Regensburg (Germany), March 23, 2021. Vitesco Technologies, a leading international supplier of modern drive technologies and electrification solutions, supports a future trend in powertrain control with a new type of controller. The growing number of electrified powertrain topologies plus a constantly growing number of functions are making the current practice of allocating each function to a separate electronic control unit (ECU) overly complex. As a result, the electric and electronic architecture (E/E architecture) of the vehicle powertrain is beginning to change.
 
A new approach is to replace the many networked ECUs by a single, high-performance controller. This way, the complexity of the connected stand-alone ECUs is transferred to the single controller. For this new E/E architecture, Vitesco Technologies is developing the Master Controller Motion (MCM).

Innovative tool for powertrain app integration 

The technological foundation for this up-integration trend is the electronics know-how. This part of the corporate DNA is a legacy from the efficient and extremely reliable engine and transmission ECUs for vehicles with a combustion engine. This legacy of microelectronics expertise from many generations of engine and transmission ECUs is now the indispensable foundation for the oncoming challenges. One thing, however, is new: With the MCM, it is the software that rules what the hardware needs to offer. 

Through its architecture, the MCM open-up new possibilities. For instance, the Vitesco Technologies MCM contains a technology that allows integration of individual sub-functions – also over-the-air – very much like an app, thus establishing an individual function mix as per MCM. “Tested embedded apps can be installed individually for each vehicle with this technology. Also, individual apps can be updated at any time, for instance, when a charging standard changes,” according to Hackelsperger.
 
With this concept, Vitesco Technologies is heralding a new technical era, enabling powertrain control to be kept up-to-date over the car’s complete service life and to even increase its functional content.

The spatial separation of functions is already integrated in the most recent AUTOSAR* release, masterminded by Vitesco Technologies. “Yet, temporal separation is even more demanding and is a technology we’ve developed in-house.”