What kind of qualifications do they look for in people to program stuff for cars, like AWD/Trans, etc

"DC3 LS, Fuck Hyundai, now and forever" (eg6)
04/26/2019 at 06:58 • Filed to: None

Mostly, do they look for engineers, and then teach them how to code, or do they go more for computer people? I doubt I’d be able to get a job like that right out of school, but I think it’d be something interesting to try to get into later .

DISCUSSION (19)

pip bip - choose Corrour > DC3 LS, Fuck Hyundai, now and forever
04/26/2019 at 07:09

contact them and ask?

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > DC3 LS, Fuck Hyundai, now and forever
04/26/2019 at 07:12

A lot of the ideas behind those functions might be developed and prototyped in simulations by (control)engineers. Depending on the company the actual implementation might be done by a programmer to which it is handed, or automatically generated, or they teach the engineer to program. That really depends on the size of the company and their approach.

Source: I’m a control engineer working on the software found in battery packs, but a programmer does the actual coding in my case, based on my pseudo/matlab code

Montalvo > DC3 LS, Fuck Hyundai, now and forever
04/26/2019 at 07:14

They go hand in hand a bit. Most engineering schools will review coding somewhere through their syllabus. My guess is that they do look for both though and round out whatever team so there is enough technical knowledge of what the car needs to do and how to translate that electronically.

UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy > DC3 LS, Fuck Hyundai, now and forever
04/26/2019 at 07:21

My guess would be computer science/engineer with a lot of code/control/electrical experience. I know some chemes I graduated with went into the automotive sector but I don’t know any with enough controls experience that got into this type of work. JimZ on here works in the automotive field as an engineer and knows a shit ton about a lot of stuff, he’d might be someone to talk to.

random001 > DC3 LS, Fuck Hyundai, now and forever
04/26/2019 at 07:24

Ha rdware Design Languages, most likely. I could theoretically code all that stuff up in VHDL, but I’m not sure if they’re using FPGAs yet. Likely ASICs, but they’re all re-programmable nowadays, so maybe FPGAs

Snuze: Needs another Swede > DC3 LS, Fuck Hyundai, now and forever
04/26/2019 at 08:00

Engineering is a team sport. I’m a mechanical engineer and work for an organization that does test and analysis. We have multiple work groups composed of different types of people to accomplish the work. My group performs the actual data collection and analysis, and most of us are mechanical engineers with a few electrical engineers and physical science types mixed in. But we work hand in hand with other groups composed of electrical & computer engineers, programmers, and IT types who build and maintain our sensor and analysis systems and they assist with data collection, storage, and retrival and information security . We also have some physicists and mathemeticians that support us and work on some advanced, next gen problems (i.e. how do we build next gen sensors, etc.).

Doing something like transmission control would be no different. There will be mechanical engineers and electrical engineers who understand how the transmission works, what its mechanical limitations are, etc. And they will relay that data to the programmer who will actually write the software. It’s a huge help if the programmer has some understanding of mechanical systems, but it’s not required, that’s what the other engineers are for. Likewise, it’s helpful if the engineers have some knowledge about coding so they can help the programmer debug, but again it’s not absolutley required. Those are the sorts of skills you build over time, working in a team like that.

If this is something you’re interested in, my suggestion to you would be try to get involved in something like Baja or Formula SAE in college. It will give you a chance to get in the weeds on some mechanical and electrical stuff.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > DC3 LS, Fuck Hyundai, now and forever
04/26/2019 at 08:51

Use places like Monster or LinkedIn to search for those kinds of jobs to see what they are looking for in terms of qualifications. Like others have said, there will be a group of engineers working to design, program and integrate any kind of vehicle system. I’m not sure what you are going to school for, so tailor your search to be related to your education.

https://www.monster.com/jobs/search/?q=transmission-Engineer&where=Detroit__2C-MI

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search?keywords=Transmission%20Engineer&location=Detroit%2C%20Michigan%2C%20United%20States&trk=homepage-basic_jobs-search-bar_search-submit&redirect=false&position=3&pageNum=0¤tJobId=1231004927

BaconSandwich is tasty. > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
04/26/2019 at 09:21

Software for battery packs? Tell me more! (If you can).

