Communication requirements of future driver assistance systems in automobiles

Current driver assistance systems consist of functionally isolated electronic control units and sensor(s) to observe the vehicle´s environment and communicate with the vehicle´s systems via CAN. Although the concurrent use of the output of the sensors by all systems may lead to better systems, the single systems do not communicate data exceeding the pure results of the situation rating. This paper presents the prerequisites to be met by the communication systems to allow the shared use of all sensors output. For that purpose current and future driver assistance systems are analysed and the data rates resulting from extended communication are calculated. It is shown that bandwidth and time synchronisation mechanisms provided by time triggered networks are mandatory to cope with the challenges of extended communication.