3 ms·

The article is light on technical details. Anyone have details on what this architecture is, and what makes it "next gen"?

justusthane 2y ago
Probably related: https://stories.rivian.com/meet-the-new-r1 https://stories.rivian.com/meet-the-new-r1 > Our second generation R1 vehicles feature an entirely new electrical architecture and compute platform developed in-house by our hardware and software team. This significant update to our onboard computing system makes our vehicles more robust, less costly to produce and easier to service — all while improving the experience for our customers. Our new system also dramatically improves scalability for deployment in future vehicles. > Core to the new system is a substantial reduction in the number of electronic control units (ECUs) used to control the vehicle, down from 17 different ECUs in our first generation to just seven ECUs in our second generation. This massive simplification has been achieved by shifting to a zonal architecture and by significantly increasing the computational capabilities of each of our ECUs. While infotainment, autonomy, vehicle access, drive units and our battery management system each have their own ECU, every other vehicle function is controlled by just three ECUs. > Shifting to a zonal system enabled us to remove over 1.6 miles (2.6km) of wiring from each vehicle, shedding 44 lbs (20kg) of weight. This reduction in wiring, along with the elimination of 10 ECUs, greatly reduces production costs. Fewer components needing to be installed during assembly also improves manufacturing efficiency, allowing us to build vehicles more quickly and with better quality. With less components onboard, vehicles are easier to service and require us to stock fewer parts, improving serviceability.
- m4rtink 2y ago
  Doesn't that also mean more potentially safety critical stuff that was before separate now handled by the same ECU in software ?
  - afiori 2y ago
    > While infotainment, autonomy, vehicle access, drive units and our battery management system each have their own ECU, every other vehicle function is controlled by just three ECUs. This looks like a list of safety critical systems
jillesvangurp 2y ago
Sandy Munro did a deep dive Rivian's hardware and software a few weeks ago with their lead engineers. He actually did a series of videos talking about all aspects of all the changes they did in their latest vehicle architecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DC5AIXX1VA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DC5AIXX1VA In short, Rivian reduced the number of control units from 17 to just 7. Software components are allocated to the an available unit. So, most stuff in the vehicle no longer has dedicated processors but simply gets allocated to share hardware with all the other systems. Doing that means less wires are needed, less thing can go wrong, etc. And it all gets over the air updates. They develop most stuff in house; so they are not dependent on suppliers providing software for their hardware. So, that means it's easier to change things, to update things, etc. without having to deal with suppliers. I assume, they are talking about bringing similar changes to VW. Same OS, same kind of processing units, probably a lot of the modules, etc. So when VW talks about a software defined car, that's what they mean.

justusthane 2y ago

Probably related: https://stories.rivian.com/meet-the-new-r1 https://stories.rivian.com/meet-the-new-r1 > Our second generation R1 vehicles feature an entirely new electrical architecture and compute platform developed in-house by our hardware and software team. This significant update to our onboard computing system makes our vehicles more robust, less costly to produce and easier to service — all while improving the experience for our customers. Our new system also dramatically improves scalability for deployment in future vehicles. > Core to the new system is a substantial reduction in the number of electronic control units (ECUs) used to control the vehicle, down from 17 different ECUs in our first generation to just seven ECUs in our second generation. This massive simplification has been achieved by shifting to a zonal architecture and by significantly increasing the computational capabilities of each of our ECUs. While infotainment, autonomy, vehicle access, drive units and our battery management system each have their own ECU, every other vehicle function is controlled by just three ECUs. > Shifting to a zonal system enabled us to remove over 1.6 miles (2.6km) of wiring from each vehicle, shedding 44 lbs (20kg) of weight. This reduction in wiring, along with the elimination of 10 ECUs, greatly reduces production costs. Fewer components needing to be installed during assembly also improves manufacturing efficiency, allowing us to build vehicles more quickly and with better quality. With less components onboard, vehicles are easier to service and require us to stock fewer parts, improving serviceability.

m4rtink 2y ago
Doesn't that also mean more potentially safety critical stuff that was before separate now handled by the same ECU in software ?
- afiori 2y ago
  > While infotainment, autonomy, vehicle access, drive units and our battery management system each have their own ECU, every other vehicle function is controlled by just three ECUs. This looks like a list of safety critical systems

jillesvangurp 2y ago

Sandy Munro did a deep dive Rivian's hardware and software a few weeks ago with their lead engineers. He actually did a series of videos talking about all aspects of all the changes they did in their latest vehicle architecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DC5AIXX1VA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DC5AIXX1VA In short, Rivian reduced the number of control units from 17 to just 7. Software components are allocated to the an available unit. So, most stuff in the vehicle no longer has dedicated processors but simply gets allocated to share hardware with all the other systems. Doing that means less wires are needed, less thing can go wrong, etc. And it all gets over the air updates. They develop most stuff in house; so they are not dependent on suppliers providing software for their hardware. So, that means it's easier to change things, to update things, etc. without having to deal with suppliers. I assume, they are talking about bringing similar changes to VW. Same OS, same kind of processing units, probably a lot of the modules, etc. So when VW talks about a software defined car, that's what they mean.