Ethernet to take dominant spot in connected cars by 2020, says ABI Research

The connected car concept may be the talk of the town in the wireless industry, but it also has relevance to the wireline industry with Ethernet set to play a starring in-vehicle networking role.

Ethernet is poised for strong growth in the connected car segment. According to a new report from ABI Research, Ethernet penetration in new vehicles will grow from 1 percent in 2014 to 40 percent in 2020.

The technology will be used to support an array of new applications within a car such as in-vehicle sensors for ADAS and automated driving, and connected infotainment.

"Ethernet is now being considered as a replacement for legacy bus protocols such as MOST and FlexRay by car OEMs including BMW and Hyundai," said Dominique Bonte, VP and practice director for ABI Research.

While still early on its development, the BroadR-Reach group began developing 100 Mbps Ethernet connectivity specifications for the automotive industry in 2012. The group is also working with the UNH-IOL to conduct tests on the emerging standard.

Joining Ethernet will be an assortment of short range technologies like BLE and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which will be deployed to connect and integrate various mobile devices such as smartphones, smart watches and eyewear into the vehicle.

ABI said that the emergence of Ethernet "represents a threat for the traditional automotive ecosystem of suppliers such as Freescale, NXP, and Renesas but an opportunity for mobile chipset vendors Broadcom, Intel, and Qualcomm and startups such as Silicon Image to enter the automotive industry with (semi-) automotive grade solutions, leveraging existing portfolios."

For more:
- see the release

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