Electrical Connectors Get “FIT” for a New Mobility Future with Autonomous Electric Vehicles

Connectors are the ‘unsung heroes’ of advanced electrical architectures that enable the electrical, self-driving vehicles of the future. When it comes to self-driving, the spotlight is often on advanced hardware like multi-domain controllers, sensor technologies including LiDAR, radar and camera or advanced software algorithms. The electrical connectors that play a crucial role in making the system work do not get to enjoy center stage.

But this is changing quickly. And here’s why:

Working through the systems questions involved in electrical architectures, automakers recognize that to effectively design electrical architectures they must know the reliability rates of all the electrical components, including basic electrical connectors. These reliability rates are commonly referred to as failures-in-time (FIT) rates.

Connector failure rates are known mostly through warranty claims on existing vehicles in service, but the industry as a whole hasn’t spent a great deal of time collecting the data for FIT rates on all connectors.  

The situation is exacerbated through lack of one standard model for predicting failure rates. Furthermore, the models used today are outdated and insufficient to help car companies understand connector reliability. 

A serious coordinated effort by both automakers and the supplier community is now underway to address the lack of data on connector reliability rates and accurately model FIT rates. Delphi is helping jumpstart this industry-wide initiative leveraging our existing “treasure trove” of data on connector FIT rates from vehicles in service.  

An interesting finding from Delphi’s own work in this area is that the majority of electrical systems failures are mechanical. One might guess that most connectors’ failures would be due to corrosion from water intrusion, unseated terminals or crimp quality issues or simply damaged connectors.  

Far from it; the biggest reason connectors fail is that the connector simply disconnected because it was not fully mated during vehicle assembly. With this in mind, future connection systems for autonomous systems require a mechanical and/or electrical feature for what’s called the “mating diagnostic.”

Towards New Guidelines for Connector Reliability
By being better able to predict failure rates using new models and with deeper understanding of the growing importance of electrical connector reliability rates, the industry will begin to establish new guidelines for each and every electrical connector application going forward. It’s important to note that no one model will likely work for all connector components.

With reliable power and signal distribution so important for safe autonomous driving systems, these new guidelines will be essential to help automakers make important design decisions and determine where redundant systems are needed.

As those decisions critical to the future of mobility are made now, the call to collect such data and build improved models — is now growing in urgency. We are committed to making this a priority.