Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• New, centralised, reliable, cyber-secure and upgradable in-vehicle electronic control architectures for CCAM based on the application of co-designed hardware, software and big or smart data flows in combination with over-the-air updates, and corresponding to the emerging framework of the open European software-defined vehicle platform.
• Widespread deployment of level 4 automation in road vehicles by expanding the Operational Design Domains (ODDs) of the control system towards higher complexity (city traffic, adverse weather conditions etc.) or greater scale.
• Safe operation of Connected and Automated Driving (CAD) functions e.g. regarding Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) and ODD transitions through system agility, experience-based decision making and access to cloud intelligence.
• Paradigm shift from human-based and component-supported vehicle control to a more integrated, resource efficient and reliable system for the control of CCAM systems.
• Strengthened cooperation of European OEMs and suppliers to co-design a standard cyber secure electronic architecture layout with harmonised interfaces, leveraging related developments on the open European software-defined vehicle platform.

Scope:

Since current on-board electronic systems are assembled from various controllers in a piecemeal fashion, they are not suitable for the complex, combined performance requirements of advanced levels of CCAM applications in terms of bandwidths, latency, flexibility, fail safety and cyber security. Therefore, a complete redesign of the in-vehicle control architecture is needed, combining innovations at hardware, software and data levels in the vehicle and in connection with distributed intelligence in the edge-cloud continuity. It should build on a centralised e.g. zonal or domain-based layout using distributed high-performance computing for connecting sensing and actuation systems with software updates over the air, big data flows and AI at the edge, resulting in a novel and upgradable electronic in-vehicle control scheme for safe and efficient automated driving functions and tele-operations.

Important building blocks for the in-vehicle control architecture include sensors and sensor data fusion for environment perception with AI “at the edge”, using on-board high-performance computers and generic hard- and software including cyber secure components.

At the same time, the new control architecture and its context aware building blocks are expected to enable the following:

• reliable, low-latency and high-bandwidth data communication for automated driving systems control to safeguard against cyber-attacks, malfunctions and malicious interactions.
• systemic functionality gains in upgradability, efficiency, modularity, compatibility, scalability, fail-operation, reliability and redundancy.
• definition of safety and security targets, open-source standard layouts and harmonised validation methods.
• easier development and integration of connected and automated driving functions.

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged, in particular with Japan and the United States but also with other relevant strategic partners in third countries.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility’ (CCAM). With a focus on CCAM, it aims to exploit synergies with the cross-domain system integration actions related to the open European software-defined vehicle platform under the KDT Joint Undertaking^[1]. As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on results to the European Partnership ‘Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility’ (CCAM) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs and, among other, to contribute to the project ecosystem of the CSA funded by the KDT Call 2023 on the “Coordination of the European software-defined vehicle platform”.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

[1]HORIZON-KDT-JU-2023-3-CSA-Topic-3 and HORIZON-KDT-JU-2023-2-RIA