A gateway device for controlling an air-conditioning device of a vehicle, a vehicle having such a gateway device and a method for starting up an air-conditioning device in a vehicle. The gateway device includes at least one plug-in contact for connecting the gateway device to an air-conditioning device and/or to a vehicle component, a reception unit for receiving configuration data for selecting a plug configuration of the gateway device, a configuration circuit associated with the plug-in contact, that is designed to take configuration data as a basis for changing between at least one first switching state of the plug-in contact, in which the plug-in contact is designed to perform a first function, and at least one second switching state of the plug-in contact, in which the plug-in contact is designed to perform a second function.

A secure star coupler in a communication network adopting a time-triggered protocol based on a time slot include: transceivers each of which is connected to one of branches and transmits and receives signals; a routing table holder that holds a predetermined rule indicating a correspondence between a time slot and a branch; and a router that routes a signal received from a first branch to another branch unless a no-transfer condition is satisfied. The no-transfer condition includes a condition that the predetermined rule is not followed by the first branch and a condition that routing of a signal received from a second branch different from the first branch has started in the time slot.

A system for controlling bus-networked devices includes a gateway, an open field bus, a first power supply unit, an auxiliary power supply unit, a pluggable connection cable and a power module. The auxiliary power supply unit is configured to supply auxiliary power for an upstream bus subscriber. The pluggable connection cable electrically is connected to the gateway and to the plurality of bus subscribers. The power module is electrically connected between the upstream bus subscriber and a downstream bus subscriber. The power module loops through a data stream from the upstream bus subscriber to the downstream bus subscriber but does not loop through an auxiliary voltage of the auxiliary power supply unit from the upstream bus subscriber to the downstream bus subscriber.

In aspects, a Local Interconnect Network (LIN) communication circuit including a first LIN master associated with a first LIN bus and a second LIN master associated with a second LIN bus is disclosed. A data link is connected between the first and second LIN masters. A first mirroring client is established at the first LIN master for receiving message bits corresponding to a LIN message in a first slot on the first LIN bus and for transmitting the message bits bitwise over the data link. A second mirroring client is established at the second LIN master for receiving the message bits and transmitting them over the second LIN bus. The first and second LIN masters include synchronised schedule tables such that the message bits on the second LIN bus are transmitted in a corresponding slot to the first.

Embodiments provide a vehicle computer coupled to a vehicle. The vehicle computer may be configured to compute (e.g., generate) a first (e.g., regular, main) trajectory and a second (e.g., fail-safe, minimal risk maneuver) trajectory for the vehicle. Embodiments may provide techniques for incorporating sensor input into the response for managing a minimal risk maneuver. The low-resolution sensor data may be received from a low-resolution sensor having integrated object detection processing such as an automotive radar sensor. The safety processor may modify the second trajectory using the low-resolution sensor data to avoid any new hazards along the second trajectory. Embodiments may also provide, in addition to the low-resolution radar sensor data, pre-computed analysis of the low-resolution radar sensor data from the main processor to the safety processor to reduce the false positives (e.g., false positive object detections) along the second trajectory.

A LIN communication system may include a gateway module coupled to one or more LIN strings, each LIN string including one or more hardware-only point-of-use controllers (PoUC) and/or one or more programmable point-of-use controllers (PoUC). Each PoUC may be tailored to a plurality of end devices, and centrally-disposed with respect to the same. The system represents an optimized arrangement that minimizes weight, cost, and complexity of the system, while providing optimized functionality in terms of processing power, bandwidth, and the like, to achieve only that which is needed to control the vehicle. The system employs a scheduler that may interleave I/O and diagnostic messages on the LIN-protocol bus at the PoUC level that may reduce unused bandwidth. This system may be particularly adapted for use in an electric vehicle having on-board solar panels, wherein the weight of system components is a dominating factor in the vehicle design.

Generally speaking, embodiments of the present disclosure include a network security system that can comprise a hardware appliance installed in a vehicle and connected with the busses, networks, communication systems, and other components of the vehicle. This in-vehicle network security appliance can provide an access point to the networks of the vehicle, such as the Controller Area Networks (CANs), Local Interconnect Networks (LINs) and other networks, monitor inbound and outbound traffic on those networks, and provide a firewall between those networks and external networks or systems as well as between different networks and systems within the vehicle. In this way, the network security appliance can protect the vehicle networks from different sources of attack from outside and inside the vehicle via components that are less secure like the infotainment system or diagnostic port.

A method for operating a communications network that includes a computing system, at least one intermediate control unit, and at least one execution unit for each intermediate control unit. The at least one intermediate control unit is communicatively connected to the computing system using a first communication system. Each of the at least one execution unit is communicatively connected to the associated intermediate control unit using a second communication system, which is a master-slave communication system, and used as a slave. A message configuration table for each second communication system is stored in the computing system, the message configuration table indicating a temporal sequence of data to be transmitted on the second communication system in question. For a communication with one of the execution units, data are sent from the computing system, via the associated intermediate control unit, to the execution unit according to the associated message configuration table.

Audio-derived information is provided to a vehicle control system of a vehicle by attaching a microphone externally to a vehicle to generate an analog signal in response to sound waves external to the vehicle. An enclosure containing sound-attenuating material mechanically filters low frequency sounds from reaching the microphone transducer. An analog-to-digital converter converts the analog signal to a digital signal. A vehicle data bus transfers the digital signal to the vehicle control system.

Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses are presented for computer-assisted visualization of network devices. One example involves receiving a plurality of standardized network description files describing a plurality of vehicular communication networks connecting a plurality of electronic control units (ECU) for a vehicle. Each of the plurality of standardized network description files may describe a vehicular communication network in the plurality of vehicular communication networks. Each vehicular communication network may comprise a subset of the plurality of ECUs and one or more network communications paths interconnecting the subset of ECUs. The example can further involve automatically generating, based on the standardized network description files, a visual topology representation of the plurality of vehicular communication networks connecting to the plurality of ECUs. The visual topology representation may include at least one ECU connected to at least two vehicular communication networks in the plurality of vehicular communication networks.