FAQ – eSync Technology

eSync technology uses a structured approach of distributed software agents with defined and published APIs (programming interfaces). The architecture encourages multi-company participation in constructing a standardized bidirectional OTA data pipeline. The eSync Alliance provides extensive specifications for any member company to implement their own eSync compliant portion of the data pipeline.

The eSync specifications do not bind the eSync Server to any particular cloud infrastructure. Implementations can be cloud-specific or cloud-agnostic.  To date eSync Servers have been deployed on 4 public clouds worldwide, as well as OEM private clouds.

The eSync architecture uses Agents distributed throughout the in-vehicle network, to do the majority of update tasks.  These Agents can reside in the edge devices (domain master ECUs, ECUs, smart sensors), or can be placed on network nodes near to the edge devices that they update.  Updates to many devices are processed in parallel by these numerous Agents, so that vehicle downtimes are effectively minimized.  Agents are customized to the devices they serve, allowing integration of diverse devices with differing resources, operating systems, flash mechanisms and data generation capabilities into a common data pipeline. 

eSync data gathering is covered in section 8 of the eSync Specifications v2.0.  Automakers can extract data from an ECU in the form of short message data, bulk diagnostic data or streaming data (from cameras and/or LiDARs, for example).  eSync can also deploy diagnostic scripts from the eSync Server to the edge device, allowing use of a command interface to initiate and terminate the gathering of ECU-specific data useful for remote debugging.

The eSync data pipeline makes use of the construct of “policy” in the processes of updating devices.  Policy can differ for devices and domains throughout the vehicle.  Agents for safety-critical devices can implement more stringent policies regarding what state the vehicle must be in before updates begin, how rollback occurs in event of failure, and can even implement more stringent security.  Also software updates can make use of policies defining dependent relationships, so that full software integrity can be assured when updating safety systems comprised of multiple devices.

Within the eSync platform software for different devices can be bundled into “packages”, with dependencies and sequences-of-installation defined as a policy of the package. If any software component in the package is not successfully installed, then the entire package is identified as a failed update, and all devices are rolled back to their last valid software.

eSync specifications support, but do not require, the use of delta compression.  Most commercial deployments of eSync to date have used delta compression to reduce wireless bandwidth consumption.

Yes.  The first vehicles deployed with eSync OTA began shipping in the spring of 2019. In these luxury SUVs eSync is used to update 33 separate electronic devices. By the beginning of 2021, five automakers from Europe, China and Japan had adopted eSync OTA for production vehicles, forecasting that 13 million vehicles with eSync OTA will be on the roads in the near future.