Jokes about software architecture

Editor's Note: This article is reproduced from WeChat official account: Automotive Electronics and Software. The heart of the car is reproduced with authorization.

On August 26th, jiangling motors CTO and Assistant President Huang Shaotang was invited to attend the "SAE 2020 Automotive Electronics and Software Technology Forum" and delivered a keynote speech on "Software-Defined Automobile, Architecture-Defined Software". This paper systematically expounds the background, opportunities and challenges of software-defined cars, and analyzes the pain points in top-level design and actual implementation.

People in the automobile circle are more accustomed to calling him Huang. I have heard many CTO speeches, and few of them are pure dry goods and zero goods. The audience commented on his speech, not only applause, but also laughter. Applause represents politeness and respect, and laughter is the inner resonance.

* This article is written according to the arrangement of live speeches, but I still can't understand the essence of Huang. For communication and reference only.

0 1

Why emphasize software-defined cars?

In today's automobile age, our predecessors have never been so lucky, so anxious and have never experienced it. Every day is different, even if I am an old expert with decades of experience in automotive electronics, how good can I be in the face of a world I have never experienced before?

Recently, we have been thinking about why software-defined cars have suddenly sprung up in the industry and are so prosperous. In fact, in recent years, for example, engine ignition, fuel injection and emission are all controlled by software, chassis AEB and automatic braking control, including automatic steering. In fact, from chassis, transmission, power and body, software has penetrated into almost all automobile systems. But in the past, software-defined cars have never been so emphasized as they are today.

Why the sudden emphasis on software today? I recently took a Huawei P40, and the memory reached 5 16G, which is equivalent to a computer. Thanks to the development of chips, Internet, big data and other technologies, we can do many things in a small space on the basis of hardware.

In addition, the impact of consumer electronics on the automobile industry, people's consumption habits and lifestyles have changed, prompting people's expectations to continue to increase, and people no longer put up with driving luxury cars, but also use mobile navigation. Especially after 90' s and 00' s, consumers no longer buy a BMW or Mercedes-Benz and do some small business like our generation. They emphasize personalized display. When we open the software library of the automobile industry, we find that our software code has surpassed that of airplanes, and it is not under other industries.

02

Tesla effect

I remember when Tesla was founded in 2003, when we were in the United States, we dismissed it and thought it was like a child playing with a toy, and it wouldn't last for a few years. Today, which old car company dares to despise Tesla? People only sell 360 thousand cars and don't have to make money. Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, GM and Ford together sell more than 20 million cars, but their combined market value is not as good as Tesla's. Explain that society does not recognize that traditional car companies are creating value. Including the new domestic forces, although they only sell tens of thousands of cars or even lose money, they are not much different from the leading domestic car companies with a sales volume of one million.

In foreign countries, the purpose of listed companies is to create value for stock owners, and the salary of managers is based on the stock price. The pressure of traditional car enterprise managers can be imagined. At the beginning, GM had to sell Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer at a low price. People on Wall Street are sitting in your office. If you can't sell it, you'll be laid off. Chrysler was forced to be acquired by Fiat because of the depressed share price.

Like me, I disdained Tesla in the early days. Let's take a look again today. The network architecture topology diagram of Model S is very regular. This topology diagram is very good. Get a topology diagram and use CANoe or Vehicle Spy tools to build its original structure. In the second generation, integration was appropriately increased. In the third generation, we can't draw with the traditional electronic and electrical topology diagram, and we can't draw it, let alone set up a project. It's a mess. Its ability lies in the domain controller. In software, it is difficult for you to imitate its architecture from the outside. Tesla changed the new way of not obeying the traditional laws of the automobile industry and ran alone. In the clutter, it actually shows its software capabilities.

03

Architecture definition software

We have noticed that major car companies are setting up software centers recently, but it is difficult to recruit people. It is a gap for IT people to do embedded software. Although they are all software, they are quite different in different platforms and different applications. From the architecture to the cloud, the control methods are different because of different structures. We usually talk about software under structure. We must first define the software architecture itself, then define the functions, and then establish the communication network.

