Development of ASIL-B Compliant Single Platform Board with TCU and ECU for Electric Trucks

About the Customer:

Our customer – a US-based manufacturer of electric trucks – strives to make fleet electrification innovative, environmentally friendly, and cost effective.

Business Challenge:

Our customer wished to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their newly electrified trucks. These trucks housed a single-platform high-end digital instrument cluster and telematics system, previously developed by us.

Impressed with Embitel’s team and our expertise in developing connected vehicle technology, the customer chose to trust us in developing a tailor-made solution for their new business requirement.

Embitel’s Solution:

Our solution improved upon the existing hardware architecture used for the single-platform, high-end digital instrument cluster and telematics system.

A Single Platform Solution

We designed and developed a single-platform solution, combining the Telematics Control Unit (TCU) and Electronic Control Unit (ECU) of the electric truck.

A 12-Layer single board platform with 64-bit iMX8Q Max processor provided our solution with a solid foundation. The single board platform combined the functionalities of TCU and ECU.

Note:

The telematics control unit (TCU) gathers data from the vehicle, including diagnostic details, speed, and real-time location, and sends this information to the IoT cloud.

It facilitates the end-to-end communication between the fleet and IoT Cloud.

ECU are data collection hubs in the vehicle. Each vehicle has approximately 60 ECUs that facilitate essential data collection from different modules of the vehicle. These modules include Engine, Transmission, Braking, etc.

The data collected is used to make real-time adjustments to optimize performance.

The solution would render results on 2 display units on the digital instrument cluster:

• 3 Inch Display Without Touch – To display vehicle performance data captured by the ECU and TCU
• 6 Inch Display with Touch – To display fleet navigation and camera feeds for surround view.

The solution would also render results on a remote server, accessible by the manufacturer. This will help the OEM in promptly tracking and alerting drivers and fleet owners on abnormal performance metrics.

ASIL B compliant hardware development ensured adherence of our solution to functional safety guidelines.

Transmitting Signals between TCU and IVI Display

In Trucks, the TCU and its display unit are placed quite far apart. We established the base to transmit signals from TCU to the display, using FPD Link-III Interface, combined with serializer and de-serializer technology.

Cables/Connectors longer than 1 meter were used to transmit signals from the Platform to the in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) displays in the cluster.

The serializer transforms different input formats of video data into serial data for high-speed transmission whereas the de-serializer retrieves and outputs the data.

Surround View

We enabled Surround View for Fleet Operators by integrating 4 cameras on the truck, two on either side. The cameras on the platform were supported by MIPI-CSI – an embedded camera and imaging interface.

High performance, low power consumption and low electromagnetic interference in MIPI-CSI were pivotal in bringing costs down.
 

Embitel’s Impact

• After the Hazard and Risk Assessment, the single platform solution bagged ASIL-B. Due to this, our customer was fully aware of all the possibilities and consequences and counter measures of component malfunctions, thus ensuring safety of the passengers.
• The initial single platform board developed is generally used internally. However, due to the high-standard and quality of the board, Pre-TUV tests were performed on the initial single platform board (Sample A). 5 trucks with Sample A boards were also sent to field testing by the customer!

After improving the audio circuit in Sample A and integrating it with additional features, our team of experts were able to deliver and integrate 2000 trucks with Sample B boards within one month.

• Integration of Interfaces such as FPD Link-III and MIPI-CSI helped reduce TCO.

Tools and Technologies

• 64-bit i.MX8 Processor
• Cables/Connectors
• MIPI-CSI cameras (4)
• FPD Link III
• Display Units (12.3 and 15.6 Inches)