UNH-IOL Testing Ethernet for Connected Cars
Today every car manufacturer takes its own approach to using connectivity within the car itself, and that makes applications and services more difficult to develop than they would be for a mass market, Lapak notes.
“By bringing Ethernet into the car, it focuses and broadens the market by enabling a more uniform technology everyone will use,” he says. “Also, it’s a one-pair solution instead of two or four pairs, and that reduces the weight of the physical cable harness. Car makers don’t want anything that is going to make their vehicles heavier or less fuel efficient.”
The single-pair Ethernet wiring for the auto supports the typical services, notably infotainment within the car, but also newer things such as automated driving assistance — backup cameras, sensors and more. While the focus for connected cars has been on wireless technology, using wired connections within the car has the potential for less costly use of bandwidth.