So many legends here from the beginning… let me clarify some.
I fully agree that neither USB nor RJ45 is a suitable connector for farming or any other automotive use.
When talking about the plugs, just look to the origine of those plugs: RJ45 comes from telefone cords plugged once in their lifetime and thrown away when broken. Hirose, a high-quality Japanese manufacturer, states 200 plugging cycles for its TM21 series. It’s a lot for RJ45. On the other hand, USB is made for plugging. USB-C specifies 5000 cycles minimum - 25 times more than RJ45. But as I said, both aren’t really suitable (or you’ve some cables in spare). In industrial environments outside cabinets, the answer is M12-D. That’s quite ok for farming, especially if the sheath is made of PUR. These cables work for both Ethernet and USB. But those cables are expensive and in case of USB hard to find (e. g. Murr). Or do yourself.
When USB don’t reconnect, it’s bad software. Windows itself is quite weired and AgIO does no reconnection yet. I’m using use mice for 20 years now - never thought of switching to an Ethernet one…
When USB has trouble when driving the motor, it’s always bad hardware and/or wiring. Ethernet is a workaround, but doesn’t correct the root cause. If the USB motor driver is wired correctly, there is no issue at all.
USB delivers power. It’s even made for hot-plugging. Under power. For more than 5000 times. IMU, Arduinos and Ardusimple have it out of the box. Any further arguments needed for USB here?
RS485 (not RS232!) and CAN are suitable candidates as well. Advantage RS485: USB adapter ships for $.99 & very easy on every µC; with TI chips, time and data with a single twisted pair is possible. Disadvantage: Time slots must be defined by hand or better use simple proven-in-use protocols like Modbus.
Time management is the big advantage of CAN as @woody_matt already explained. And CAN is developed for automotive (by the manufacturer of the BNO08x by the way)! Any two twisted wires will do the job. But with CAN, you need another two wires for power.
Both, CAN and RS485 don’t need or even benefit from any isolation and they are immune to miswiring. A very professional approach, especially when taking into consideration, that WAS data and keypad data is available on argricultural CAN systems.
Automotive Ethernet will enter more and more cars, but as TWE with specialized ICs. Hard to get and expensive these days. Two twisted wires as well and also power - very nice. Maybe it is combined with TSN - then we can lower the jitter to nanoseconds. But that’s future and nothing to look for in the next few years.
The idea of having a AgOpenGPS being able to SEE is amazing. But with the right hardware, please. Picture processing has to be done in FPGAs like shown here or here. The outcome is a few bytes per second, so every low-latency transmission is suitable.
So my perfect system has an iMX core (Teensy) with the AOG runtime running on it, communicates to the CAN busses and has WiFi to any mobile device for the GUI. GMS sticks, IMUs, F9P can connect via USB or CAN. Let’s make it happen!
By the way: Network-over-USB including UDP works with Windows 10 out-of-the-box, too.