telematics- beyond mobility- dilip kumar

8/13/2019 Telematics- Beyond Mobility- Dilip Kumar

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SAE INDIA 0301039

Telematics Beyond Mobility

Dilip Kumar DHCL Technologies, Chennai, India

Copyright 2003 SAE International

ABSTRACT

Telematics has gone a long way from providing navigation/ mobility support to drivers to becoming an integral part ofthe vehicle function. Telematics today provides for safety,security, comfort and convenience to the drivers as wellas the passengers. The key applications of in-vehicletelematics include emergency / roadside assistance,tracking or immobilization of stolen vehicles.

Safety being the key concern for drivers, allowscarmakers respond to the demand of the vehicle and theiroccupants by providing a direct contact over cellularphone to a service provider.

Telematics, with an extended value chain, embraces anumber of players who play a key role in this industry.

The key technologies which enable automotive telematicsinclude Digital / Analog cellular communication, GPS(Global Positioning System), Internet and Human machineinterfaces.

The emerging telematics applications would focus onvehicle-to-vehicle communication, which will aid in roadtraffic information and Internet applications.

INTRODUCTION

In order to have a brief on the innovations and growth intelematics, let us have a quick recap of the stage s of

progress in telematics towards safety and secure driving.We could go way back to vehicles, which were totallyisolated without connectivity (between elements within thevehicle) to todays telematics, which connects the vehiclewith all its sensors to the external world.

The trend started with isolated cars and slowly migratedwith networking of elements within itself, but still withoutany connectivity to the external world. Sensors werebeginning to be installed in the cars to provide basicconnection with the outside world for example, distance-warning radars, automation of stop and go, but theconnectivity was still restricted to only a few metres.

The driver assistance systems and traffic guidancesystems open doors for better connectivity as well asproviding better assistance to drivers in terms of lanechange and navigation and route guidance systems.Innovations continued in the areas of traffic signrecognition, lane recognition, collision detection and nightvision systems.

Today, the connectivity provides for a complete two wirecommunication with mobile technology assisting driversduring emergency or breakdown of vehicles, tracking thevehicle and retrieving the vehicle on theft and various otherfeatures like remote telematics which provide bettercomfort for the users of the vehicle.

The present in-vehicle telematics applications has seen aconsiderable growth in the US and Europe and the marketis seen to be growing year on year

The carmakers are focusing on telematics applications asservices provided to the user for better safety andsecurity. These types of services vary betweencarmakers worldwide.

TELEMATICS - OVERVIEW

Telematics, in simple terms, is the connection of a vehiclewith wireless bi-directional communication in combinationwith GPS system for position information.

The word telematics has been derived from a combinationof the terms Tele communications and Infor matics .

The basic telematics infrastructure includes integration ofan analog or digital mobile phone depending on thecountry and coverage, GPS receiver for determining theposition information and a central processing unit.

Telematics today provides flow of information which untilrecently was difficult to distribute and had remained moreor less static. The availability of real time informationallows dynamic information to be provided to drivers andother users.


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VALUE CHAIN

A traditional model for telematics value chain is beenaround in-vehicle telematics services. The chain includesTelematics Content providers who typically provide thetraffic and navigation data to the service aggregators.

Different content providers adopt various means ofcollecting traffic information which include trafficmonitoring sensors on the roadside, surveillance throughair, CCD cameras etc.,

The service providers are provided with the informationfrom the content providers who in turn are responsible toprovide the required information to the vehicles throughvarious carriers. The service operators / service providersoperate and control the types of services that areavailable.

The last few in the telematics value chain include the typeof device being installed in the vehicle, different types ofhuman machine interface to the customer

To summarize the value chain, the following figure depictsthe breadth of the telematics value chain from ContentProviders to the User.

Figure 1

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES

The automotive electronics largely depend upon proventechnologies, given the life cycle of the vehicle. The keytechnologies of telematics systems includemicroprocessor based electronic control units, operatingsystems to run various applications and of coursewireless communication for two way voice and datacommunication.

The other technologies, which enable automotivetelematics, include GPS for position information, display,

Human machine interface etc.,

KEY APPLICATIONS

Telematics initial beginning on providing navigation anddriver assistance information shifted towards providingsafe and secure driving based on the demands andconcerns of the users of the vehicles.

The users requirements vary from essential services topreferred services. The essential services includeEmergency Assistance / Accident Notification, Trackingfor Stolen Vehicle, Remote vehicle Diagnostics,

Immobilization of stolen vehicles, Remote telematics door unlock, door lock, climate control etc., These

services predominantly fall into the safety and securitycategory of telematics applications and hence becomethe key applications. These applications are termed asvehicle centric services.

Telematics applications also include services, which are

not focused on the vehicle information, but more to do withpreferred services of customers. This includes Internet /Browser, Email, Dynamic route guidance etc., which aremore user centric.

