Fault-Tolerant Vehicle Display Switching to Backup Camera
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle information systems lack fault tolerance, leading to potential operator errors and safety hazards due to unresponsiveness or failure of primary information sources during critical driving conditions.
Innovation Solution
A fault-tolerant display system that switches to backup information from a secondary source if the primary source fails, utilizing a separate processor or FPGA to detect failures and provide safety information, such as streaming video from cameras, and dynamic overlays based on navigation and steering inputs, ensuring continuous display of critical safety information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single primary information source is used in the vehicle display system, then the device complexity is reduced, but the reliability deteriorates due to potential failure of the primary source
Solution Approach 1:
The display system is segmented into multiple independent information sources (primary source from application processor and secondary source from camera processor), each capable of providing safety information independently. This segmentation allows the system to maintain reliability by switching between sources without requiring a completely redundant system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-configuring multiple information sources and establishing a failure detection and switching mechanism in advance. The secondary source is prepared and ready to take over immediately upon detection of primary source failure, eliminating the need for complex real-time decision-making during critical failure scenarios.
2Reliability
If fault tolerance mechanisms are implemented with multiple information sources, then the reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases due to additional processors and switching logic
Solution Approach 1:
The display processor acts as an intermediary that receives information from both the application processor (primary source) and camera processor (secondary source). This intermediary component manages the complexity of fault tolerance by centralizing the switching logic and failure detection in a single component, rather than requiring complex coordination between multiple processors.
Solution Approach 2:
The display processor is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a normal display controller when the primary source is operational and as a fault detection and switching mechanism when failure occurs. This universal component handles multiple functions (display rendering, failure detection, source switching) without requiring separate dedicated components for each function.
3Reliability
If rapid switching to backup information is implemented, then the reliability is improved, but the loss of time increases due to the switching process
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by continuously monitoring the health of the primary information source and pre-loading backup information from the secondary source. Failure detection is implemented through continuous polling or interrupt mechanisms that are ready to trigger switching immediately, minimizing the time loss during the transition from primary to secondary source.
Data Source
AI summary
A fault tolerant display displays safety information on a display shared with an infotainment system even if the processor or software of the infotainment system is unresponsive. The display can be a streaming video from a rear view camera mounted on a vehicle. The safety displayed can be triggered by placing the vehicle in reverse. Failure of the infotainment software and/or processor can be detected by a policy enforcing module that switches to a backup display that streams video directly from the camera in the event of failure of the infotainment processor.