Automotive industry outlook: Software passes hardware on the fast lane
The software will be the big “game changer” for the vehicle generations ahead: That was the tenor of the keynote speeches of several thought leaders of the automotive industry at ELIV (Electronics in Vehicles). At the prestigious congress, organized by the German engineering association VDI, top developers from the automotive industry are traditionally looking into each other’s pots and pans. Three keynote speeches emphasized the importance of software not only for cars as such in the future, but also for providing new functions, accelerating development cycles and maintaining the competitiveness of the automotive industry. “Software is the game changer par excellence,” said Uwe Michael, chief electronics developer at Porsche.
While the value share of mechanics in vehicles is declining and that of electronic hardware is stagnating, Michael sees the value share of software rising drastically in the future. Michael called for a rethink in the development departments of the automotive industry. “We need open, service-oriented architectures with cross-company standardized APIs,” says the Porsche innovator.
Siegmar Haasis, CIO of the R&D department at Daimler, emphasized the value of the data generated by the cars for the OEMs. However, the transformation of car manufacturers from mechanics-oriented companies to software- and data-driven organizations requires enormous investments. These investments can no longer be made by one company alone, Haasis explained. “We have to create alliances because we can’t do it alone,” he said. The control units of vehicles, dozens of which are now distributed in cars, are being replaced by “host computers” that are supposed to perform more comprehensive tasks. Once all this has been achieved, enormous strategic advantages are tempting: “Then we think about release cycles (for new functions) of days or even hours, not months,” Haasis explained.
Christoph Grote, Head of Electronics Development at BMW, pointed out that the data – including that from the vehicles – is increasingly being stored and processed in the cloud. BMW is working on a data ecosystem that will also offer access to interested third parties on a graduated basis. There are plenty of examples of use – from the automatic verification of designs to the automatic creation and updating of HD street maps to the marketing of certain data to third parties – one example is the reservation of parking spaces in urban areas on the basis of sensor data from cars. In all this, insured Grote, BMW attaches the utmost importance to cybersecurity and privacy.
All this shows that the character of the software in the vehicles will change significantly over the next few years: The isolated, ECU-bound solutions for embedded software is gradually replaced by a vehicle IT system that plays a strategic role as a differentiating factor for the respective manufacturers and is increasingly similar to the corporate IT system.
An online survey of the congress participants showed, however, what the assembled developers are most concerned about. Cybersecurity is currently the biggest concern for automotive electronics developers. In any case, 59% of the developers found Cybersecurity the most relevant technology for their work, followed by Artificial Intelligence (45%) and software updates via the air interface (OTA) with 40%.
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