The motorcycle manufacturer that is featured in this case study won an order to develop a multifunctional motorcycle. Still, problems mounted over developing user interface (UI) peripherals. The decisive factor for quick development was a reference solution supported by a rich ecosystem.
The motorcycle manufacturer was consulted by a major distribution company on the development of a motorcycle for delivery only. There were many requests to prioritize a working environment for drivers. It was necessary to add various functions, which involved not only safety and security aspects but also the navigation system, connectivity to mobile devices and entertainment. Immediate action was needed, because the motorcycle had to be developed at a lower price in the short term.
The most important issue was to develop UI software.
The motorcycle manufacturer immediately set up a project within the development department to identify existing issues. According to the project leader K, there were three major problems.
“The first problem was that we didn’t have much experience in developing a user interface (UI) that converged many functions. The second was the number of man-hours to develop the software. Man-hours were expected to be enormous, because the software required a face authentication system for drivers and functions to play music and videos for their waiting time. The third was price. Since this software was a custom-made product, we wouldn’t be able to increase the price significantly from our standard product as our policy. For that reason, we needed to lower development costs as much as possible.”
During discussions within the project, there was a proposal to use a UI product (a set of hardware and software) developed by an overseas third party. The idea was to buy a product that was completed to some extent and develop what needed to meet requirements for this project. The project leader thought it was a bright idea and immediately contacted a third-party vendor.
After he heard about the product in detail, however, there was a problem here as well.
“Functions supported by the product covered only about a half of required specifications. If we had to develop the rest by ourselves, it would be a lot of burdens on us. In addition, since the software used the operating system (OS) independently developed by this third-party company, the only available software development tool was this poor one made by this company. There was also no software developer that could handle this tool.” (The project leader K)
Consequently, the project leader told required specifications to the third-party vendor and asked if it could customize the software to meet them. The vendor then presented outrageous fees and said it would take more than a year for development. This made it extremely hard to use a third-party product.
The discussion was right back where it started, and the time to consider a development policy was also limited. The project members were getting impatient.
R-Car Gen3e can achieve both smartphone-quality functions and safety performance with the in-vehicle UI. One of the project members, who was at a loss but still collecting information, got useful input from Renesas Electronics that H had an experience in adopting before for its another model. The project leader decided to check with a contact person at Renesas right away to ask for a detailed explanation.
The product proposed by Renesas Electronics was the “R-Car Gen3e,” an advanced version of R-Car Gen3 that the company offered as a reference solution for a cockpit.
“The information was really beneficial. The chip may be used without changing anything, because it supports Google’s Android OS and is equipped with a map navigation function, a face authentication system and a music/video player, which are identical with smartphones. In addition, the real-time processing section is executed by a separate real-time operating system (RTOS). So, even if the Android section is crashed or hacked, the chip won’t get any impact, allowing safety performance to be maintained.”, says the project leader.)
This is not the only feature. There are a number of developers available when outsourcing software development, because the RTOS also employs the OS with a rich ecosystem including QNX. Moreover, the use of free software, such as Android, has greatly reduced the cost per unit. As for support, it was also significant for the project leader that the motorcycle manufacturer was able to gain technical support from Renesas Electronics with extensive experience in in-vehicle UI.
After reviewing within the project based on the information, it turned out that the development period could be shortened by about six months, compared with our initial plan to ask a third party. It was also likely to substantially reduce development costs.
As a result of consideration, the team decided to advance the development based on the R-Car Gen 3e with receiving support from Renesas Electronics. They are currently picking up speed in development to make up for a late start.
R-Car starter kits for automotive software development enable users to easily build automotive Linux platforms that are AGL and GENIVI standardized.
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The R-Car platform addresses a wide range of automotive applications such as Automated Driving or ADAS, connected gateway, in-vehicle infotainment, cockpit, and dashboard.
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The R-Car Gen3e series offers a seamless upgrade path from the popular R-Car Gen3 with higher system performance and enhanced integration, fast boot, and FuSa capabilities.
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