First of all, we must define the architecture, and then design the scenes, such as the scenes of autonomous driving, road surface, entertainment system, commercial vehicles and logistics vehicles, which are different from passenger cars and have different definitions. Looking back at the automobile network architecture, there used to be only electrical architecture, but no electronics and software. For example, engine ignition is to use high-voltage coils, switch bullets, release energy, spark and ignite. Oil is common rail, which valve is opened, it will drop into which cylinder. Later, there was an engine-based electronic module and an electronic and electrical architecture. Now, with the development of intelligent networked cars, especially after autonomous driving, it will evolve into an electronic architecture in which cars, roads and people cooperate.

In the eyes of traditional autobots, the architecture of Model 3 is simply a hodgepodge, while the architecture of traditional car companies, such as Volkswagen MEB, is more regular, and it is hard to say who is better. But users don't really care about the design behind you, which is what we need to think about.

The key to get through the second pulse of Ren Du lies in the overall architecture, and software is the key element of architecture. Software implementation is tactics and architecture is strategy.

Che Yun's integrated electronic architecture is what we will do in the future. We used to do in-car testing, network testing and inter-module testing. Since Che Yun has been formed, why not test the Internet of Vehicles and the back-end network together, and how to ensure that every piece of information is correct when it is transmitted to the back? Our testing process does not include ISO 26262, and IOS 26262 is only applicable to racing cars. Where is the car today?

So it makes sense for you to say that Tesla does not conform to 26262 and AUTOSAR at all. When he discovers the limitations of traditional standards, he needs to create his own way.

Similarly, Che Yun's integrated electronic architecture, the collaboration between its modules, what existing standards can be referenced? The standard system has not fully kept up with the development of the industry and the demand of products. I once worked as an ISO editorial board for two years and convened a group of people to discuss it for two or three years. When it comes to every 0 and 1, it is serious, but as you can imagine, every enterprise faction is generally not the most valuable and busy, so we don't have to regard the standard as the Bible. We need to respect standards, but if consumers just know what they are doing, but don't know why, they won't pay for standards. In the traditional OEM, tens of thousands of people, high-level, it is difficult to know the following things.

Our central calculator, to some extent, benefits from the capabilities of chip vendors. The improvement of chip capabilities promotes the development of electronic architecture to regional architecture, thus providing a hardware platform for software function iteration. We first made ADAS, and the cost of a mechanical millimeter-wave radar was $3,000, which only Cadillac could match. Today it dropped to two or three hundred RMB. The sharp drop in hardware costs has made smart cars a reality. We talk about intelligence today, not because our predecessors were stupid, but because we don't have the support of the whole technical environment today.

The central computing module of model 3 adopts regional control instead of functional domain control. Some people say it is to save the cost of wiring harness. My understanding is that it uses electronic insurance control module, intelligent power distribution and traditional insurance. And our traditional network architecture, control 0 and 1, start, wake, sleep. If the power supply is controlled, there will be no hibernation and wakeup. You wake up when the power is turned on, and you rest when the power is turned off. Since electricity is separated, there must be front, left and right control. If you put all the insurance in one box, it becomes an oven, so there are several levels of electrical isolation. This is defined according to the needs of the function.

The traditional software architecture has the following characteristics:

If I want to update an ABS, the associated BCM, instruments and gateways must be changed, and they all belong to different suppliers, and the codes are written by others. From this point of view, it should also prove that traditional car companies have been kidnapped by suppliers.

Under the new software architecture:

Today, under the concept of domain controller, the key modules are all developed by ourselves. If you want to change a node or a different node, you can update it in the form of a service package instead of a module through the function definition. Moreover, the software can also charge for the whole life cycle, changing the operating mode of car companies. It turns out that after the car was sold, it had little to do with the car factory.

When we have the basic ability of software, what do software modules need to do and how to build the application software of car companies?

According to traditional thinking, we always hope to do everything through an intelligent driving scheme, and many modules are made by one company. According to the new model, we should do perception, positioning, decision-making and execution step by step, not seeking for big, so that suppliers are not a module, but a repetitive assembly line. The enterprises we cooperate with are not necessarily large, but we should be refined and then constantly improve. At this time, the software becomes a standardized tool. But we need to clearly define the hierarchy and clearly define the interface.

