C8’s New Electronic Components, It’s Digital Vehicle Platform

[John]

While the “all-new digital electronic platform “ system debuts later this month in the CT5, we still do not have any definitive statement as to whether it would be part of the C8’s architecture. Might this system’s implementation be part of the three items that supposedly held up the C8’s development?

More secure against hacking, over the air software updates, better vehicle electronic capabilities...

GM Digital Vehicle Platform Debuts, Enables Adoption of Future Technologies

Installed on newly-unveiled Cadillac CT5, with rollout to most GM vehicles globally by 2023

2019-05-20

Today, General Motors President Mark Reuss debuted the company’s all-new electronic platform necessary for its next-generation of vehicles, EVs, active safety, infotainment and connectivity features, and the evolution of the Super Cruise driver assistance feature*. These and many other advancements are central to GM’s vision for a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.

As the automotive industry and vehicles evolve in the next five to 10 years, more electrical bandwidth and connectivity will be needed to ensure that features like electric propulsion systems, the Super Cruise driver assistance feature and advanced active safety systems can all run in conjunction with each other.

Debuting on the recently-unveiled 2020 Cadillac CT5 sedan, the electronic platform will go into production later this year and should be rolled out to most vehicles within GM’s global lineup by 2023.

The technology powers an electronic system, capable of managing up to 4.5 terabytes of data processing power per hour, a fivefold increase in capability over GM’s current electrical architecture.

With an expanded capacity for smartphone-like over-the-air software updates, the system enables the adoption of functionality upgrades throughout the lifespan of the vehicle.

The new architecture also provides more rapid communications within the vehicle itself and to outside sources thanks to Ethernet connections of 100Mbs, 1Gpbs and 10Gbps.

“The critical role of software and its importance to our vehicles, both now and for years to come, cannot be overstated,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “Our new digital vehicle platform and its eventual successors will underpin all our future innovations across a wide range of technological advancements, including EVs and expanded automated driving.”

Cybersecurity is another key pillar of the new architecture. The system’s DNA includes additional protective features at the hardware and software levels that reflect the company’s foresight in this regard.

GM was among the first automakers to create an integrated and dedicated global Product Cybersecurity organization, a team of experts within the company focused on protecting against the potential risk of unauthorized access to vehicles and customer data.

GM implemented years ago a security vulnerability disclosure program to engage more closely with the research community. It has matured to become a formal “bug bounty” program that continues to further strengthen GM’s cybersecurity efforts.

GM also chairs the Auto-ISAC (Automotive Information Sharing & Analysis Center), a community of private and public-sector partners that shares and analyzes intelligence about emerging cybersecurity risks for the automotive industry.

The electronic platform was developed at GM facilities across the globe by a team of electrical, hardware and software engineers.


*Even while using Super Cruise driver assistance feature, always pay attention while driving and do not use a hand-held device. Visit cadillacsupercruise.com for compatible highways and more information. Requires active OnStar plan, active WiFi Hotspot, working electrical system, cell reception and GPS signal.

https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/...0-digital.html

[Racer86]

Sometimes I fear some of the new electronic tech. I do think it’s a good thing to explore,, but look at what Boeing and the FAA have caused. I hope that GM does not make us all Beta testers

[Plasboy]

GM Gives All Its Vehicles a New Soul

GM's new "electronic platform" offers five times the bandwidth and compute power of its predecessor, to deliver better maps and new accessories.

General Motors’ latest offering is so far from sexy, it doesn’t even have a clever name created by the marketing department via focus group. But the new “electronic platform,” the computing network that will run through nearly all the company's vehicles and make their myriad digital systems work, is as key to the automaker’s future as any single feature, or even vehicle. It’s the infrastructure that will let GM compete in an industry increasingly ruled by software—and give its customers all the high-tech goodies they’ve come to expect, from high-res screens to booty-shaking safety features.

Alex Davies covers autonomous vehicles and other transportation machines for WIRED.

“It’s the brain and nervous system of the vehicle,” says Al Adams, GM’s director of electrical components and subsystems, who led its development. Think of it as the infrastructure that lets all the bits of the car communicate clearly and securely. You could also call it the guts—the little-appreciated, tucked-away part of the body that isn’t noticed until it doesn’t work. The architecture will debut on the 2020 Cadillac CT5, due to enter production later this year. Over the next four years, GM will roll it out to most of its global lineup, which counts 56 models across four brands.

In terms of both bandwidth and compute power, the new setup is five times more capable than the system underpinning GM’s current cars, the rough equivalent of going from the original iPhone to the iPhone 7. And so more cars will get Cadillac’s Super Cruise semiautonomous driving system and other active safety features. GM will now be able to issue over-the-air software updates, improving how its engines run or how its suspensions handle bumpy roads, even years after a car has been sold. (This idea is old hat for smartphone users and Tesla drivers, but still new to most automakers.) More processing power allows for better resolution on screens. Smarter battery management systems can squeeze more miles out of electric cars’ batteries.

With its current electric architecture, GM could offer some of these things on any given vehicle. The point of the reworked, beefed up system is to provide all of it, along with whatever the folks in the R&D department cook up next. That’s increasingly necessary in an age where customers want cars that work as cleanly as their phones, and where tech-forward automakers like Tesla show that’s possible.

“Vehicles are now becoming so connected, so dependent on data, on processing, this is not just adding one more feature,” says Anna Stefanopoulou, a mechanical and electrical engineer who directs the University of Michigan’s Energy Institute. “You have to completely rethink the computing system.”

For GM, the process started several years ago. It’s part of an ongoing evolution, Adams says. Today’s cars contain up to 30 or 40 computers, controlling everything from the workings of the transmission to the little light that comes on when mom or dad hits the window lock button. That’s about double the number from a decade ago, even as GM’s team consolidated various functions into single computers. (They also worked to minimize the amount of wiring running through the vehicle, taking out several kilograms in weight.)

