The market trends in the automotive industry point towards connected, increasingly autonomous, highly customized, electric and networked vehicles that are perceived by younger generations more as “tablets on wheels” than as traditional vehicles. These vehicles are expected to be extensible over their life through app purchases and installations, and offer passengers added-value services that are based on networks (see figure 1). In addition, time-to-market pressure keeps building, and product complexity frequently leads to defects that aren’t detected until late in the process when they are more expensive to fix, thus diminishing the company’s profit.
Although software was used to run subordinate, lowlevel embedded control and entertainment functions in the past, today it is used to: perceive and categorize its environment, coordinate the driving process in advanced driver assistance functions, provide telemetry data to its manufacturer, receive over-the-air updates, and obtain high levels of authority over route planning, engine, gears, brakes and steering. In other words, manufacturers are using software to take more responsibility for the driving process. Classically clear-cut boundaries between infotainment and vehicle operating are blurring.
