Figure 2: Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Modules for NXP i.MX (Source: Murata)
Murata has chosen to rely on the NXP i.MX6 reference
platform. i.MX is a microcontroller platform originally developed by Freescale Semiconductor. Freescale
Semiconductor was purchased by NXP in late 2015. The i.MX6 was intended to excel at multimedia applications and
is a SoC that is built upon the ARM® Cortex™-A9MPcore. All software for the i.MX6 platform is well-verified. No
hardware modifications are required by designers to do an evaluation. Both Linux and Android operating systems
are supported. With this as a reference platform, Murata has produced a complete Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
connectivity environment for building world-class Internet-connected products, including the popular Type
1DX, LBEE5KL1DX-875. It is supported by the 1DX
WiFi / 802.11 Development Tools b/g/n/BT/BLE iMX6 Platform Dev Kit.
Figure 3: Type 1DX, LBEE5KL1DX (Source: Murata)
The 1DX module can connect to a microcontroller, such as the Cypress WICED™ SMART Bluetooth IoT Solution and
achieve a data rate of @ 1M, while in comparison the i.MX6, with either Android or Linux, can achieve a data
rate on an order of 60M-100M, offering electronic systems designers’ higher throughput. The Type 1DX module is
an ultra-small module measuring 6.95mm x 5.15mm x 1.1mm that includes 2.4GHz WLAN and Bluetooth functionality.
Based on the Cypress BCM4343W chipset, the module provides high-efficiency RF front end circuits. Minimal
external circuitry is required to complete a radio design; add an antenna, power source, clocks, processor, and
associated interface hardware and the radio hardware design is complete. To ease Wi-Fi certification, the Type
1DX module complies with IEEE 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth Version 4.1 plus EDR, Power Class 1 (10dBm max) + BLE.
It is these types of integrated wireless modules that will increasingly find their way into vehicles, allowing
them to connect anywhere and everywhere. The future is coming fast, and Murata and their partners are working to
make it a reality that future automobiles will connect man to his driving machine.
I wonder which company will be the first to patent the combination RF wireless module and integrated cup holder!
Paul Golata joined Mouser Electronics
in 2011. As a Senior
Technical Content Specialist, Mr. Golata is accountable for contributing to the success in driving the strategic
leadership, tactical execution, and overall product line and marketing direction for advanced technology related
products. Mr. Golata provides design engineers with the newest and latest information delivered through the
creation of unique and valuable technical content that facilitates and enhances Mouser Electronics as the
preferred distributor of choice. Prior to Mouser Electronics, he served in various Manufacturing, Marketing, and
Sales related roles for Hughes Aircraft Company, Melles Griot, Piper Jaffray, Balzers Optics, JDSU, and Arrow
Electronics. Mr. Golata holds a BSEET from DeVry Institute of Technology – Chicago, IL; an MBA from Pepperdine
University – Malibu, CA; and a MDiv w/BL from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – Fort Worth, TX. Mr.
Golata may be reached at paul.golata@mouser.com.
