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Active safety systems will have a great impact in the next generation of vehicles. This is partly originated by the increasing consumer's interest for safety and partly by new traffic safety laws. Control actions in the vehicle are based on an extensive environment model which contains information about relevant objects in vehicle surroundings. Sensor data fusion integrates measurements from different surround sensors into this environment model. In order to avoid system malfunctions, high reliability in the interpretation of the situation, and therefore in the environment model, is essential. Hence, the main idea of data fusion is to make use of the advantages of using multiple sensors and different technologies in order to fulfill these requirements, which are especially high due to autonomous interventions in vehicle dynamics (e. g. automatic emergency braking).

The continuously increasing performance of modern automotive microelectronics is leading to ever more complex open and closed-loop control functions. Rigid mechanical connections a broken down and electronics applied to make them controllable. Among the examples are camshaft control, or future systems for variable valve-lift control. In addition, the individual systems in the vehicle, such as engine management, transmission-shift control, and ABSR will be networked with one another. The result is a system alliance which communicates through a car-wide web. The major challenge posed by this development in the future, lies in still being able to reliably control the complexity of the system alliance from the point of view of reliability and safety. This means that the suitable sensor and actuator basis, together with an architecture having fixed configuration rulings and matching development methods, are indispensable.

The development of vehicle communication networks is challenged not only by the increasing demand in data exchange and required data rate but also the need to connect the vehicle to external sources for personal connectivity of driver and car to infrastructure applications. Solutions are required to master complexity of in-vehicle communication networks, e.g. diagnostic access, flashing of Electronic Control Units, the data backbone connecting the vehicle domains and the data transfer of cameras. Safety (data transfer) and security (violation) issues of the communication networks gain more importance especially by introducing interfaces to external sources either via mobile devices or by connecting the vehicle to other external sources, e.g. Internet and Car to Infrastructure applications. The Internet Protocol (IP) appears to be an ideal solution to address these challenges, especially in connection with an Ethernet physical layer for fast data transfer.

A new combustion pressure sensor (CPS) for advanced engine management is presented, which is designed to carry out the functions: misfire detection, knock control, ignition control, camshaft phase detection and engine roughness control. For small size and high accuracy at a reasonable cost the piezoresistive effect, which is realized within an integrated circuit device and delivers low impedance output signals, has been chosen. Due to the optimized sensor housing, membrane and force transfer design, the sensor shows little offset drift when affected by flame front and environmental thermal stress. This paper describes the CPS and its performance in comparison with a well-known highly accurate reference sensor.

Electronic systems have been used in commercial vehicles for quite a few years now. At the start, this primarily related to consumer electronics equipment (car radio and CB radio), but, since the late 70s, electronic control systems have also been used for a wide variety of applications in commercial vehicles. This development went hand in hand with the development of digital microcontrollers. It was only when such powerful electronic circuits were developed that it was possible to implement complex control tasks at feasible cost with adequately compact design. Nowadays, an extremely wide variety of systems is offered for the engine, suspension, brakes, comfort and entertainment.

A closure system for automotive security and driver comfort has been developed. The system combines a passive entry system and an electronic door latch system. The passive entry system utilises a single chip transponder for vehicle immobilisation, passive entry and remote control functionality. The form factor free transponder enables the integration into a key fob or a smart card. The system can be activated by either pulling the door handle or by using a push button transponder. Due to the inductive coupling between the transponder and the vehicle mounted antennas, the vehicle door or trunk opens on successful verification as if there were no locks. Additionally, inside the vehicle, the transponder can be used as a far range immobiliser. The electronic door latch system utilises electronically controlled latches.

Pre-crash functionality is defined in three functional steps: PRESET, PREFIRE and PREACT. The functional steps are described in the order of growing situation analysis performance requirements and an increasing amount of necessary system application effort. Each functional step defines its own range of view, the so-called virtual barrier. The definition of the virtual barrier is subject to various constraints in respect to sensor configuration and pre-crash performance. A more detailed description of PRESET functionality for frontal pre-crash is given together with a test example. Pre-crash sensing technology uses platform radar sensors. The platform sensors are designed for the integration of all possible functions that rely on sensor information from the close surroundings of the vehicle. This development approach guarantees a high cost efficiency, flexibility and modularity of the sensor system while still guaranteeing the full pre-crash functionality.

X-Domain describes the merging of different domains (i.e., braking, steering, propulsion, suspension) into single functionalities. One example in this context is torque-vectoring. Different goals can be pursued by applying X-Domain features. On the one hand, savings in fuel consumption and an improved vehicle driving performance can be potentially accomplished. On the other hand, safety can be improved by taking over a failed or degraded functionality of one domain by other domains. The safety-aspect from the viewpoint of requirements is highlighted within this contribution. Every automotive system being developed and influencing the vehicle safety must fulfill certain safety objectives. These are top-level safety requirements (ISO 26262-1) specifying functionalities to avoid unreasonable risk. Every safety objective is associated with an Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) derived from a Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA).

Bosch Automotive Semiconductor Unit investigated destroyed semiconductor devices (ASIC) from electronic control unit complaints, which failed due to electrical overstress. It turned out that failure fingerprints could only be reproduced by semiconductor operation far beyond spec limits. One main failure mechanism is caused by hot plugging and bad or late ground connection. In today’s cars some applications are still active for minutes after ignition switch off. So, currents of several amps are delivered and in a typical production or garage environment, hot plugging cannot be avoided completely. Bosch suggests introducing extended ground pins to get an enforced switch on/off sequence during plugging. This poka yoke protection principle is successfully used in other industries for a long time and should now come into cars.