The BMW Group has announced a newly-developed ‘digital nervous system’ that will play a key role in the vehicles built on its forthcoming Neue Klasse platform.
Targeting all drivetrain variants and segments, the system is comprised of four high-performance computers, referred to by the OEM as ‘Superbrains’, that consolidate computing power for essential functions such as infotainment, automated driving, and driving dynamics; as well as basic functions including vehicle access, climate control and comfort. Together, BMW says, these Superbrains provide more than 20 times the computing power of its current vehicle generation and are already being used to develop upcoming software and function updates, including AI-powered customer experiences.
At the core of BMW’s new digital nervous system is a simplified wiring harness. In adopting a new zonal architecture, the updated solution reduces the amount of wiring used by 600 meters and its overall weight by 30% compared to its previous generation. This new harness is divided into four zones: front end, center, rear and roof. The Superbrains, themselves, are connected through high-speed data connections to smaller control units, while the zonal controllers manage and consolidate the data flow of the electronics in and out of the zones. The wiring in the vehicle is therefore zone-related, allowing it to be shorter, thinner, and lighter.
A key element of this wiring is BMW’s ‘Smart eFuses’, a series of digital fuses that replace up to 150 traditional fuses inside the vehicle. Together, they can be intelligently programmed for digitally controlled energy distribution to components. The selective activation of components facilitated by them will allow BMW to design intelligent power modes adaptable to different vehicle states such as driving, parking, charging, and updating. In each of these modes, the eFuses can detect unnecessary instances of power consumption and switch them off accordingly. Through this functionality, BMW highlighted that they greatly support the Neue Klasse platform’s 20% increase in energy efficiency.
Building on this new electronic architecture is a new, advanced, software architecture through which BMW is looking to deliver its own Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV). Here, the automaker highlighted its focus on delivering functions that can be continuously developed on stable software platforms, with all Neue Klasse vehicles utilizing software platforms that run on the respective Superbrains, and vehicle functions that run on top of them. Here, a “Shared Service Layer” acts as a connecting element (middleware) and provides a range of features, including cybersecurity and flexible over-the-air updates, as well as customer-relevant AI functions based on a variety of cross-domain data sources.
