Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2021 - 3

TECHNICAL
INNOVATIONS

SAE INTERNATIONAL
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ELECTRONICS

ZF builds 'middleware' to address vehicle software escalation
Mega-supplier ZF
said it is developing
a software
" middleware "
platform to help
future-proof the
" software-defined "
vehicle.

Jeff Hemphill
President
Todd Zarfos
2020 President
Srinivasa (Sri) Srinath, PhD
2022 President Elect
Susan Ying, PhD
Vice President - Aerospace
Ken Washington, PhD
Vice President - Automotive
Michael Weinert
Vice President -
Commercial Vehicle
Andrew Jeffers
Treasurer
David L. Schutt, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Gregory L. Bradley, Esq.
Secretary
Pascal Joly
Jeff Varick
Rhonda Walthall
Joan Wills
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Acknowledging the emergence of the " software-defined " vehicle, Tier-1 supplier ZF announced that it is in the process of developing a
" middleware " platform designed to facilitate
communication between a typical new vehicle's
ballooning number of software-controlled components and systems. Company engineers and
executives said the first vehicles leveraging the
new middleware will be on the road in 2024, but
the platform is being created because the industry has to grasp " what the car will look like in
the 2030s, " said Dirk Walliser, senior vice president - corporate R&D, Innovation & Technology
for ZF Friedrichshafen AG.
" And by the way, it's being utilized not only
for passenger cars, but mostly already in commercial vehicles, " Walliser said. " There we have
special operating situations. We have hub-to-

hub operation, for example, we have geofenced areas, smart plants [and] harbors, for
example, where these new functions are already needed. And without that middleware,
we couldn't handle the complexity. "
Walliser added that two customers - one in
commercial vehicle (CV), one in passenger car
- are already participating in projects.
" There's a lot of application and functional
development in [the CV] segment, " said Uwe
Class, vice president, Advanced System
Development. " There's a different focus from a
functionality point of view in the commercial
market than in the pass-car market, as the fleet
owner is a different stakeholder. Beyond having
that different functional orientation, we try to
collect those two segments in certain platform
approaches by combining the generic portions.

BOTH IMAGES: ZF

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Hartman at abby.hartman@sae.org.

Middleware's role as software " mediator " is detailed in this schematic.

TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING

February 2021 3

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Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2021

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