Automakers like Ford, GM, Volvo and Tesla made major strides in 2016 for autonomous vehicle technology, and are closer to making driverless cars a reality for the average consumer. Meanwhile, Uber made news when they introduced self-driving fleets to the public. While driverless cars may not be pulling into most driveways in the immediate future, it’s clear the race is on.
Electronics integration is prevalent in many markets, perhaps none more so than the automotive industry. As a result, physics-based computer aided engineering (CAE) tools have taken vehicle, subsystem and component evaluations off the road and into the lab, allowing for increased design complexities – and necessitating major reliability testing process changes.
The technologies currently available to or being developed for the automotive industry are staggering. With these advancements comes the need to examine the types of processing units appropriate to power the autonomous vehicle electronics functionality.
The automotive industry is rapidly changing. A number of technologies are either currently available or in development that are aimed specifically at improving vehicular safety. Along with these welcome – and needed – advancements comes much stronger regulatory oversight incorporated into ISO-26262.