04/2002 | Multimedia Systems in Automobiles

From Single Devices to Open Service Platforms

A growing number of new technologies for automobiles is bringing us greater safety, more comfort and better entertainment. This makes driving a pleasure, but it’s a huge challenge for the engineers who have to develop new vehicle models.

Thinking in terms of individual devices is no longer enough. Because the various automotive domains such as the powertrain, vehicle body, multimedia and telematics are gradually converging, today’s automobile must be regarded as an integrated system. A supplier like Bosch, which is involved in all of these areas, thus becomes a systems architect integrating these many different components into a smoothly functioning whole. To this end, researchers at Bosch are developing concepts for the integration of telematics and multimedia functions on a shared software platform. This includes audiovisual entertainment and navigation, access to wired bus systems like CAN or MOST, and wireless communication via mobile phone systems or local radio networks on the basis of corresponding standards such as Bluetooth.

The system architecture needed for these purposes is such that a vehicle can benefit from future technological advances during its entire lifespan. The concept follows the well known approach of personal computers, which as simple computing platforms are open to a variety of applications and services that can be downloaded from the Internet as Java applets, for example.