Zonal control architecture for software-defined vehicle

An electrical control system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a plurality of zone controllers each associated with a corresponding physical region of the vehicle, and each having an identical hardware configuration;
• a high-speed digital communications network interconnecting the plurality of zone controllers;
• a plurality of I/O controllers each including at least one of:
• an input circuit configured to receive a digital or analog signal from a sensor device, or an output circuit configured to produce and transmit a digital or analog signal to an output device;
• an application software stored on a given zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers;
• and
• a resource manager configured to direct any of the zone controllers to download and run the application software from the given zone controller,
• wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers interfaces with one or more I/O controllers of the plurality of I/O controllers via a communications bus independent of the high-speed digital communications network, and
• wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers is configured to download and run the application software in response to a direction from the resource manager.

A method of operating an electrical control system for a vehicle, comprising:

• receiving, by an input circuit of an I/O controller of a plurality of I/O controllers, a digital or analog input signal from a sensor device;
• producing, by an output circuit of the I/O controller, a digital or analog output signal to an output device;
• sending, by each of the plurality of I/O controllers and via a communication bus, data regarding the digital or analog signal from the sensor device, to a corresponding one of a plurality of zone controllers each associated with a corresponding physical region of the vehicle;
• and
• sending, by the corresponding one of a plurality of zone controllers via the communications bus, a command to the I/O controller to cause I/O controller to produce the digital or analog output signal, and communicating, between two zone controllers of the plurality of zone controllers, using a high-speed digital communications network interconnecting the plurality of zone controllers,
• wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers have an identical hardware configuration,
• wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers interfaces with one or more I/O controllers of the plurality of I/O controllers, and
• wherein the plurality of zone controllers are configured to run a plurality of different software applications, and wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers is configured to host and execute any software application of the plurality of different software applications.