Development of a hybrid automotive wireless harness

Bluetooth-compliant wireless signals are used to replace electrical signal wires in the interconnection of automobile components and modules. A hybrid concept, consisting of wired ´´clusters´´ of automobile components and wireless inter-cluster connections, is used. Initial implementation used switches and lamps to simulate automotive sensors and transducers. Current prototype uses dash panel and rear lamp assemblies to replace the switches and lamps. The ongoing work include a restructuring of the software to function as a layer under a controller area network (CAN) so as to provide a transparent migration of existing CAN applications to run on a wireless layer. Computer models are also being developed to provide extensive studies of the performance, reliability, and security implications of such automotive wireless applications.