Carmakers are trying to develop successful telematicsservices with more focus towards vehicle centric services,which are of prime concern to the customers. There havebeen various methods adopted by various carmakers inproviding such telematics services.

Daimler Chrysler, for example, is trying to provide a cleardivide between the vehicle centric and user centric

services to cut down the cost and also focus more on thevehicle centric services. The user centric services comeas an option

GMs Onstar on the other hand has a mix of both vehicleand user centric services packaged in the vehicle.

AUTOMATIC ACCIDENT NOTIFICATION

In case of serious accidents wherein the airbags are alsodeployed, automatic notification of the accident alongwithall relevant data concerning the vehicle, its position andmedical history of the occupants is sent over the air. Thisallows the emergency and medical teams to react faster,which in turn saves time and life.

On the event of a crash of the vehicle, the airbag sensorsprovide the necessary information of the crash to theTelematics Control Unit available in the vehicle. Theinformation is processed and is immediately transmittedas an SMS (Short Messaging Service) to the telematicsservice provider.

EMERGENCY CALL / BREAKDOWN

In case of breakdown of vehicles or if information on anaccident is to be passed on the service providerrequesting for assistance, this could be done using thetouch of a button placed conveniently on the vehicle.

TRACKING OF STOLEN VEHICLE

The tracking feature allows the police to trace and retrievea stolen vehicle. The tracking feature could be triggeredby a button press within the vehicle which would provide atheft alarm notification message to the service provider orby the customer informing the service provider / policeabout the theft of the vehicle.

Conten

t

Service

O erat o

Service

P r o v i d

Device /

P l a t f o r m

HMI /

User


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Anti theft tracking is initiated by raising an alarm from thevehicle in case the windows are broken or doors locksforced open.

TYPICAL TELEMATICS SYSTEM

The basic telematics system consists of a TelematicsControl Unit (TCU) connected to the various ElectronicControl Units (ECU) through CAN (Controller AreaNetwork) / MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport)Bus. The TCU consists of a central processing unitalongwith

SIM card reader Network switching device Antenna Interface CAN / MOST interface GSM / CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

Interface

The TCU serves as the centralized communicationplatform within the vehicle. Its end-to-end architectureincludes interface to both in-vehicle and out of vehiclecomponents. The in-vehicle components include CAN /MOST Bus, Discrete I / O, Antenna, ECUs, Audiosystem, Airbag sensors etc., The out of vehicle

components include Diagnostic tester tools, Wirelessnetworks, GPS constellation and Service providers.

ARCHITECTURE OF TELEMATICS SYSTEM

The basic hardware components which are involved in atypical telematics application include Sensors, CAN /MOST bus interface, TCU, Display ECUs (InstrumentCluster, Head Unit), Audio System, Antenna (GSM /CDMA), GPS, Gateways etc.,

The software components would involve processing ofsensor / discrete signals through CAN / MOST or discreteI / O signal processing, application handler, formatting ofmessage in defined communication protocols like ACP(Application Communication Protocol) or GTP (GlobalTelematics Protocol), wireless communication etc.,

Figure 2

AUTOMATIC ACCIDENT NOTIFICATION SCENARIO

The airbag sensors normally send a health signalperiodically to the TCU. The TCU continuously processesthis signal to understand the health of the vehicle basedon the airbag sensor signal. This signal is transmitted

both through CAN bus as well as through a discretesignal. In the event of CAN bus breakdown during anaccident, the discrete interface is used as a redundantpath to provide information on the crash to the TCU.

AirbagSensors

SOSButton

CAN

Discrete

AudioInterface

icrophone Arra

Speaker

Controller

SIM Card

Output

GSM

NetworkSwitching

Device

AntennaSwitching

(RF Switch)

GSM

CDMA

Primary

Secondary

LED

Display ECU(Instrument

Cluster / Head

Telematics Control Unit


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The end users play a major role in accepting the varioustelematics services and devices provided by differentcarmakers. They also have a major contribution in theirwillingness to spend for the telematics services.

The market players have a role in preparing hardware and

service strategies, which would attract the end users. Italso involves working out pricing and communicationstrategies.

Technology upkeep is also equally important for thetelematics market. With improvement in the currenttelematics devices and availability of 3G communicationnetworks and reduction in cost due to segregationbetween essential telematics services and preferredservices play a vital role in defining the telematics market.

The carmakers have to make a tradeoff between theinformation provided and the services offered. This would

be based on the willingness of the customer to pay forsuch information. Some of the essential services are thusprovided free of cost / with minimal cost while thepreferred services are provided at a cost to allow bettermarket for the telematics services.

Telematics is an emerging field that is currently beingdriven by technological innovation. The real value will bederived when all players in the telematics industry workout a feasible and cost effective mode of delivering it toend-users.

telematics- beyond mobility- dilip kumar

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