What is the difference between car Ethernet and regular Ethernet?

Transmission rate and real-time performance
Ordinary Ethernet: Traditional Ethernet usually adopts the 100BASE-TX standard in terms of transmission rate, and its physical layer uses two pairs of twisted pair cables with a transmission rate of 100Mbps. This transmission rate is sufficient for general data communication scenarios, but in the automotive industry, with the rapid development of technologies such as autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), the demand for data transmission rate is becoming increasingly high. In addition, ordinary Ethernet adopts the "Best Effort" forwarding mode in terms of real-time performance, which means that the sender sends data frames as much as possible, but does not guarantee transmission delay, sorting, and reliable delivery. This characteristic makes ordinary Ethernet perform poorly in real-time demanding vehicle environments.
Vehicle Ethernet: Vehicle Ethernet has significant advantages in transmission speed, with standards including 100Base-T1 and 1000Base-T1. The physical layer can achieve a data transmission rate of at least 100Mbps using a single pair of twisted pair cables, and can even reach 1Gbps or higher. This high bandwidth feature enables in vehicle Ethernet to easily handle the large amount of data transmission requirements inside the vehicle. In terms of real-time performance, vehicle Ethernet achieves functions such as time synchronization and delay guarantee by applying the protocol content of the Time Sensitive Network (TSN) protocol group (such as IEEE 802.1AS, 802.1Qci, 802.1CB, etc.), thereby ensuring the real-time performance of data transmission. This enables in car Ethernet to meet the high real-time requirements of application scenarios in the in car environment, such as autonomous driving, ADAS, etc.
Physical layer standard
Ordinary Ethernet: Ordinary Ethernet mainly uses two or four pairs of twisted pair cables (such as CAT 5e wires) as transmission media at the physical layer, which have certain limitations in transmission speed and anti-interference ability. In addition, ordinary Ethernet also uses transmission media such as fiber optics, but the cost is relatively high and the installation and wiring are relatively complex.
Vehicle Ethernet: Vehicle Ethernet adopts physical layer standards that are more suitable for automotive environments, such as single pair twisted pair (UTP) as the transmission medium. This medium not only has a smaller outer diameter and higher flexibility, but also meets the requirements of the vehicle environment for data transmission rate and anti-interference ability. In addition, vehicle Ethernet also supports transmission media such as fiber optics, but considering factors such as cost and feasibility, twisted pair cables are more common in vehicle Ethernet.
Application scenarios
Ordinary Ethernet: Ordinary Ethernet is widely used for building local area networks (LANs) within enterprises and organizations, as well as for data communication in wide area networks (WANs). It has become an important infrastructure for connecting internal devices, achieving internal data sharing, and collaborative office work due to its simplicity, reliability, and low cost.
Vehicle Ethernet: Vehicle Ethernet focuses on the communication needs of the automotive industry, using Ethernet technology to build a local area network for vehicles, enabling them to exchange data with each other. The application scenarios of in car Ethernet include various aspects such as in car navigation, in car entertainment, in car communication, and driving assistance. It can connect various user devices on the vehicle, such as GPS, mobile phones, video sensors, etc., thereby improving the handling and safety of the vehicle. In addition, in vehicle Ethernet also supports communication between vehicles and external networks, such as vehicle networking, remote diagnosis, and vehicle upgrades.
technological development
Ordinary Ethernet: After decades of development, ordinary Ethernet technology has become quite mature and stable. However, limitations in terms of transmission speed and real-time performance gradually become apparent when facing specific demands in the automotive industry and other fields. Therefore, ordinary Ethernet needs to be constantly upgraded and improved to adapt to new application scenarios and requirements.
Vehicle Ethernet: As a new network technology that has emerged in recent years, vehicle Ethernet is gradually becoming one of the key technologies in the automotive industry. With the rapid development of technologies such as autonomous driving and ADAS, the application prospects of in vehicle Ethernet are becoming increasingly broad. In the future, in vehicle Ethernet will play a more important role in improving vehicle communication efficiency and ensuring driving safety. In addition, in vehicle Ethernet also needs to be integrated and interoperable with other in vehicle network systems, such as CAN, LIN, etc., to achieve complementary advantages and resource sharing.