Service Oriented Vehicle Diagnostic Communication and Regulations 2023-01-5050

Next-generation vehicle electrical architectures will be based on highly sophisticated domain controllers called HPCs (high-performance computers). These HPCs are more alike gaming PCs than as the traditional ECUs (electronic control units). Today’s diagnostic communication protocol, e.g., UDS (Unified Diagnostic Services, ISO 14229-1) was developed for ECUs and is not fit to be used for HPCs. There is a new protocol being developed within ASAM, SOVD (service-oriented vehicle diagnostics), which is based on a RESTful API (REpresentational State Transfer Application Programming Interface) sent over http (hypertext transfer protocol). But OBD (OnBoard Diagnostic) under the emissions regulation is not yet updated for this shift of protocols and therefore vehicle manufacturers must support older OBD protocols (e.g., SAE J1979-2) during the transition phase.

Another problem is that some of the software packages may fall under the DEC-ECU (diagnostic or emission critical electronic control unit) definition and need to communicate with an OBD scan tool.

This document will give an insight into SOVD and provide examples of how to support different regulatory diagnostic communication use cases for vehicles equipped with HPCs.