CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a U.S. National Stage Entry of International Patent Application Serial Number PCT/EP2017/074221, filed Sep. 25, 2017, the entire content which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to hardware and methods for providing remote online software updates to motor vehicles.

BACKGROUND

Motor vehicle electronic control units (ECU) include microprocessors (MCU), which monitor information from inputs such as sensors and make decision based on their program, then output signals to actuators and electrical devices in the motor vehicle. Microprocessors control and monitor most electrical systems on a vehicle, e.g. engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, steering and main body control functions. It is not unusual for the MCU on a vehicle to require programming updates. Updating is performed by reflashing or reprogramming of the memory in the microprocessors with an update supplied by the manufacturer. This updating of software is especially critical in vehicles for which remote online updating is planned. In this case, the vehicle is receiving the software update while driving, and is expected to do the software update during parking. In conventional motor vehicles the software update process starts with the deletion of the current software running on the ECU. After that the new software is downloaded and programmed in a non-volatile memory of the microcontroller. In case of any transient problem during reprogramming, the ECU remains in a non-functional state, as the previous software has already been deleted and the new one has not been successfully flashed yet. In this case the ECU is running a so-called bootloader that is able to receive the new software image. However to receive the new software image, the other side (service equipment) has to be able to retry the programming session. A disadvantage is that this is not always working, and that it requires significant time. The ECU cannot be brought online until a final successful software download is achieved.

Remote online updating is particularly difficult, because it is impossible to do several retry runs and it is probable that the update process will be aborted due to e.g. loss of connection etc.

Thus a need exists for a robust method and hardware for providing remote online software updates to motor vehicles.

