As software-defined vehicles (SDV) transform the automotive industry, OEMs and suppliers must address the significant challenge of continuously delivering mature vehicle software in shorter development cycles. dSPACE test solutions enable your global teams to efficiently test vehicle software, ensuring continuous progress and accelerated timelines.
What is software development for SDV?
Consumer expectations today are shaped by the user interfaces, software-defined features, and continuous post-purchase updates they experience with consumer electronics. As a result, OEMs must rapidly and continuously develop and deploy complex software to their vehicles – both during the development and post sale.
This requires software to be developed in concise, iterative cycles with minimal dependence on vehicle models or generations. Software-defined vehicles (SDV) achieve this platform independence with new EE architectures designed to run service-based software on high-performance computers (HPC). Additionally, the adoption of continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines in the development process accelerates the delivery of automotive software through short iterations.
With software abstracted from hardware, OEMs have the potential to standardize operating systems, middleware, and application frameworks. However, because modern vehicles are developed through the collaboration of numerous departments and organizations, this approach requires new tools and processes.
To address these challenges, manufacturers must adopt shift-left development and test efforts, making continuous testing (CT) the critical link between CI and CD. At dSPACE, we assist our clients in upgrading their CI/CD pipelines to CI/CT/CD pipelines using our software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) solutions. These solutions integrate with your existing CI/CD infrastructure.
Continuous Testing (CT): Why it is the Crucial Link in Agile Automotive Software Development
The organizational and technical complexities in the development and testing processes often result in fragmentation of tool chains and workflows. This fragmentation leads to the generation of incompatible and redundant artifacts and test cases across various stages of development. The use of siloed test tool chains and workflows can lead to inefficiency and duplicated work, as well as delayed software releases, rising costs, and slow time to market.
OEM’s can manage this complexity by adopting the continuous testing (CT) processes, which is a critical link in connecting continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD). While CT can improve the efficiency of SDV software development, it is complex to set up and run. The process requires establishing test environments with a high degree of interdependency, enabled by compatibility and openness. It also requires adapting the complex SIL and HIL environments to different systems under test and the ability to efficiently transition between software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL).
dSPACE test solutions for SDV break down siloed test environments and establish continuity between workflows for software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop. This capability significantly improves test efficiency, enables agile software development (CI/CT/CD), lowers costs, and accelerates time to market. The XIL farm management solution from dSPACE offers centralized, live monitoring and active management of HIL systems across globally distributed testing sites, improving test efficiency.
Solutions for Your Efficient Continuous Testing
dSPACE test solutions for SDV empower your engineering teams to achieve continuous testing at scale through integrated and continuous test environments that bridge the gap from SIL to HIL. By minimizing integration friction in complex systems, these solutions streamline your CI/CT/CD workflows and maximize test efficiency - driving faster development cycles, higher quality, and reduced time-to-market.
How is E/E architecture evolving to power the future of SDVs?
Modern vehicles tend to use a few powerful ECUs (HPCs) connected via Ethernet (Some/IP, DDS), with zonal ECUs that can collect multiple functions or act as dispatchers. Classic bus systems continue to be used for edge connections, but service-based communication is becoming increasingly important. Cybersecurity, cloud connectivity, and over-the-air updates are also becoming important issues.
- High-performance computers (HPCs): multicore-based, Linux-based, updatable, and flexible computers that handle central functions, ADAS/AD, driving, and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. HPCs enable more flexible, service-based architectures.
- Zonal control units: Can only send data or collect multiple functions and I/O and are connected to HPCs via Ethernet and to edge control units via classic buses.
- Sensory and edge controller/ECU: Simpler, supplier-provided control units connected via classic bus systems.
There is no single architecture that is suitable for all OEMs, and architectures are often a mix of older and newer technologies (CAN, Ethernet, zone and domain ECUs). In addition, OEMs have different starting points, constraints, and goals (e.g., scalability, budget, functional knowledge).
Test Solutions for New EE Architectures
As your partner in simulation and validation, dSPACE focuses on testing software functions for various domains, as well as overarching topics such as networks and cybersecurity.
Development support from start to finish
Developing complex E/E systems and software with ever more safety-critical functions, especially in the area of autonomous systems, raises the question of guaranteeing function reliability. That's why dSPACE offers end-to-end expertise in functional safety, test strategy development as well as verification and validation in complex E/E processes - to support you from the earliest project stages to homologation.
dSPACE systems are easy to get up and running – however, if a project is more complex, if individual solutions are needed or if there is high time pressure, you can also trust dSPACE's fast, competent and reliable engineering services.
