Shifting design of autonomous architectures

Electronic controls centralize while providing commercial-level reliability.

The controls for fully autonomous trucks must deal with inputs from a number of sensors, analyzing this data and taking actions that enable the vehicle to complete its route safely and efficiently. Design teams are racing to put together the perfect control architecture for their vehicles, while ensuring that these complex real-time systems operate over long vehicle lifetimes.

Thousands of megabytes of data from different combinations of cameras, radars, lidars and ultrasonic sensors flow into controllers that meld this information into a map of the vehicle's surroundings. Within milliseconds, these controllers must determine adjustments that keep the vehicle on its path and operating safely. The computing challenges are matched by the needs of creating bulletproof systems.