The differences in the design cycles of automobiles (3-5 years) and electronics (9-15 months) results in the fact that a car bought today will be equipped with old technology. New technology can be retrofitted, but at great cost with potential safety compromises and with little systems integration. The ITS Data Bus (IDB) seeks to remedy this situation by allowing the plug and play installation of ITS and other consumer electronics devices in a vehicle, at any time during its lifecycle, with little or no expert assistance required. The intent is to define open, standard interfaces to benefit the manufacturer, the dealer, and the consumer. The use of such a standard for in-vehicle electronics would give vendors more flexibility in the development of their products, making the integration of more complex electronic products feasible. The goal of the IDB is to provide an architecture that allows this flexibility while satisfying the needs of vehicle manufacturers to ensure that these devices do not, in any way, interfere with or jeopardize the proper operation of any vehicle subsystems. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) ITS Data Bus Committee started work on a series of standards for the IDB in late 1995, and presented the initial concepts at the Third Annual World Congress on ITS in Orlando in 1996. This paper provides an update on the current status of the project.
Abstract