Future Mobility

This article presents an automotive control approach for information-rich future mobility. It integrates in-vehicle networked controls with cloud computing accessible through a wireless network to elevate current on-board controls to a new level for additional benefits and performance. Outsourcing computation-intensive tasks to a cloud-computing server is an extension of the current server-based concierge/infotainment type features. While in-vehicle controls remain essential for safety critical and real-time functionality, the cloud-computing paradigm offers another degree of freedom for control system design. In future vehicle controls, the cloud can be used for very demanding computations that otherwise cannot be accomplished by on-board electronic control units (ECUs), especially for information-intensive tasks. The so-called local-simple-remote-complex vehicle control strategies are likely to unlock the potential of implementing methods and tools that are presently used only in an off-line setting. The cloud can also be used as a storage place to record current and historic vehicle data that can be used for predictive diagnosis and prognostics of the vehicle health.