The Software Revolution and the Future of In-Vehicle Electronics

In the past 10 years, vehicle complexity has increased exponentially. Among factors keeping strategists and development engineers awake along the entire automotive supply chain:

Electric/Electronic (E/E) Architecture: A New Holistic Approach

The increasing number of ECUs in the car, driven by advanced in-vehicle applications and functions, needs to be reduced drastically to meet tight control costs and development-time targets, as well as to decrease system complexity without compromising or limiting vehicle functionality. As a result, some hardware consolidation will be required to ease implementation of complex and cross-domain functions and to package into space-restricted vehicles the additional components required. The size of ECUs and the number of connections they require are especially challenging in the application of ADAS technology.

Find out how Dell Technologies can help you build future-proof and flexible ADAS & AD system architectures.

Visit Our Website

sponsored by

Download The Toolkit

High Bandwidth Memory

High Performing System on Chip (SoC)

OTA

4G/5G data connection

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Trusted secure elements

Sensor fusion (Camera/Lidar/radar)

For instance, a 2019 Quocirca survey found only about half (51 percent) of organizations have a formal print security policy, and just 48 percent apply regular firmware updates.

2019 Quocirca survey

companies that apply regular firmware updates

48%

companies that have a formal print security policy

51%

For instance, a 2019 Quocirca survey found only about half (51 percent) of organizations have a formal print security policy, and just 48 percent apply regular firmware updates.

2019 Quocirca survey

security risks related to print

print as a top 5 cyber risk

The primary objective in design and engineering has been to serve the driver by maximizing performance and creating a cockpit that was both functional and comfortable. However, in the past few years attention has shifted away from less basic features and toward more advanced and attractive instrument clusters, large central displays with multi-functionality and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) technology aimed at maximizing safety.

Fast payment

Dell remits payment to MSPs in 24 to 48 hours once financing for a deal is approved.

Fast payment

Customer insights

Dell’s Live Optics remote tool collects and analyzes customer data that partners can leverage to identify and fill customer needs.

Customer insights

Training and certification

Partners have access to a comprehensive training and certification curriculum to update their skills and keep up with technology advances.

Training and certification

Support shortcuts

The TechDirect tool allows partners to bypass the phone to log support tickets and order parts.

Support shortcuts

Dedicated account manager

A single point of contact delivers support and alerts partners to deals, promotions and volume discounts when available.

Dedicated account manager

2025: A Transformative Year for In-Vehicle System Electronics

Automakers and suppliers are lining up their businesses around a much broader concept of mobility and looking at the automotive market as a complex ecosystem comprising several heterogeneous domains with which the connected vehicle already is – or soon will – the interface. These domains include public-cloud servers and storage and on-premises datacenters for the OEM’s back-end, R&D and manufacturing operations. As mobility concepts evolve further, that vehicle-infrastructure interaction will include communication with intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and a series of “smart domains” such as smart grid, smart city or smart home.

Future-proof architecture

45%

Software Architecture

38%

Security

38%

In-vehicle networking

38%

Microservices

11%

Storage

The following applications offer top data monetization opportunities for OEMs.

Market Trends

This growing system complexity onboard vehicles is taking traditional E/E architectures to their limit.

The Aftermath

Today, automotive electronics systems are quite complex, consisting of a significant number of electronic control units (ECUs). In advanced vehicles, the number can be close to 100, and overall, these ECUs generate and must manage huge amounts of data as they process multiple signals and variables generated from systems throughout the entire vehicle. The software structure that underpins today’s vehicles is not the well-defined modular architecture well established in the IT industry, making updates difficult. Even a simple addition in functionality traditionally has required a complex redesign and requalification process, impacting both development time and costs. Any system modification made affects not only the hardware portion of the control unit but also the “monolithic” piece of software that runs an entire function.

Automakers desire future-proof and flexible E/E system architectures that easily can adjust to new features and requirements of next-generation vehicles.

The aim is a new future-proof architecture that will limit development and maintenance costs, be mostly reusable from generation to generation and adjust and comply with new, tighter safety regulations and emissions standards.

The Need

The new functionality found in future vehicles no longer will be all about hardware; instead the industry is entering the “software-defined everything” era.

Hardware, however, will continue to play an essential role. The advance in silicon components and technologies such as AI allow extreme performance to be achieved that will enable even more functionalities and hardware centralization in the future. As already implemented by some OEMs, such consolidation can be achieved by integrating functionality (and entire ECUs) into a single high-performing domain controller whether for cockpit, powertrain, ADAS or autonomy functions. Soon, but still beyond 2025, further consolidation is expected that will enable centralized high-performance computers to run processes and functions across several – potentially all – the functional automotive domains.

The Solution: Evolution in Hardware and Software Modules

Several transformative technologies such as 5G, AI, edge and cloud computing and sensor fusion are enabling the required progression toward future-proof platforms in automotive.

