Our goal was to promote the usage of CAN FD in automotive and non-automotive industries. We went East and West to spread information about CAN FD. Many automakers already have started to evaluate CAN FD as an option for their next platforms. One key of the success is perhaps the standardization of the SIC (signal improvement capability) transceiver. CiA has released the related CiA 601-4 (version 2.0) specification this autumn. It took longer than expected.

In industrial automation, CAN FD is still a little plant. One of the reasons for the reluctant acceptance was the availability of industrial micro-controllers featuring CAN FD connectivity. Now, this seems to be solved. Several chipmakers offer small and cost-effective micro-controllers with CAN FD on-chip. On the last SPS (Smart Production Solutions) tradeshow, several companies presented CANopen FD products.

In general, CAN markets are still growing – while the total economy is slightly decreasing. This year, about 2,5 billion CAN nodes have been installed.

In the elevator control systems, CAN is the dominating network technology. CiA participated very successful in the worldwide leading Interlift tradeshow. Also in the mobile machinery market, CAN is a leading embedded network. Of course, there is competition between CANopen and J1939 – both application layer approaches introduced 25 years ago. CiA’s booth on the Bauma exhibition in Munich was well visited.

We made also some progress in developing the next generation of CAN-based protocols. CAN XL is not specified completely, but most of the open issues are fixed. Nevertheless, we need to do some homework.

CiA membership is also growing; nearly 700 companies and institutes joined the nonprofit association.

What is left? CiA thanks all its members and the entire CAN community for the fruitful collaboration.