Companies in the industry have been working to “shift left,” moving from hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)-based development to software-in-the-loop (SIL) development, and testing that can integrate with HIL testing, making the entire process faster. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly – competition, from automaker startups and automakers in China that develop vehicles and related software quickly. Secondly – rising interest in developing software-defined vehicles (SDVs).

Using digital models of automotive hardware for development and testing purposes has been common practice for many years. The industry is now focused on speeding up development by using virtual models that more closely match production hardware, and can run production software, in a cloud-based environment. Since there is often a lag between when suppliers can access development hardware, shifting to cloud-based development can reduce the need for suppliers and automakers to have hardware to start developing software. Other benefits include the ability to scale up the number of instances running virtual electronic control units (ECUs) for faster testing. This enables an OEM or supplier to allocate cloud resources as needed during the development process. Lastly, cloud-based development environments enable globally distributed teams to work on projects together more easily, regardless of location or time zone.

One automotive market segment where this activity is taking place is in the digital cockpit domain. Many companies have announced cloud-based development solutions for this segment, for example Canonical, Elektrobit, Harman, Marelli, QNX, and Panasonic. In addition to tools in this segment, there is an entire ecosystem of companies offering solutions that are part of the growing ‘virtual development stack.’ They include virtual versions of processors from Qualcomm, NXP, Renesas and others, tools for developing virtual ECUs and virtual processors, such as Synopsys, and major cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft. The industry is gradually making this shift. However, siloed organizational structures and more traditional development practices remain as challenges that the automotive industry is working to overcome.

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