Automotive Innovators Hit High Gear in - Xilinx

Automotive driver
aid systems are
rapidly evolving,
thanks to ingenious
engineering and
programmable
platforms.
by Mike Santarini
Publisher, Xcell Journal
Xilinx, Inc.
mike.santarini@xilinx.com
It’s widely known that the use of automotive
safety systems—seatbelts, followed by
front-facing airbags, seatbelt pre-tensioners,
antilock brakes and side airbags—has
dramatically reduced injuries and lowered
the fatality rate in vehicular accidents over
the last 50 years. But now carmakers are
going a step further, cranking up innovation
in a relatively new class of system
called driver assistance. DA stands poised
to revolutionize the driving experience even
as it further improves safety. And FPGA
platforms (tools, IP, as well as silicon) are
playing a key role in making it happen.
“Driver assistance systems are systems
companies are putting on vehicles to help
make drivers better drivers,” said Paul
Zoratti, automotive system architect and
DA specialist at Xilinx. “DA systems provide
drivers with information that either
they look for or that is ‘pushed’ to them, in
the form of a warning, to make driving
safer and help drivers make informed
choices about driving in all conditions.”
What DA systems can do now—thanks
largely to advances in electronics and the
OEM innovations they have enabled—is
pretty remarkable; what they may do in the
future is amazing.
Colin Barnden, Semicast’s principal
analyst covering electronics in the automotive
market, said that car manufacturers,
their tier-one suppliers and academia
have been researching DA system for
many decades. But only over the last 10
years have electronic systems and design
techniques advanced to the point where
OEMs can readily and feasibly deploy
them. “It’s amazing how far DA systems
have come in such a short amount of
time,” he said (see Barnden’s Xcellent
Opinion column in this issue).
There are many types of DA systems
that OEMs, their suppliers and even aftermarket
electronic control unit (ECU) makers
are offering today and designing for
tomorrow (see Figure 1). DA systems can
help drivers park their cars effectively and
COVER STORY
maintain a safe distance from cars ahead.
They can inform drivers about threats that
perhaps they would otherwise not see, and
aid them in safely changing lanes.
Many of these systems started out just
a few years ago as fairly simple technologies.
But OEMs have rapidly devised
more-sophisticated spins and are now in
the process of integrating them into “sensor
fusion technologies”—essentially, the
merger of multiple DA systems, all operating
independently off the output of the
same, shared sensors. The goal is to supply
drivers with more-accurate information
about their surroundings, to help
them make informed driving decisions
and enrich the driving experience. In
doing so, the systems require sophisticated
compute technology—and a lot of it.
That’s where FPGA platforms are starting
to make a strong play.
Rapid Evolution of Parking with DA Systems
Around 10 years ago, OEMs launched
their first foray into DA with convenience
systems such as one for use when backing
up. A back-up aid system is essentially a
series of sensors in a car’s rear bumper that
send an ultrasonic or radar signal to measure
the distance to an object behind the
vehicle. As drivers back up, the sensors typically
trigger an audible beeping that
increases in frequency as the vehicle nears
the obstacle. The signal becomes a constant
tone when the driver backs up to within
four inches of the obstruction.
“It’s a fantastic feature if you are driving
a big vehicle such as a pickup and you want
to know how close you are to another vehicle,”
said Barnden. “But it’s the most basic
system—there really isn’t any intelligence
built into it. The driver is doing pretty
much all the work. The system tells you if
you are nearing something, but you ultimately
decide if you want to get a bit closer
or want to stop.”
Back-up aid systems are the most commonly
deployed, highest-volume form of
DA that OEMs offer today. In 2007,
Barnden said, carmakers put back-up aid
systems in 5 million vehicles in Europe and
2 million in the United States, shipping a
total of 10 million units worldwide (rough-
Fourth Quarter 2008 Xcell Journal 9