I think car manufacturers have been specializing their chips and electronics more and more to avoid 3rd party servicing and now we see the fallout which could still be a win for them. Just jack up the prices! How about we standardize the chips used in automotive manufacturing to help alleviate this problem and cut down the number of unique SKUs fabs have to make.
That's an extremely bad take. Cars have had and shared ICs since they became mainstream. Bosch shared electronics between Volvo, Saab, Porsche even BMW bikes as far back as the 80s. Often times parts like air fuel meters, sensors, etc are all designed and manufactured upstream by companies like Bosch or Febi or other companies that sell systems to manufacturers.
We have platforms, like the GM2900 that many cars were based on as well to reduce numbers of skus
I think it's fair to say cars today are packed with more and more full blown cpus since 2010 onwards and so much of it it just junk. Maybe partially due to safety regs like mandatory backup cameras but android auto and car play? Notice how difficult it is to get aftermarket android auto (in my experience). Why can't it just hook up to my cell phone? But to be fair I am totally shooting from the hip here, and the article isn't making it clear which chips are in short supply. But as some other commenters pointed out, if it is really purely a shortage, why don't they just jack up the price. These are luxury brand cars I don't think consumers aren't willing to pay.
Have you heard of the automotive right to repair initiative from 2012? Why do you think such a thing was necessary? And guess the main method used to circumvent right to repair automotive laws that were passed in the USA? More complex electronics.
> I think it's fair to say cars today are packed with more and more full blown cpus since 2010 onwards
ISO standardized the CANbus, which is a networked message-based protocol for components talking to eachother. It was first developed by Bosch. Intel started making chips in the early 90s.
By the time you get to the Saab 9-5 (1999) you have CANBus running all over the car. The drivers seat? There's 5 motors, a heater, adjusters, buttons,etc. That all talks to the central computer and can be diagnosed by talking to it with a diagnosis device you plug into the OBD2 connector. this is fantastic because the microcontroller can detect the position of the seat for example - run tests and use hall effect sensors to determine what is the problem. This sucks if you don't have a TECHII diagnosis tool.
OBD2 is what I'm talking about. Required by law. But guess which auto manufacturer has the port accessible, with the pins only outputting power and ground today ( no data )? It's a new trend. Data now is sent wirelessly over a proprietary protocol.
