February 8, 2023
The joint solution collects information from the chips inside the vehicle using the proteanTecs technology, analyzes them in the cloud, and makes it possible to predict malfunctions and/or perform preventive actions through a software update
company proteanTecs Tel Aviv and company HARMAN The German company (owned by Samsung) announced a collaboration in promoting a new approach to implementing preventive maintenance solutions in electronic systems in vehicles. The solution of the two companies combines software update technology (OTA), analysis of large amounts of data, and the use of hardware installed in the electronic systems that collects data on their performance.
The idea is designed to provide a response to the development of the car from the stage of a mechanical accessory to the stage of a “connected computer on wheels”, which includes software of more than 100 million lines of code, and controls microprocessors (Electronic Control Unit – ECU) with billions of transistors, which manage the sub the systems in the car. The director of the OTA and cyber security group at HARMAN, Michal Geva, said that the proteanTecs technology turns the chips in the car into an array of sensors found in each ECU unit, and together we can offer manufacturers a solution that provides both problem detection and solution proposal, based on various OTA techniques.” .
Both companies have published Joint position paper where they explained that the great complexity of the electronics and software systems creates great difficulty in meeting the safety and reliability requirements of the automotive industry. “Even when the vehicle arrives at the customer with all the systems in perfect working order, it is impossible to guarantee that this will be the case even after 10 years of use, during which many of the software in the vehicle underwent updating and upgrading processes. The problem can be illustrated with the following example: imagine what would happen if you run a new application on a smartphone that was released on the market five years ago.”
The two companies’ approach to monitoring and securing a Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) is based on the need to identify defects and characterize them even before they develop into a malfunction. The idea of the two companies is to combine Harman’s OTA technology with proteanTecs’ ability to detect irregularities and disturbances in chip performance. The company has developed a technology for collecting information about processes taking place inside the component, based on tiny circuits (UCT Agents) that were implanted in the component already in the planning stages, which are used as “agents” for collecting information such as temperature, dwell times, currents, etc.
This information identifies various problems such as slowing down of the system’s response, malfunctioning of certain clock signals, etc. Using a cloud information system, this information can be analyzed to identify the problem, assess when it will develop into a malfunction, and even provide immediate treatment in some cases, for example by changing the parameters and working conditions of the system. The two companies offer a new system called Continuous Performance Monitoring – CPM which includes Harman’s software and cloud infrastructure (collecting information using PPM Orchestrator and analyzing the information in the cloud using PPM Cloud Manager) and the technology of proteanTecs which collects electrical information about the performance of the component, and extracts information about its performance the electronic system. The cloud infrastructure will analyze the information, evaluate when the irregularity in the function will develop into a malfunction, and take measures to solve the problem or postpone the malfunction. At the same time, it will send an alert to the car manufacturer’s service center.
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