NXP wraps key functions for vehicle telematics in MCM

EDN Europe, 03 Jul 2009

NXP semiconductors has created a multi-chip module that lies at the heart of a trial in road-pricing that was launched last week (week-ending 26th June) in the region surrounding Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. The module is called ATOP, for Automotive Telematics On-board unit Platform; it integrates all of the functions you might need to implement not only road pricing but also e-call (emergency calling from the car in the event of an accident) and later, added-value services.
The partnership that set up the road pricing trial, including IBM and NXP, structured it to – in addition to collecting revenue according road use – provide rapid feedback to drivers on the cost of their trips, to gain an understanding of how drivers will modify their behaviour and travel patterns when they have that information. A portable on-board unit with an alpha-numeric display securely establishes the identity of the vehicle by interrogating a vignette; this is a windshield sticker that incorporates an RFID tag and that uses one-time, tamper-evident packaging – attempting to remove it from the vehicle destroys the tag. In addition to RFID, the ATOP module in the on-board unit hosts three other major silicon functional blocks; GSM for data exchange over IP with the road-pricing infrastructure, GPS, and a secure – to credit-card-transaction levels – microcontroller. The architecture of this trial protects users’ privacy; the on-board unit reports GPS information of the individual trip to the central server, but does not include details of the car or driver making the trip. A central server map-matches the GPS data, computes the cost of trip and returns the data to the on-board unit; the secure-transaction device in the periodically debits the driver’s account.
This allows for different tariffs to apply to different roads and classes of road; and for them to vary by time-of-day. There’s no provision in this trial to have a tariff that can change according to road conditions but the functionality of the ATOP module would support it, NXP says. Similarly, in the trial, the unit tells the driver the cost of the last trip; but it could also give predictive information.
The Netherlands is unlike some other administrations in that its regulations require drivers’ privacy to be protected; the trial is realistically scaled, beginning with 50 cars with a plan to move progressively to 1000, then 5000; and the Dutch government has specified that the costs of any road-pricing scheme be no more than 5% of the revenue collected. Therefore, NXP says, the solution must be market-driven; wrapping all the major functions of location, communications, secure transactions and ID in the multi-chip module provides a platform for later addition of value-added services, as this makes the car an internet-connected environment.