Cars Need Faster...Networks

Cars need to get faster — not on the road, but on the inside.

Speed has always been part of the mystique of the automotive business. But cars have been notoriously slow when it comes to handling information. It is a problem that has only become more pressing as the era of autonomous vehicles looms, with competing interests racing to be the first with a solution.

Cars have long relied on a relatively simple network standard called the CAN or Controller Area Network bus. The CAN bus coordinates all the microprocessors and electronic control units, or E.C.U.s, that need to trade engine, powertrain, and diagnostic information, transmitting details like transmission status and fluid levels. As more electronics like window and seat controls were added to cars, the CAN bus was tweaked over the years with additional local interconnection networks, or LINs, to handle the swelling communications load.

But the CAN bus, which was originally developed by Bosch more than 33 years ago, is showing its age.

Continue reading at The New York Times, "As Cars Collect More Data, Companies Try to Move It All Faster."