Dakotahound > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
04/26/2019 at 09:26

I totally agree. As a Control Systems Engineer, I often designed and simulated the control algorithms for a project. For some projects, I would also write code to examine the hardware/software interfaces , but this code never made it into the final design. For the final design, a te am of software engineers, working from my design and requirements documents, produced code that could be thoroughly tested and certified. This is the only way to produce a reliable and safe design.

Today, since most projects consist of numerous embedded systems, it is important to learn to code - whether you are a Software, Electrical, Mechanical, or Systems Engineer. The code that you write may not end up in the design, but you will need it for proof of concept.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Dakotahound
04/26/2019 at 10:49

Yep, I too sometimes write code for a few projects, only to have it completely altered by our Software Engineers afterwards to ensure it’s safety/reliability. But it’s still a very good skill to have indeed, regardless of the fact that it ends up being used or not.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > BaconSandwich is tasty.
04/26/2019 at 10:53

To make full use of battery packs in high performance applications like EVs and various industrial applications you need quite a bit of clever software to manage things like state of charge estimation, balancing etc. Quite challenging, as you are quite constrained by a few factors in what you can or cannot implement. Also, maths, lots of it!

Future Heap Owner > random001
04/26/2019 at 10:56

Do they really need the flexibility and performance of a FPGA? I’d imagine they’d be using micro controllers for the most part.

Dakotahound > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
04/26/2019 at 13:23

I have sometimes spoken with engineers who claim that they never use most of the math that they learned in college. My response is “I have seen your work - I can tell.” Math is the single most important skill in engineering. It is the basis for all of your work. Someone w ithout strong mathematical skills is a tinkerer, not an engineer.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Dakotahound
04/26/2019 at 16:47

Haha, I will remember that line for future use!

I fully agree though, math, and the way it makes you think about problems are essential engineering tools.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
04/27/2019 at 00:34

I actually find that kind of interesting. Are you guys generally dealing with different chemistries (e.g.: LiFePO4) , or the usual NMC that seems to be fairly standard in cars these days ? I imagine you are doing things like monitoring voltages, temperatures, and and load? I imagine it all ends up on some sort of embedded system on a fairly resource constrained chip of some sort?

( Maybe I’ve been reading too much hackaday, but it seems like everything these days ends up being controlled by an ESP32 variant of some kind).

I’ve kind of wondered how some of those charge controllers work. Like you are dumping power into the cell, then do you have to momentarily pause and check the voltage so that you don’t end up measuring the voltage using to charge the cell? Also, if you end up with a single dead cell in a module, is there any way to bypass that single cell without physically snipping the connection to it?

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > BaconSandwich is tasty.
04/27/2019 at 04:59

Depends on application really, lots of chemistry and control method combinations that can be used for different applications. Lots of different ways to keep track of cell states/voltages during operation too.

Most batterypacks do indeed have some kind of resource limited chip, which is one of the challenges.

Charging works generally in two stages, constant current and constant voltage (CCCV charging) . In constant current the output of the charger tracks the pack voltage, and in constant voltage the current is decreased in a controlled way to ensure the cell/pack is at a specific voltage.

Dead cells are killing, as they will limit the pack. There are ideas about how to solve that, but preventing is better than solving. Good cell selection and management during operation gets you a long way.

I hope this sort of answers your questions. I’m a bit limited to what I can/cannot say, as it would quickly expose the view we have on the matter at work.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
04/27/2019 at 09:25

That was still very good! No worries about telling too much. Still really interesting stuff, and I bet that field of work is (figuratively) exploding right now.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > BaconSandwich is tasty.
04/27/2019 at 11:24

Thanks! T he field is indeed exploding, not only figuratively though, because there are plenty of ‘bad’ packs being made that like to explode literally.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
04/27/2019 at 11:39

Ha ha, very true!