SAE INDIA 0301039

Telematics Beyond Mobility

Dilip Kumar D
HCL Technologies, Chennai, India

Copyright 2003 SAE International

ABSTRACT
Telematics has gone a long way from providing navigation / mobility support to drivers to becoming an integral part of the v ehicle function. Telematics today provides for safety, security, comfort and convenience to the drivers as well as the passengers. The key applications of in-vehicle telematics include emergency / roadside assistance, tracking or immobilization of stolen vehicles. Safety being the key concern for drivers, allows carmakers respond to the demand of the vehicle and their occupants by providing a direct contact over cellular phone to a service provider. Telematics, with an extended value chain, embraces a number of players who play a key role in this industry. The key technologies which enable automotive telematics include Digital / Analog cellular communication, GPS (Global Positioning System), Internet and Human machine interfaces. The emerging telematics applications would focus on vehicle-to-vehicle communication, which will aid in road traffic information and Internet applications.

The driver assistance systems and traffic guidance systems open doors for better connectivity a s well as providing better assistance to drivers in terms of lane change and navigation and route guidance systems. Innovations continued in the areas of traffic sign recognition, lane recognition, collision detection and night vision systems. Today, the connectivity provides for a complete two wire communication with mobile technology assisting drivers during emergency or breakdown of vehicles, tracking the vehicle and retrieving the vehicle on theft and various other features like remote telematics which provide better comfort for the users of the vehicle. The present in-vehicle telematics applications has seen a considerable growth in the US and Europe and the market is seen to be growing year on year The carmakers are focusing on telematics applications as services provided to the user for better safety and security. These types of services vary between carmakers worldwide.

TELEMATICS - OVERVIEW
Telematics, in simple terms, is the connection of a vehicle with wireless bi-directional communication in combination with GPS system for position information. The word telematics has been derived from a combination of the terms Tele communications and Infor matics. The basic telematics infrastructure includes integration of an analog or digital mobile phone depending on the country and coverage, GPS receiver for determining the position information and a central processing unit. Telematics today provides flow of information which until recently was difficult to distribute and had remained more or less static. The availability of real time information allows dynamic information to be provided to drivers and other users.

INTRODUCTION
In order to have a brief on the innovations and growth in telematics, let us have a quick recap of the stage s of progress in telematics towards safety and secure driving. We could go way back to vehicles, which were totally isolated without connectivity (between elements within the vehicle) to todays telematics, which connects the vehicle with all its sensors to the external world. The trend started with isolated cars and slowly migrated with networking of elements within itself, but still without any connectivity to the external world. Sensors were beginning to be installed in the cars to provide basic connection with the outside world for example, distancewarning radars, automation of stop and go, but the connectivity was still restricted to only a few metres.

VALUE CHAIN
A traditional model for telematics value chain is been around in-vehicle telematics services. The chain includes Telematics Content providers who typically provide the traffic and navigation data to the service aggregators. Different content providers adopt various means of collecting traffic information which include traffic monitoring sensors on the roadside, surveillance through air, CCD cameras etc., The service providers are provided with the information from the content providers who in turn are responsible to provide the required information to the vehicles through various carriers. The service operators / service providers operate and control the types of services that are available. The last few in the telematics value chain include the type of device being installed in the vehicle, different types of human machine interface to the customer To summarize the value chain, the following figure depicts the breadth of the telematics value chain from Content Providers to the User.
Conten t Service Operato Service Provid Device / Platform HMI / User

