Car designers increasingly love to integrate consumer electronics functions into their vehicles, but in the world of consumer electronics, design cycles are much too fast for automotive developers to keep up. Within the project TRACE, European carmakers, suppliers and semiconductor vendors are now investigating design methods and processes to make consumer devices safe enough for in-car deployment.
New smartphones and other coveted electronic gadgets hit the market in a rhythm of about six months. Cars, in contrast, still have design cycles of typically six years, including tests. In an environment where carmakers increasingly find their USPs in the electronic equipment of the vehicle, from ADAS to connectivity, carmakers and their suppliers are striving to keep up with the consumer design cycles, at least to a certain extend.
The problem: high-performance semiconductor components designed for consumer markets typically do not meet the stringent requirements for safety, reliability and ruggedness that vehicles have to meet. Adapting electronic components to the higher safety standards of the automotive industry, again, is a very time-consuming process, it is expensive and in many cases it would require a complete redesign.