In the process, more than 300 electrical engineers and computer scientists filed more than 100 patents. They benchmarked their new cybersecurity setup against defense and aviation systems, focusing on things like message authentication—so when the radar says the road ahead is clear, the cruise control knows it’s really the radar talking.

And since this is a system that going into cars—products expected to work for a decade through all sorts of weather—GM had to test it like a car. In their 100,000-square foot lab, the engineers stacked up all the computers and modules they plan to build into a car, fed them faux engine data and stressed them in different ways. Once they were happy with the result, they started building it into development vehicles for durability and environmental testing.

The end result is not the kind of thing any dealer will use to sell an undecided customer on a new Chevy or Cadillac. It’s what will allow for the goodies they’d rather point to: the clever safety features, the oh-so clear screen, the hundreds of miles of electric range. The things that, more than horsepower and torque, matter to the people who just want to be comfortable and safe while they move about their lives. The things that today, all rely on computers.

“Software is the next battleground,” Adams says. And GM knows that you can’t win a fight without the logistical backing that gets your soldiers drafted, trained, and into the field.

https://apple.news/AFM7LFiPEQgGht5P-Pxr7ww

[Plasboy]

It’s not necessarily the tech that bothers me. It’s more the implementation. Really seems like a lot of the problems with electronic systems is in the quality control and trying to save a few cents.

[John]

Thank you for this additional info.

[bobbytinvab]

All great stuff I suppose, but I don't "have" to like it ... do I???

I realize that we need to move forward with all the new tech stuff that's out there, or be left behind, but I do pine for the days when we had analogue sports cars that you might be able to fix alongside the road with simple hand tools. I know I'm dating myself and new cars are amazing machines ... BUT I do enjoy driving my 40+ year old cars. I'm spoiled now though, and no I don't drive those old cars daily, why would I want to fix it on the side of the road???

The conundrum of the "old car guy"

[WWR]

It’s not necessarily the tech that bothers me. It’s more the implementation. Really seems like a lot of the problems with electronic systems is in the quality control and trying to save a few cents.

As long as the stuff works I'm OK

[Plasboy]

As long as the stuff works I'm OK

I might be ok on some of it if it worked properly all the time.
I don’t like getting blind spot warnings when your vehicle is just too close to a building on the street or a cut on the highway. Don’t know how to make it work differently but not a fan.
Just think it’s more and more stuff you don’t really need and much of it just makes for lazy inattentive drivers.

[electroVette]

The things that, more than horsepower and torque, matter to the people who just want to be comfortable and safe while they move about their lives. The things that today, all rely on computers.

I guess I straddle generations: I like all the tech features and I crave horsepower and torque. Even Supercruise could be useful for those times when I'm tired and have a long boring expressway drive ahead.

As far as autonomous driving "taking over," to me that seems far-fetched. It's one thing to do it in sunny silicon valley where the weather is always beautiful, but in Michigan winters it's many decades away from reality. And if you have an AV that only works in good conditions, but abruptly demands the driver intervene for perilous conditions, then that's courting disaster since the driver will be out of practice and unfamiliar with the car's surroundings.

AV kind of reminds me of the active suspension tech that was promised in the late 80s. Great in theory, but useless in practice. Eventually GM invented MRC and got 80% of what was promised, and I predict a similar path to AV.

[meyerweb]

the little-appreciated, tucked-away part of the body that isn’t noticed until it doesn’t work.

As someone who spent many years in the software side of the business world, this is the key. ALL software has bugs. Even the most thoroughly tested military and NASA software has bugs. (Remember when a Mars explorer crashed on the planet because of a mix-up between metric and imperial measurements?) And automobiles are among the most complex software products on the planet.

This gives me even more incentive not to buy a first year model.

[Nitrobrother]

Also having the option to disable the wi-fi "over the air updates" so that someone driving next to me can't hack in and make it do something that's no bueno.

[WWR]

While the “all-new digital electronic platform “ system debuts later this month in the CT5, we still do not have any definitive statement as to whether it would be part of the C8’s architecture. Might this system’s implementation be part of the three items that supposedly held up the C8’s development?



https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/...0-digital.html

I don't own a smart phone because I don't need one I hope I won't have to have one to use my car.

[WWR]

I guess I straddle generations: I like all the tech features and I crave horsepower and torque. Even Supercruise could be useful for those times when I'm tired and have a long boring expressway drive ahead.

As far as autonomous driving "taking over," to me that seems far-fetched. It's one thing to do it in sunny silicon valley where the weather is always beautiful, but in Michigan winters it's many decades away from reality. And if you have an AV that only works in good conditions, but abruptly demands the driver intervene for perilous conditions, then that's courting disaster since the driver will be out of practice and unfamiliar with the car's surroundings.

AV kind of reminds me of the active suspension tech that was promised in the late 80s. Great in theory, but useless in practice. Eventually GM invented MRC and got 80% of what was promised, and I predict a similar path to AV.

I won't be around if and when it happens but I can't see this entire country tuned to driverless cars. Insurance, infrastructure, federal laws, state laws, lawyers, and all the stuff that I can't think of.

[John]

What if the earlier thesis is correct, that there would later be a Z06 track version without most of the features , and a GTS version for long distance cruisers which has all the systems?

[Klinn]

As GM adds such systems to model lines, I think it might be difficult for them to make one specific edition without them. All it would take is one bad incident and lawyers screaming that if only GM wasn't so cheap to scrimp on safety then maybe my client would be alive today. Ugh. PR nightmare.

Offering drivers a way of temporarily disabling them, fine, cover your butt with the fine print in the manual but leaving them off could bring a world of hurt (so to speak).