Similarly, the same is true in the field of intelligent cockpit. We divide it into several modules and define the bottom clearly. The main engine factory has the ability to do more, and the weak do less.

Another core of software is OTA. Without the update of OTA software, the software cannot define a car. By updating, the user's experience can be continuously satisfied and the data form can be redefined. According to the scope, content and safety of software update, cars can be revived in their life cycle. Specifically reflected in:

OTA combined with 5G, coupled with vehicle-road coordination, the entire ecological chain and supply chain will also be redefined. In this brand-new industrial ecology, the model of 4S stores may be subverted. When you have big data and GPS positioning, you can use online diagnosis and offline replacement. If software updates are involved, you can fix bugs through OTA at home.

04

Software-defined car

My understanding of software-defined automobile is that software deeply participates in the whole process of automobile definition, development and verification, constantly optimizing customer experience and constantly creating value.

It often takes three years for traditional car companies to develop a car, including conceptual design, definition scheme, refreezing, getting off the car system, prototype manufacturing, three high tests and calibration. If the software-defined car is still in this process, the software developed three years ago may be eliminated three years later. Therefore, the software-defined car should subvert the entire car development process. This will be a huge challenge for many car companies. The formulation process of large companies is often a big echelon, and the management is basically traditional components such as chassis and body, and their software concept is still relatively lacking. The curing process makes traditional autobots safe and reliable. This restricts the renewal and development of the organization.

To realize the software-defined car, it is only possible to be eliminated without revolutionary changes from the organizational structure and CEO level.

When I was an MBA student, I went to Nokia in Finland. At that time, the whole Finland was proud of Nokia, and such a small country gave birth to such a successful enterprise. Its mobile phone is famous for its quality and can be charged for one week. When the apple came out, we all laughed and accidentally fell to the ground, and the screen broke. Every day when we pray, we should plug in the power. In fact, Nokia has done nothing wrong. In the beginning, the example of MBA was its success. If I go to MBA now, the example will be how it failed. Times are changing. Even if you didn't do anything wrong, others did better than you.

Many mechanical things, changing a word and opening a mold, still need tens of millions today. Software only needs one development fee. Moreover, it can be customized and can learn from the ecology of other industries. Software-defined car drivers are embodied in:

User level:

OEM level:

Comfortable driving environment, change the way of travel in the future.

Software-defined car empowerment can be learned from users, the car itself and the surrounding environment, and adjusted in time throughout the life cycle.

05

The software defines the elements of a car.

Traditional development mode:

Software car development model;

Someone asked, can it be done in one step? Although we want to do this, on the one hand, we don't have the ability, and on the other hand, suppliers don't queue up like this. This process needs to be discussed with suppliers and the whole supply chain. How big a market do you have? How to play? Who has the right to define this rule? People who have the right to define rules live comfortably, so why subvert themselves? For most traditional car companies, a more realistic strategy is gradual change.

Electrical architecture, remote upgrade, network security and big data are the cornerstones of software-defined cars.

Intelligent interconnection and intelligent driving have promoted the upgrading of the automobile industry. Need a brand-new network architecture, find new partners, a broader ecosystem and platform. For example, chip manufacturers, operators, BAT and other Internet companies, which have nothing to do with automobiles in the past, have penetrated into the automobile industry. In the future, highway bureaus, toll stations and national inspection bureaus will all join the automobile ecological circle.

06

Challenges brought by software-defined cars

With the increasing number and complexity of software, the interaction and testing between software needs the joint efforts of the industry. If every car factory has its own operating system, it thinks it is the best. When I opened it, it was actually copied from others, so you changed two words and changed a perfect thing into an imperfect one.

There are still problems in the software development mode:

Short-term pain:

Software-defined medium and long-term challenges for automobiles;

07

label

The era we have experienced this year is unprecedented in the automobile industry. In terms of software-defined cars, China is in step with the world, even at the forefront, with no benchmark or reference. While anxious, it is also lucky. The peers in the industry are all new, which needs the cooperation of Qi Xin. Only by sharing, discussing and being frank can we achieve common and common progress!

Finally, borrow a four-line:

Hundreds of battles were fought in Qian Fan.

He who borrows the sea has to sail hard first.