Automotive Engineering - August 2022 - 2

EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
Bill Visnic
Editorial Director
Bill.Visnic@sae.org
Unreliable electronics are the new Prince of Darkness
Younger engineers may be unfamiliar
with Joseph Lucas Ltd., the infamous
Tier-1 supplier of British automotive electrical
and electronic woes. Lucas helped
institutionalize, fairly or not, the sub-par
reliability reputations of British car and
motorcycle OEMs. Jokes including " The
Lucas lighting switch has three settings:
Dim, Flicker, and Off " became part of the
lore for dozens of classic marques. Those
who lovingly restore Brit vehicles today
refer to company founder Joe Lucas as
" the Prince of Darkness. "
I once missed a reporting assignment
in the mid-1980s because
the lovely new Jaguar XJ6
in my driveway, on loan
from the company's press
fleet, failed to start due to
a Lucas-related malady. At
least that's where Jag PR
put the blame. When a
flatbed arrived to recover
the car, the driver-side electric window
regulator failed. Would a fire be next?
In truth, " The Prince " did make some
genuinely robust stuff. But unfortunately
for vehicle owners, Lucas' product
specs typically were determined by
OEMs' ruthless cost-downs. And component
reliability was at the mercy of
poorly designed wiring, shoddily assembled
connectors, heat and vibration.
Hopefully, past will not become present.
The industry has entered an ominous
new era of E/E-related vehicle issues,
driven by the sheer breadth and complexity
of software-defined vehicle electronics.
Faster and faster development
cycles play a role here. So do over-the-air
updates. OTA has become rationale, in
some cases, for less-than comprehensive
initial testing and validation of software.
I'm told that a new panacea, born in the
consumer-electronics world, says: " Let's
get that new module out the door now.
We'll fix the glitch (i.e., driveability or
functionality) later with OTA. "
I'm not convinced.
When I spoke recently with a veteran
dealership service manager, he pointed
to a new EV being prepped for delivery.
2 August 2022
" Electric vehicles, " he said, " have potential
to cause more quality issues and
headaches than any MG owner ever
suffered back in the day. " There are few
problems worse than mysterious, intermittent
electrical issues, we agreed.
Since the 1970s, electronics have
The industry
has entered an
ominous new era
of E/E-related
vehicle issues.
gone from about 5% of the bill of materials
(BoM) in an average vehicle to over
35% and are projected to rise to over
50% by 2030, according to Statista.
Meanwhile, overall vehicle quality has
dropped to a 36-year low, reported J.D.
Power in its latest survey of 2022 model-year
vehicles. Problems
per 100 vehicles (PP100)
rose 11%, 18 PP100 worse
than last year. And a troubling
finding: Owners of
battery-electric and plugin
hybrid vehicles cited
more problems in their
vehicles when compared
to owners of ICE-powered models.
Of course, the industry is only beginning
to produce EVs in volume amidst
labor and supply shortages. So perhaps
it's expected that new offerings - including
the Audi E-Tron, Tesla Models X
and Y, and the Volkswagen ID.4 -
ranked poorly. Their Achilles heel is
complex electronics, the report said. All
have a high rate of problems, mostly in
electronic and software-related areas.
Can this nascent, threatening trend be
reversed? Craig Hillman, the director of
software development at Ansys, posted a
valuable blog on his company's website
titled Overcoming Automotive Electronics
Reliability Engineering Challenges. In it,
Hillman details the 'multiple stress conditions'
that make autos perhaps the toughest
E/E environment. No single solution
yet exists for ensuring bulletproof-reliable
electronics. But closer collaboration between
Tier-1 designers and integratedcircuit
creators, he counsels, is a good
place to start. With so much invested in
electrification (and automated-driving
tech), the industry cannot tolerate another
Prince of Darkness in its future.
Lindsay Brooke, Editor-in-Chief
Lindsay Brooke
Editor-in-Chief
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Automotive Engineering - August 2022

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