The BMW Group announced the development of a completely new digital nervous system for all drivetrain variants and vehicle segments, which will be implemented for the first time in the #Neue Klasse models. This new system is more intelligent, more powerful, and more efficient.
At its core are four high-performance computers, referred to as “Superbrains.” These Superbrains consolidate the computing power required for key customer functions, including infotainment, automated driving, driving dynamics, and basic functions such as vehicle access, climate control, and comfort. Compared to the current vehicle generation, the new Superbrains provide more than 20 times the computing power and are already designed for future software and function updates, including AI-powered customer experiences.
A fundamental component of the Neue Klasse is the radically simplified wiring harness, based on a so-called zonal wiring harness architecture. This architecture reduces wiring by 600 meters and achieves a 30% weight reduction. The wiring harness is divided into four zones: front end, center, rear, and roof. The Superbrains are connected via high-speed data connections to smaller control units, the zonal controllers, which manage and consolidate the flow of electronic data in and out of the zones.
A crucial prerequisite for thinner and lighter wiring are the so-called “Smart eFuses”. These digital fuses replace up to 150 traditional fuses. #Smart eFuses can be intelligently programmed for digitally controlled energy distribution to components. The selective activation of components allows for the design of intelligent power modes for various vehicle states such as driving, parking, charging, and upgrading, in which unnecessary consumers can be identified and switched off. Thus, the eFuses significantly contribute to a 20% improved energy efficiency.
This completely newly developed electronic architecture forms the basis for the next generation Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV). With the launch of the Neue Klasse, future BMW model generations will benefit from it. The first fully electric derivative of the Neue Klasse will go into series production later this year at the Debrecen plant in Hungary.
The BMW Group’s advanced software architecture builds upon this new electronic architecture. Through software platforms running on the Superbrains and the vehicle functions on top of them, the “Shared Service Layer” acts as a connecting element (middleware), providing state-of-the-art cybersecurity and flexible OTA updates. It also enables customer-relevant AI functions through intelligent networking of cross-domain data sources.
Christoph Grote, Senior Vice President BMW Group Electronics and Software, stated that with the introduction of the Neue Klasse, they are entering a mode of software development where they achieve software continuity, continuously developing software rather than starting from scratch each time. For the Neue Klasse, development teams are working on well over 1,000 software modules, over 20 GB of software, and over 500 million lines of code. The BMW Group has established a solid foundation for future-proof and highly effective vehicle software development in recent years, employing innovative methods and tools within a continuously growing global developer network. The core of vehicle software development is the integrated developer environment “CodeCraft,” which runs in the cloud, supports the simultaneous work of well over 10,000 software developers, and records up to 200,000 software builds per day at peak times, representing a productivity increase of more than 130 times compared to ten years ago.
Frank Weber, Board Member for Development at BMW AG, emphasized that technology openness is key to BMW’s success, and the technologies of the Neue Klasse will be rolled out across the entire future model portfolio, across all segments and all drivetrains. This architecture allows the development of vehicle and software to be decoupled from each other, enabling all future BMW models to remain digitally up to date via OTA upgrades and even receive updates from subsequent vehicle generations.
Reference : BMWGROUP
