Fleet Maintenance - 26

"With the rise of IoT [the Internet of Things] and
connected vehicles, an increasing share of vehicles are online," says CSS Electronics' Falch. "This
exposes them to hackers, as recently shown across
various simulations." Falch sites two examples in
particular: when hackers Charlie Miller and Chris
Valasek conducted a hack of a Jeep Cherokee,
documented by Wired magazine in 2015; and
a University of Michigan study conducted by
Yelizaveta Burakova, Bill Hass, Leif Millar, and
André Weimerskirch, titled "Truck hacking: An
experimental analysis of the SAE J1939 standard,"
documenting the hacking of a 2006 Class 8 tractor
and 2001 school bus.
Falch explains that three items are required to
complete a vehicle hack remotely:
Ü A means of accessing the vehicle online, typically through a security dongle connected to
the vehicle.
Ü A means to transmit CAN data to the vehicle
network.
Ü An understanding of what messages to send to
control various vehicle functions. In particular,
Falch says, the standardized J1939 protocol aids
in learning those messages.
Some may argue against standardization
or having closed access to the CAN bus. Falch
disagrees. "Rather, end users need to seriously
scrutinize the security specs of what they connect
to their vehicles."
To address these security issues, along with
other foreseeable system needs, updated communication protocols are on the horizon.
As vehicle systems become more complex, they
will need to have the ability to transfer this data and
information to other areas of the vehicle quickly.
Many in the industry believe ethernet may phase
out some of the current vehicle protocols. Before
ethernet, updates to CAN bus protocols such as CAN

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26 Fleet Maintenance | May 2019

"J1939 data is vital in
diagnostic and repair tools,
telematics services, analytics,
vehicle command and control, and
many other applications. Consider
operational data, items such as
mileage and fuel consumption,
as the backbone of fuel efficiency
calculations. Diagnostic data is
essential in determining the root
cause of a problem. Even drivers
benefit from J1939 data as it
relates to feedback items, such as
fluid levels and temperatures."
-Dave Covington, Chief Technology
Officer, Noregon Systems

FD (flexible data-rate) and CAN XL may occur first.
"Big changes are coming as ADAS systems require
more bandwidth," says Drew Technologies' Herron.
"The CAN protocol in use today is being revised
to a new CAN FD standard that supports higher
throughput. In addition, many manufacturers are
developing systems that use Diagnostics over IP
(DOIP) which is basically automotive ethernet."
CAN FD will help transmit data requiring more
bandwidth, but that may be less time-sensitive or

used less frequently, such as cameras.
But the current CAN network used in today's
vehicles isn't going away, at least not anytime soon.
Ethernet would be used to transmit much larger
amounts of data, but the timing of transmission
is less predictable. CAN-based protocols will still
be necessary for highly-reactive, time-sensitive
events such as usage and monitoring of braking
systems, says IoSiX's Vogt.
"It takes years to develop standards, and they
are often revised several times to accommodate
new technology or improve connectivity," adds
Herron. "It's a long, difficult process to develop
standards, but there's no way we would have so
many features and suppliers without standards."

Future of vehicle
communication systems
It is hard to predict the future of vehicle communication systems, with regards to how they will
impact vehicle service and diagnostics.
Some say the vehicle manufacturer, and subsequently the dealership, will have more control
over the information available through vehicle
communication protocols. Cojali's Gattamorta
suggests the vehicle manufacturers will continue
to utilize and expand proprietary communication
protocols for security purposes.
"We see more functions being managed through
specific downloads, central services, and factory
passwords that channel all through dealer-specific
networks," says Gattamorta. "This will take control
over the industry where central services will be
the ones running the diagnostics and changing the
repair industries mainframe as we know it today."
But ultimately the vehicle owner owns that
vehicle's data - whether they can actually access

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