services predominantly fall into the safety and security category of telematics applications and hence become the key applications. These applications are termed as vehicle centric services. Telematics applications also include services, which are not focused on the vehicle information, but more to do with preferred services of customers. This includes Internet / Browser, Email, Dynamic route guidance etc., which are more user centric. Carmakers are trying to develop successful telematics services with more focus towards vehicle centric services, which are of prime concern to the customers. There have been various methods adopted by various carmakers in providing such telematics services. Daimler Chrysler, for example, is trying to provide a clear divide between the vehicle centric and user centric services to cut down the cost and also focus more on the vehicle centric services. The user centric services come as an option GMs Onstar on the other hand has a mix of both vehicle and user centric services packaged in the vehicle. AUTOMATIC ACCIDENT NOTIFICATION In case of serious accidents wherein the airbags are also deployed, automatic notification of the accident alongwith all relevant data concerning the vehicle, its position and medical history of the occupants is sent over the air. This allows the emergency and medical teams to react faster, which in turn saves time and life. On the event of a crash of the vehicle, the airbag sensors provide the necessary information of the crash to the Telematics Control Unit available in the vehicle. The information is processed and is immediately transmitted as an SMS (Short Messaging Service) to the telematics service provider. EMERGENCY CALL / BRE AKDOWN In case of breakdown of vehicles or if information on an accident is to be passed on the service provider requesting for assistance, this could be done using the touch of a button placed conveniently on the vehicle. TRACKING OF STOLEN VEHICLE The tracking feature allows the police to trace and retrieve a stolen vehicle. The tracking feature could be triggered by a button press within the vehicle which would provide a theft alarm notification message to the service provider or by the customer informing the service provider / police about the theft of the vehicle.

Figure 1

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
The automotive electronics largely depend upon proven technologies, given the life cycle of the vehicle. The key technologies of telematics systems include microprocessor based electronic control units, operating systems to run various applications and of course wireless communication for two way voice and data communication. The other technologies, which enable automotive telematics, include GPS for position information, display, Human machine interface etc.,

KEY APPLICATIONS
Telematics initial beginning on providing navigation and driver assistance information shifted towards providing safe and secure driving based on the demands and concerns of the users of the vehicles. The users requirements vary from essential services to preferred services. The essential services include Emergency Assistance / Accident Notification, Tracking for Stolen Vehicle, Remote vehicle Diagnostics, Immobilization of stolen vehicles, Remote telematics door unlock, door lock, climate control etc., These

Anti theft tracking is initiated by raising an alarm from the vehicle in case the windows are broken or doors locks forced open.

TYPICAL TELEMATICS SYSTEM

The basic telematics system consists of a Telematics Control Unit (TCU) connected to the various Electronic Control Units (ECU) through CAN (Controller Area Network) / MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) Bus. The TCU consists of a central processing unit alongwith SIM card reader Network switching device Antenna Interface CAN / MOST interface GSM / CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) Interface

The TCU serves as the centralized communication platform within the vehicle. Its end-to-end architecture includes interface to both in-vehicle and out of vehicle components. The in-vehicle components include CAN / MOST Bus, Discrete I / O, Antenna, ECUs, Audio system, Airbag sensors etc., The out of vehicle components include Diagnostic tester tools, Wireless networks, GPS constellation and Service providers. ARCHITECTURE OF TELE MATICS SYSTEM The basic hardware components which are involved in a typical telematics application include Sensors, CAN / MOST bus interface, TCU, Display ECUs (Instrument Cluster, Head Unit), Audio System, Antenna (GSM / CDMA), GPS, Gateways etc., The software components would involve processing of sensor / discrete signals through CAN / MOST or discrete I / O signal processing, application handler, formatting of message in defined communication protocols like ACP (Application Communication Protocol) or GTP (Global Telematics Protocol), wireless communication etc.,

Airbag Sensors

CAN Interface

Network Switching Device

GSM CDMA

Display ECU (Instrument Cluster / Head Unit)

Primary

SOS Button

Discrete Interface

Controller

Antenna Switching (RF Switch)

Secondary

Speaker

Audio Interface

SIM Card Reader

GSM Modem Output Drivers

LED

Microphone Array

Telematics Control Unit

Figure 2

AUTOMATIC ACCIDENT NOTIFICATION SCENARIO The airbag sensors normally send a health signal periodically to the TCU. The TCU continuously processes this signal to understand the health of the vehicle based on the airbag sensor signal. This signal is transmitted

both through CAN bus as well as through a discrete signal. In the event of CAN bus breakdown during an accident, the discrete interface is used as a redundant path to provide information on the crash to the TCU.

