Additionally, switching to aluminum wiring requires compressing the aluminum core to reduce harness size and weight. Due to material properties, the aluminum wire diameter must be increased to no smaller than a certain size to maintain the same electrical conductivity as copper wiring. Switching to larger diameter aluminum wire throughout the vehicle or even in one section of the vehicle will result in a substantial increase in the size of the wire harness and require more packaging space.
Finding alternatives to specialty cables will further reduce harness weight and cost, as well as shrink harness diameters. The number of cameras and displays in the future continues unabated, so it is critical to develop a way to transmit video and camera signals over standardized cabling. Alternatively, finding ways to multiplex these signals onto a common specialty cable and plug multiple devices into those cables can have the same effect of reducing the weight and cost of the wire harness and reducing the diameter of the wire harness.