MUNICH, Germany — Willibert Schleuter, head of electronics development for automotive manufacturer Audi AG (Ingolstadt, Germany), has seen the complexity of in-vehicle electronics explode over the past decade. Keeping complexity-induced errors at bay is what he acquired a reputation for in the European automotive industry. Schleuter discusses automotive electronics against the background of tighter regulations on CO2 emissions and the search for alternatives to prevalent drive concepts.

EE Times: In today’s cars, many functions are already “electronified”. How far can this process go?

Willibert Schleuter: We are planning to add a multitude of additional functions such as lane departure warning and improved ACC [adaptive cruise control]. In the future we expect vehicles to be equipped with car-to-x communications functions. There is still headroom for the electronic content to grow. But at the same time, the quality of electronic devices has to be improved. One criterion for the integration of additional electronic functions is that they must be useful to the driver and they must be easy to use. Electronic equipment should not be an end in itself.

EE Times: Where are the main challenges facing automotive electronics right now?

Schleuter: Consumer electronics is increasingly become integrated into the vehicles. Unfortunately this category of electronic equipment is significantly more prone to errors than other electronic equipment we use. A device such as, for instance, [Microsoft’s] Zune carries more software errors than we can tolerate. A similar challenge is created by mobile handsets. Customers expect their latest models to function seamlessly with the car’s HMI [human-machine interface] or voice control. We examine these phones to see if there are any weak spots and try to integrate as many types as possible. We even use robots to test the phones in the car environment, but sometimes we see phones with such a large number of faults that it is just not possible to integrate them.

Another issue is overall electronics quality. We see ourselves in Germany as a benchmark with respect to the quality of electronics and have established several processes across the entire supply chain. This is a continuing process. Finally, the CO2 discussion also creates challenges. We examine at fine scale the energy consumption of all systems within the car, paying most attention to the ones that are active most of the time and thus having the largest impact on CO2 generation. Because these assemblies use the most energy it pays out to optimize them first. But we scrutinize all of them against power efficiency.

EE Times: How does the Autosar initiative affect future developments and the development process itself?

Schleuter: The Autosar group has created an open standard for the electronics architecture within the vehicles. It has defined vendor-spanning interfaces between software modules and decoupled software functions within the ECU [electronic control unit] topologies. Thus Autosar brings a chance to control quality and foster innovations. It is an important aspect that during the process of defining Autosar, OEMs, tier ones and external service providers have cooperated in a very open way, creating a culture of cooperation. This is something the entire industry will benefit from. I just wish that the gradient in implementing the Autosar standards could be steeper, that Autosar could come faster.

EE Times: A hot topic is fuel consumption. Is it possible to further reduce the vehicles’ fuel thirst by means of electronics?

Schleuter: Without electronics, it never would have been possible to reduce fuel consumption to the level where we are today. Already in the past years, the predominant reason for the application of electronic controls in the powertrain was to reduce fuel consumption. Nowadays you see new electronic features aiming at further reducing fuel consumption, such as stop/start functions. This feature has been around for 15 years or so, but it never was widely accepted by customers. Now the cars gradually will be equipped with improved versions.

Another important topic is improving the efficiency of the electric and electronic equipment within the cars. if you are heading to reduce fuel consumption, you need to scrutinize the entire in-car electronics for better efficiency.