As and when the vehicle meets with an accident the sensor sends the crash information to the TCU. The TCU processes the signal to understand the type of incident (frontal, rear or rollover). The crash event triggers the accident notification application in the TCU and the TCU starts recording all information and data captured as long as the service / application is active. This is similar to the black box recording, which would allow for reading of these data using a diagnostics tool at a later date for analysis of the accident. The TCU alongwith the vehicle information (which includes vehicle identification number, number of occupants and additional diagnostics data) transmits the crash data in a defined message format as defined in ACP or GTP. The TCU, making use of the SIM card and Wireless Modem embedded in it, notifies the service provider by SMS messaging about the accident. The telephone number of the service providers is usually pre programmed in the TCU for automatic dialing and messaging. In the US and Europe, in addition to the Service provider telephone numbers, the TCUs are also programmed with the Emergency assistance numbers, for example 911 in the US. In case the vehicle does not establish contact with the Service provider, the TCU automatically dials the emergency assistance. The TCU is developed to provide network connectivity to various kinds of wireless networks prevailing in different countries. For example in the US, GSM, AMPS and CDMA networks are available in various states. In order to cater to all the networks, the TCUs are provided with network switching devices. These devices enable switching between various networks based on the availability of the same. Most vehicles are equipped with a minimum of two antennas for wireless communication. The antenna switching circuitry available within the TCU allow for switching between the two antennas. The circuitry continuously monitors the signal strength of the currently connected antenna and switches to the next antenna in case of weak signal strength in the previous antenna. This circuitry is more useful when one of the antennas is damaged or broken wherein the communication is not affected by switching over to the other antenna. Once the SMS is sent from the vehicle, the service provider dials into the vehicle and establishes voice communication with the vehicle. The occupant could then communicate with the service provider in a hands -free mode using the speaker and microphone interface provided to the TCU. Visual indication of the service / application status could be sent in the form of blinking of an LED or by messages in the Instrument Cluster or Head Unit.

TCU Simulators is the order of the day to allow testing of the various new telematics application concepts and other new technologies to be integrated to the TCU. This would substantially reduce time and cost for the carmakers. A typical TCU simulator hardware could be developed around a standard PC based architecture with Windows based operating system. PC add-on cards could be used for the CAN / MOST interface, discrete signal interfaces, and standalone modules like GSM Modem, GPS receiver for wireless communication and other interfaces. The required software could be integrated into the TCU simulator hardware to provide for a full-fledged standalone TCU Simulator, without monitor / keyboard etc., The diagnostic interface could be through a serial link to provide for diagnosis of the Simulator. The signals for example from Airbag could be simulated using CANoE tool based simulator to simulate the various crash signals. These signals could be sent, as CAN telegrams to the TCU Simulator. The CAN hardware could be interfaced to the CANoE tool and the TCU Simulator software could process the crash signals. Internally, the software could provide the crash signal infor mation to the application, which in turn could perform the message construction as per ACP protocol. The message is then sent as an SMS to the service operator using the GSM modem. The GSM modem could be interfaced to the PC through a serial link. The Service Provider or Call center could be based on a simulator, which could receive the messages in the ACP format and process the message and automatically send responses back to the LCT Simulator. The information received could be interpreted and verified in the CAN tool or in the display units as necessary.

TELEMATICS SCENARIO IN INDIA

Telematics is still an evolving field. While technological advances are key enablers, there are still some challenges with respect to cost and infrastructure. The Government of Indias initiatives in improving the infrastructure especially with respect to roads and wireless communication will go a long way in speeding up the adoption of telematics in India. The immediate area of application could be in the area of fleet management. The success of this would largely depend upon the truck manufacturers taking the initiative and installing telematics capabilities into the trucks and also arriving at a feasible pricing structure for the services to be delivered to the end-users of the services.

CONCLUSION
Major forces like end users, market players and technology drive the telematics market.

CONCEPT VALIDATION USING TCU SIMULATORS

The end users play a major role in accepting the various telematics services and devices provided by different carmakers. They also have a major contribution in their willingness to spend for the telematics services. The market players have a role in preparing hardware and service strategies, which would attract the end users. It also involves working out pricing and communication strategies. Technology upkeep is also equally important for the telematics market. With improvement in the current telematics devices and availability of 3G communication networks and reduction in cost due to segregation between essential telematics services and preferred services play a vital role in defining the telematics market. The carmakers have to make a tradeoff between the information provided and the services offered. This would

be based on the willingness of the customer to pay for such information. Some of the essential services are thus provided free of cost / with minimal cost while the preferred services are provided at a cost to allow better market for the telematics services. Telematics is an emerging field that is currently being driven by technological innovation. The real value will be derived when all players in the telematics industry work out a feasible and cost effective mode of delivering it to end-users.