by Software Is Eating The Automotive World
It is no secret that software is playing an increasingly important role in the automotive industry. As modern vehicles become more connected, automated, and electric, the amount of software being used is growing exponentially. A typical new car today contains over 100 million lines of code, and that figure is expected to more than double by 2030. Software is powering everything from advanced driver assistance features to infotainment systems to battery management in electric vehicles. In many ways, cars are becoming computers on wheels, driven primarily by sophisticated software rather than mechanical components.
The Growing Importance Of Over-The-Air Updates
To keep pace with rapidly evolving technology, automakers are embracing over-the-air automotive software updates that allow them to fix bugs and roll out new features remotely without the need for recalls or service center visits. This brings numerous advantages for both manufacturers and consumers. Automakers can deploy updates instantly to improve safety, add functionality, and patch security vulnerabilities much more quickly. Consumers don’t have to worry about finding time to take their vehicle into the shop for an upgrade. Being able to update a car’s software remotely also helps extend the usable lifetime of a vehicle and improves the overall ownership experience. As connected services become more central to how people use their cars, over-the-air updates will become a standard expectation rather than a novel feature.
The Rise Of Automotive Operating Systems
To manage the enormous complexity of modern vehicle software architectures, automakers are developing proprietary automotive operating systems much like the ones that power smartphones, tablets, and computers. These specialized operating systems are designed to handle the hundreds of electronic control units in a vehicle while ensuring reliability, security, and seamless integration of new technologies. Some of the leading operating systems include Toyota’s T-Connect, Ford’s Sync, and Volkswagen’s VW.Car-OS. As vehicles become more software-defined, their operating systems will play an increasingly important role as the control hub that oversees numerous domains including infotainment, advanced driver assistance, electrical architecture, and telematics connectivity. This centralized approach helps impose standardization across vehicle platforms and makes it easier to design, deploy, and maintain sophisticated automotive software. Leading automotive operating systems will rival smartphone platforms in terms of scale and complexity within this decade.
The Cybersecurity Imperative
While software enables tremendous new functionality in vehicles, it also expands the attack surface for malicious hackers. With vehicles becoming Internet-connected computers, cyberattacks targeting critical systems like braking, steering and engine functions could have deadly consequences if not addressed properly. This threat has led automakers to make cybersecurity a top priority when designing software architectures.Techniques like logical and physical isolation of safety-critical systems, extensive security testing of over-the-air update processes, adoption of software bill of materials and runtime application shields are becoming integral to automotive security best practices. Regulations like the UNECE WP.29 cybersecurity guidelines are also pushing manufacturers to bake security into every stage of a vehicle’s development lifecycle rather than treating it as an afterthought. As software continues to control more advanced driving features, a robust and multilayered cybersecurity strategy will be vital for earning consumers’ trust in emerging automotive technologies.
The Shift To Cloud-Based Developer Platforms
To cultivate an ecosystem of partners innovating on their connected vehicle platforms, automakers are embracing cloud-based developer platforms and marketplaces. These enable automotive startups, suppliers, technology companies and academics to easily access tools, software development kits and vehicle data to conceive new connected services. The idea is to harness external innovation without increasing internal complexities. Platforms like BMW CarData, Mercedes me, Ford EcoSystem and Volkswagen AutoCloud let third-party developer securely integrate their solutions with a vehicle’s operating system. Offering financial incentives and improving access encourages more players to propose usage-based services optimized for infotainment, electrification or comfort domains. With 5G connectivity on the horizon, cloud-powered automotive application programming interfaces are sure to stimulate an explosion of creative solutions that enhance the ownership experience.
Rise Of Virtual Vehicle Development
Shortening development cycles and using simulation to test advanced technologies before physical builds are vital in today’s rapidly evolving automotive industry. This is driving increased adoption of virtual vehicle development strategies leveraging high-performance computing and digital twins. Automakers can now create and evaluate virtual prototypes earlier in the development process to identify design flaws and optimize performance. Technologies like finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, durability simulation have become indispensable tools for validating vehicle systems in silico before costly hardware builds. The digital twin approach also facilitates remote collaboration across globally distributed engineering teams. As vehicles incorporate greater software and electronics content, simulation is emerging as a cost-effective alternative to physical testing especially with new technologies requiring many design iterations. This shift towards virtual validation complements continued hardware testing to deliver safer, higher quality vehicles in less time.
Elevating Automotive Software As A Strategic Imperative
For decades, automakers focused primarily on hardware with software playing a supporting role. However, as vehicles transition to electrification and autonomous driving, the traditional industry structure is changing. Software skills and expertise are becoming as critical as mechanical engineering competencies to succeed in this new automotive landscape. Leading manufacturers have recognized this software sea change and are making massive transformational investments.
In Summary, GM has announced plans to hire over 2,000 software engineers by 2025. Others are partnering with tech majors to gain software capabilities. The rising importance of software is also driving increased M&A activity as automakers look to acquire startups with expertise in critical domains like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and development tools. Going forward, how OEMs strategize software architecture, build engineering talent and facilitate third-party innovation on their platforms will significantly impact their competitiveness. Those that do not elevate automotive software as a strategic imperative risk losing relevance in tomorrow’s automotive world dominated by electrification, autonomy and connectivity.
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
About Author - Priya Pandey
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