Waiting for the iPhone moment – Tagesspiegel wallpaper

Well, today we present three revolutionary products. With these words, Apple President Steve Jobs announced the introduction of the iPhone almost 16 years ago. The highlight was that the three products – the mobile phone, the iPod and the Internet communicator – were out of order united in the same machine She was. If you can believe the announcements made by automakers and IT companies recently at the CES electronics trade show, we’re running into something like that again. iPhone moment Before: With the advent of data, software-defined functionality, and artificial intelligence, the car will become smart car. On the contrary, one could also say: the smartphone gets on wheels.

Although the long-awaited Apple Car has yet to be presented in Las Vegas, the first prototypes of it are A new collaboration between automotive and electronics manufacturers Like Honda and Sony, show where the ride is headed: to a vehicle that not only takes its passengers physically from A to B, but also takes them to virtual worlds in between. German manufacturers also emphasize that a A new connection between man and machine A mixed reality arises in which, for example, a car’s movements can be directly transmitted to the events of the games.

The massive digitization of the car is not only for entertainment, but also for serious purposes. A seamless transition between real and virtual meetings with others can be both professional and private Travel will change radically in the future. Functions that have been discussed for a long time, such as monitoring the health status of drivers and passengers, can finally be implemented or booking electric vehicle charging stations can be simplified. Enter confirmed applications convenience functions Temporarily activate in exchange for payment, standing in the room and promises profitable business.

Self-driving is a long time coming

This distracts a little from it Killer app The process of digitizing the car, autonomous driving, is taking longer than some expected. This is a quantum leap Road safety, in accessing mobility for all – along with electric mobility and sharing offers – in energy, time and resource efficiency. However, its development is not a sprint, but a marathon. That’s basically it Three different things:

• First, it means moving from defensive wisdom by humans to coordinated control by machines A fundamental change in the logic of road safety. For this to succeed, the conditions of the political, economic, social, technical, environmental and legal framework must be adapted to it. And this in light of the current controversy, which calls into question the car as an individual mode of transport, for example for reasons of climate protection or a fairer distribution of public spaces, at least in Europe. There is no easy game.
• In addition, self-driving is technically a Systematic innovation Represents: For more complex traffic situations, for example in an urban environment, it requires information from other vehicles, camera data from the infrastructure, high-resolution dynamic maps and last but not least comparison sample for artificial intelligence. Because even the best camera, radar or scanner system can’t look behind corners of houses or recognize the intentions of people on foot or on a bike. In addition, it is trusted, globally available, and secure against hacker attacks Networking and data Necessary, which remains to be prepared.
• Finally the car is flat But still, there is no smartphone on wheelswhich can be given the necessary intelligence by updating software and data – on the contrary: the basic functions of the vehicle are largely completed today assistance systems It is controlled by more than one hundred decentralized consoles. These make up the electrical, electronic or on-board network of the vehicle. a Vehicle central computerwhich network all subsystems and represent the interface for software and data updates Only at the beginning.

In view of international competition, auto manufacturers are now under great pressure pressure to innovate They are now trying to integrate controllers in the same functional areas as driving, assisting or entertaining into what are called areas of joint control. This serves in the first place Increased reliability and crash safety.

Tesla and some Chinese manufacturers are already working on moving forward with domain controllers In such a way that a computer platform is created. This simplifies the processing and delivery of large amounts of data and thus reduces the large material requirements for cables cost and weight.

But in just a few years, high-performance chips that can be flexibly programmed will be available Real structures of the central vehicle electrical system Maybe. Hardware and software can then be developed independently of each other and we can talk about a smartphone on wheels, where any functions can be redefined via software updates.

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There’s still a lot to miss on the way there, though Change in industrial structures. Traditionally, auxiliary systems and control modules for distributed wiring system structures are supplied by vehicle suppliers. Thanks to the jointly agreed interfaces, its components are interchangeable to a certain extent.

that fuel competition Hence the quality, but it also has the consequence that fundamental innovations in electronic engineering take time. On the other hand, with the new central wiring system structures, manufacturers take control and can, based on requirements Software and hardware applications Constantly evolving from a single source.

While these vertically integrated layouts serve to differentiate manufacturers, they also contain them risk of crumbling. And that would be unfortunate, because the complex systemic requirements for deploying safe self-driving require joint action, for example in data management and protection, communication protocols, or remote control in complex situations. If there’s a delay here, they can Chinese manufacturer European superiority with early standardization probably dictates their understanding of safety and security.

A coordinated approach across the manufacturer is required

Against this background, it is noteworthy that the European Commission, with the support of Member States and industry in relation to the European Union, is welcome Chip Act initiative l Coordinated research funding For software- and hardware-defined vehicle. It remains to be hoped that as many companies as possible will participate and realize this Europa Only with a coordinated, manufacturer-independent approach to smartphones on wheels can they be one step ahead and use their potential for such serious purposes as self-driving.

It is true that software solutions that compensate for the differences are already being worked on at the operating system level. But it remains fragmentedIf software and hardware are not developed side by side.