Nowadays the passenger vehicles are coming with complicated & multiple ECUs and functions. So, the complication in diagnosing a vehicle is increasing day by day. And even for a diagnostic technician it is very complicated to diagnose a vehicle without error description (DTC - Diagnostic Trouble Code) and a proper tool from the manufacturer. Currently, when there is a fault in vehicles, the MIL (malfunction indication lamp) will glow, indicating that something is wrong. So, the user will not be able to find out if the car will stop after driving 100 m or 1 km. Even for very simple faults (DTC), in critical ECUs (such as engine control, ABS, EPS), the vehicle cluster will show warning lamps, (MIL - Malfunction Indicator Light), which will make the driver/user panic. In this situation one needs to connect with a diagnostic tool in the OBD port and read out through good diagnostic software.
The idea is to make software in the infotainment system read and clear faults from critical ECUs such as ABS, ECM & cluster, so that the driver/user will have the possibility to inspect and also rectify a few faults, which are not harmful, and they will have the confidence to continue using the vehicle. Accessing the trouble codes and descriptions will not be shared with anyone, which will be secured through a dedicated application from the OEM and a proper authentication. This presentation of idea helps the driver/user to identify the fault & possible root causes, based on vehicle data (prognostics - Preprogrammable diagnostics) by infotainment itself, and to erase the faults with minimal instructions. This idea is applicable for cars with infotainment system and with OEM-specific applications running in the infotainment.
The implementation helps to save time for the user and the vehicle service center as well.
The user will not panic for very simple faults and can understand the state of the vehicle.
Enhanced connected features in infotainment lead to complex error analysis!