FlexRay not dead, chip vendors claim
At the recent VDI congress on automotive electronics in Baden-Baden (Germany) where the elite of automotive electronics not only from German-speaking countries met, congress chairman Wolfgang Runge told the audience that FlexRay has no future. "FlexRay is dead" said Runge who spent most of his professional life in the automotive industry and now runs a consultancy for much the same clientele. Runge is said to have extremely good connections throughout the industry and for this reason one can believe that he knows what he is talking about.
But in the case of FlexRay, he might have overstated the actual situation, chip vendors involved in the FlexRay business say. Nevertheless, disappointment about the market performance is hard to overlook. "Of course I recognize that the initial expectations have failed to materialize", said Juergen Weyer, Vice President Automotive for chipmaker Freescale. "But reports of its decease are drastically exaggerated". FlexRay connects MCUs in many car models currently under production. "FlexRay was never intended to assume the task of a networking backbone inside the vehicles", Weyer said. "The main application driver for FlexRay was x-by-wire, the concept of replacing mechanical control elements such as the steering column by electronic signal transmission". Weyer pointed out that very recently Nissan has introduced a steer-by-wire concept for future vehicles.
Freescale competitor NXP has a similar view of the market situation. "What we expected ten years ago has not materialized", said Rob Hoeben, Director Business Development at NXP. "Nevertheless we see a lot of FlexRay-related activity around the globe – in the U.S., in Japan and in Korea". FlexRay will continue to be the technology of choice for deterministic applications in the chassis and power train domains, Hoeben said, highlighting that by means of its redundant data channels, FlexRay offers "safety by design". He also pointed out that NXP does not see any necessity to change its strategy. The company even has new chip designs with FlexRay functionality in its product pipeline.
Rolf Weber, business line director for chipmaker Elmos AG, also disagrees with Runge. "FlexRay currently is deployed comprehensively in premium class vehicles", he said. For many applications like engine and chassis control as well as advanced driver assistance systems, the CAN bus – even the new CAN FD version – is simply overextended.
Nevertheless, the rise of Ethernet in vehicles could endanger to some extend the position of FlexRay, all three experts admitted. "From the beginning, we were among the companies promoting Ethernet in automotive applications", said Weyer. "It remains to be seen if Ethernet will conquer the backbone in cars, but it certainly will be seen in many applications, in particular in advanced driver assistance systems associated with high data rates such as image processing systems". For Freescale, the position is clear: The company will support all these technologies and protocols with its MCUs, but there are no plans regarding PHY devices.
NXP’s Hoeben also committed to Ethernet. "We see Ethernet as an interesting alternative in the infotainment domain", he said.
Also Elmos, the smallest company of this trio, is preparing for Ethernet. "When it comes to real-time applications, Ethernet has yet to prove its suitability”, Weber said. "During the current decade, we do not believe that Ethernet will displace FlexRay", he said, adding that Elmos is intensely observing market developments to scrutinize the scope of possible Ethernet application fields in cars. "First Ethernet applications seen in cars are in the areas of infotainment and camera systems”, Weber said. "If market acceptance grows quickly we will be able to react equally fast".
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