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Toyota (famous for lean manufacturing) built redundancy in to it’s supply chain and only recently has run in to chip shortages. It may be hard, but it’s certain

Toyota (famous for lean manufacturing) built redundancy in to it’s supply chain and only recently has run in to chip shortages. It may be hard, but it’s certainly possible. 0: How Toyota Steered Clear of the Chip Shortage Mess

Animats 5y ago
That article was back in April. Then, in August, "Japan’s largest car maker said Thursday it was cutting production in the country by 40% in September because of a shortage of semiconductors. The company declined to say whether it would shut down plants outside of Japan." Most of automotive does not need AMSL 10nm and below fabs. They need robust 200nm to 300nm chips. This may yield car redesigns with less touchscreen dependence, simpler electronics in the essential systems, and an "infotainment" system that's less integrated with the vehicle and can be added or replaced later. Already, some new cars have shipped with a blank plate in place of the entertainment system. There's a mindset that electric cars have to be more complicated. This is strange, because managing the batteries and motors is far simpler than managing an IC engine. [1] https://www.programbusiness.com/news/toyota-succumbs-chip-shortage-and-shuts-factories https://www.programbusiness.com/news/toyota-succumbs-chip-sh...
- maxerickson 5y ago
  The shortages are hitting ECUs and body controllers, it isn't just the fancy cabin electronics.
- VectorLock 5y ago
  >This may yield car redesigns with less touchscreen dependence, simpler electronics in the essential systems, and an "infotainment" system that's less integrated with the vehicle and can be added or replaced later. Already, some new cars have shipped with a blank plate in place of the entertainment system. I'd personally see that as a major improvement. The highly integrated infotainment systems are going to make a lot of these vehicles feel obsolete before their time.
- int_19h 5y ago
  The car industry really just needs to standardize a connector (USB-C?) and a protocol for an external device to drive the dashboard touchscreen and any relevant physical buttons. Like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but open and universal.
  - tbrownaw 5y ago
    They already have a standard network bus connecting all the things together. There's even a standard debug port that exposes it, somewhere near the driver seat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics
    - int_19h 5y ago
      Yeah, but can that drive the display? My impression was that it doesn't have the bandwidth for that. Android Auto requires USB-C, although I'm not quite sure what the actual protocol on the wire is (but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same as for USB-C displays in general, just with some extensions). Most of the pieces are already there. The only problem is that they're proprietary.

Animats 5y ago

That article was back in April. Then, in August, "Japan’s largest car maker said Thursday it was cutting production in the country by 40% in September because of a shortage of semiconductors. The company declined to say whether it would shut down plants outside of Japan." Most of automotive does not need AMSL 10nm and below fabs. They need robust 200nm to 300nm chips. This may yield car redesigns with less touchscreen dependence, simpler electronics in the essential systems, and an "infotainment" system that's less integrated with the vehicle and can be added or replaced later. Already, some new cars have shipped with a blank plate in place of the entertainment system. There's a mindset that electric cars have to be more complicated. This is strange, because managing the batteries and motors is far simpler than managing an IC engine. [1] https://www.programbusiness.com/news/toyota-succumbs-chip-shortage-and-shuts-factories https://www.programbusiness.com/news/toyota-succumbs-chip-sh...

maxerickson 5y ago
The shortages are hitting ECUs and body controllers, it isn't just the fancy cabin electronics.
VectorLock 5y ago
>This may yield car redesigns with less touchscreen dependence, simpler electronics in the essential systems, and an "infotainment" system that's less integrated with the vehicle and can be added or replaced later. Already, some new cars have shipped with a blank plate in place of the entertainment system. I'd personally see that as a major improvement. The highly integrated infotainment systems are going to make a lot of these vehicles feel obsolete before their time.
int_19h 5y ago
The car industry really just needs to standardize a connector (USB-C?) and a protocol for an external device to drive the dashboard touchscreen and any relevant physical buttons. Like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but open and universal.
- tbrownaw 5y ago
  They already have a standard network bus connecting all the things together. There's even a standard debug port that exposes it, somewhere near the driver seat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics
  - int_19h 5y ago
    Yeah, but can that drive the display? My impression was that it doesn't have the bandwidth for that. Android Auto requires USB-C, although I'm not quite sure what the actual protocol on the wire is (but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same as for USB-C displays in general, just with some extensions). Most of the pieces are already there. The only problem is that they're proprietary.