4 Trends that are Disrupting Automotive Software Development
There is a slew of innovation aimed towards improvement of every area of the automotive ecosystem. And this innovation is largely software driven. The world is gradually moving towards fully autonomous driving(although currently, we are just in the initial phase of this transition).
Also, a significant progress can be observed in the digital cockpit technologies, vehicle electrification, over the air update, ADAS, connected car technologies and more.
The evolving automotive architecture, faster communication, evolution in the vehicle OS are among the several factors that are providing the required thrust to such innovations.
Such strides in digital transformation of automobile have also posed safety and security threats.
But the good news is that the automotive industry is embracing standards like ISO 26262 (Functional safety) and ISO 21434 (cybersecurity) for early detection of faults that might lead to such threats.
Looking at all these factors, we clearly see some trends emerging that have the potential to disrupt how automotive software are built and implemented. Let’s examine some of these trends and their impact.
What are the latest trends in the world of automotive electronics?
1. Connected Car Ecosystem
Connected cars have been around since 2011 but the recent spurt of technology has taken the level of connectivity several notches higher. There is a whole new connected ecosystem created by forging partnership with different service providers and technology companies.
With such collaborations coming to fruition, new connected services and features are getting added to the existing system. Tech giants like Tencent, Amazon and Google are among the top players which are opening up new avenues of connected technology in the automotive ecosystem. Google with its automotive infotainment OS has its eye over the digital cockpit landscape. According to a Gartner report, almost 70% of the car will be fitted with an Android automotive OS by 2028. Integration of Amazon’s Alexa in few models of Audi cars is too indicating towards greater possibilities in connected car technologies. Faster connectivity like upcoming 5G technology is going to further expand the horizons of connected technologies.
Connected Car- Digital Cockpit- Autonomous Driving
One of the major advantages of connected car ecosystem is the availability of data that can be used to enrich the driving experience. Autonomous driving algorithms can also learn so much from such data chunks to make their operation smoother and safer.
2. Vehicle Electrification
The sale of electric vehicle has almost doubled since 2020. Several factors have contributed to the growth; introduction of several EV models and enhanced range can be counted as the major ones. Not only is the EV sale increasing, but the charging infrastructure has also witnessed an uptick. There are almost a hundred thousand EV charging stations across the US which is projected to exceed the number of gas stations in the US by 2030.
Electric Vehicle
Electric vehicle charging station is just one aspect. Electric vehicle battery and battery management system are getting frequent upgrades in terms of both efficiency and safety. Advancement in connected ecosystem has also proved to be highly beneficial for EVs. Since software controls almost every aspect of electric vehicle power distribution and management, there is a frequent need to analyse vehicle data and update the software on-the-fly. Wireless BMS is another component that is getting widespread attention. It aims to declutter the wire harness around battery management sub-systems and transform into a clean and mean machine.
OEMs are also investing heavily on the battery pack development with companies like Audi and Tesla opening their own battery manufacturing plant. There is constant endeavor to innovate almost every area of EV development. And it is also evident from the rise in EV sales, market penetration and lesser EV fire incidents.
Over-the-air Update to be Widely Implemented
With software to control most of the vehicle operations, there is a constant need to upgrade them. The capability of upgrading the firmware OTA is something that is no longer a luxury but a mandatory feature. A security patch for an airbag algorithm must not wait till the car owners visit the service center. Over-the-air upgrade can upgrade the application without bothering the consumer with service center visit. In the era of work from home, upgrade from home should also become commonplace.
There is a different aspect to OTA as well if we look at it from the OEM’s perspective. OTA strengthens the relationship between the car makers and the car users. One of the advantages of software-driven automobile is the ability to add or enhance features without meddling much with the hardware. OTA enabled cars are opening up a new revenue stream by offering feature-unlock to customers after the sales. OEMs are offering features like increase in BHP for a fixed cost. In future, many such service will be delivered OTA.
Adoption of ASPICE, ISO 26262 and ISO 21434
Every disruptive trend that we discussed above comes with its own share of safety and security issues. Connected car ecosystem and over-the-air upgrade open up new attack windows for security breaches and electric vehicles are vulnerable to thermal runaways. And these issues have given rise to another trend or should we say ‘shields’ to protect automobiles from safety and security threats.
We are talking about functional safety standard ISO 26262, cybersecurity standard ISO 21434 and ASPICE, a standard for automotive software best practices.
The adoption of ISO 26262 standard has been phenomenal. Automotive stakeholders right from the OEMs and tier-1 suppliers to automotive technology providers have taken the safety concern quite seriously. If you look at the sudden rise in the demand of FuSa experts, you will know how ISO 26262 has become industry’s buzzword now. Automotive teams are inculcating ‘Safety culture’ so that functional safety is embedded into the design right from the beginning.
With the latest version of ISO 26262 standard, even the motorcycles and heavy vehicles have been brought under the purview of functional safety. That’s how the ISO 26262 trend’s been catching up!
Automotive cybersecurity’s story has also been similar to functional safety. Rapid innovations around connected car tech, gave rise to cybersecurity threats. When a car’s compute platform is connected to several outside network, it is naturally at risk. And a cyber attack on a car can be catastrophic. And that’s precisely why ISO has come up with a standard- ISO 21434. The standard specifies engineering requirements for cybersecurity risk management in development of automotive components. Along with ISO 26262, cybersecurity standard is also brewing up the right conversations and actions around them.
ASPICE is another standard that does not focus on anything specific but the software quality as a whole. ASPICE is a process directly linked to quality and reduced turn-around time for automotive software. And it is natural that almost every OEM, especially European automotive manufactures are adopting it rapidly. Adoption of ASPICE by OEMs has an instant impact on their dynamics with other stakeholders such as tier-1 suppliers, technology partners and so on. The OEMs demand conformity with ASPICE from their partners and in order to meet that demand, they also must adopt ASPICE process standard.
Conclusion
The growth of automotive industry can be attributed to better collaboration, standardization, and a will to build better quality solutions. The trends discussed above are merely a manifestation of how diverse the growth plans of automotive industry is. There are other areas where we see a rapid growth in the industry. There is vehicle architecture, operating system and more.
Watch for this space as we bring more such content from the world of automotive electronics.