Connectivity and 5G are fundamental to ensuring low latency and high bandwidth data sharing. Broadband technologies will enable reliable communication among vehicles and infrastructure for data exchange, supporting updates to autonomous-driving features and ensuring real-time operation in safety critical applications.

The Enablers

Clear and explicit service documentation

25%

Focus on data rather than actions

28%

Reuse of functionality

32%

Flexible service distribution to electronic control units (ECUs) or cloud servers

41%

Hierarchical in-vehicle function and software architecture

42%

Continuous service integration and delivery

57%

With highly centralized domain controllers, by 2025 the service-oriented architecture (SOA) will hit the mass market and become a cornerstone of:

The Short-Term Outcome: Service-Oriented Architectures on Centralized Hardware

Encapsulated and independent service behavior

17%

Top reported drivers paving the way for the implementation of service-oriented architectures (SOA) and micro-service architectures (MSA).

Click to see what are the top software development areas for vehicles

The essential enabling technologies for vehicles in the next 10 years.

Technology and shifting market dynamics are driving fundamental change in the way the automotive industry approaches designing, developing and delivering mobility solutions:

Conclusion

Digitalization and connectivity are making industry back-end operations and overall infrastructure key contributors to how vehicles function. Manufacturers aim to control and secure – end-to-end – the entire value chain, from manufacturing, testing and validation, production and certification to maintenance, mobility services and software updates, throughout the vehicle´s lifetime.

New SOA architectural approaches inside and outside the vehicle will transform the entire automotive value chain and allow OEMs and suppliers to better address these shifting business models and draw from new profit pools.

The entire industry is moving its center of gravity from ownership and in-vehicle functionality to a broader and hyper-connected mobility ecosystem that relies heavily on software and data.

Among the key domains driving such technology innovation and contributing to the business revolution: autonomy, connectivity, mobility services and electrification. These sectors offer diversified paths to increase profit along the value chain by boosting revenue and reducing costs.

Get access to the full research report and additional resources by registering today.

33%

Not a Priority

15%

2022

30%

2025

13%

2030

2027

Download the Toolkit

Learn more about the revolution

Since its inception more than a century ago, the auto industry’s focus has been limited largely to the vehicle itself.

Top-ranked vehicle electrical and electronic system challenges.

(Limited to three choices)

Security and safety concerns

Need for adequate in-vehicle networking technologies and bandwidth in data transmission

Increased interaction among electronic control units

Maintenance

Development costs

Competence in software and data analytics

Shorter time to market

Obsolescence of functionality during vehicle’s lifetime

Future-proof also means OEMs will run updates during a vehicle’s lifetime to avoid obsolescence and maintain a relevant user experience more on pace with adjacent sectors such as IT and Consumer Electronics. Moreover, frequent updates in software and functionality are essential to coping with fast-developing and dynamic technologies such as AI and cybersecurity.

End-to-end Security Human Machine interface ADAS/safety level 2-3 Perception Maintenance/Diagnosis Autonomous driving level 4-5 Logging and Analysis (EDR) CRM and Service Offer In-vehicle app store

70% 61% 60% 43% 39% 35% 31% 15% 13%

27% 37% 36% 51% 57% 51% 59% 61% 47%

3% 3% 4% 5% 4% 13% 9% 23% 40%

Very Important

Important

Not Important

46%

2025

Never

39%

2030

11%

2035

Download the Toolkit

Cyber Security

Networked ECUs

Wired Harness

Data

Scalable Hardware & Service Oriented Architecture

Backend Infrastructure

Processing Power

Human Machine Interface

ADAS & Safety

CO2 Emission

Data Bandwidth

System LifeCycle

New Feature Rate

Machine Learning

Iot & Cloud

Connectivity

Development Cost

Complexity Explosion

Disrupting Industry Trend

Next Gen SYSTEMS

Modular HW

Open-Source SW

Cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X)

Centralized Server

Front Left

Gateway

Central Processing Unit

Sensor and Actuator

Ethernet TSN

Central Core Controller plus Zonal Gateway

Click to see which technologies are rated as most important

5G / Private networks Robotics Edge computing AR/VR Quantum computing Blockchain

51% 39% 38% 32% 23% 19%

Very Important

41% 48% 53% 55% 53% 49%

Important

8% 13% 9% 13% 24% 32%

Not Important

AI is essential for data crunching and value creation and is widely seen as the technology that can deliver the performance required for perception and sensor fusion necessary for autonomous vehicles (AVs). A reliable fusion of input from different sensors is in fact imperative to achieving an accurate perception of the vehicle driving environment under all circumstances: traffic, weather, speed and time of day. Finally cloud and edge data centers are critical tools to achieving operational scale in storage and analytics.

Continuous integration of services and applications

Controlling skyrocketing amounts of SW code-lines

Ensuring faster development and time to market

Optimization of updates, quality enhancements and vehicle lifecycle

Enabling software reusability

Simplifying safety systems certification (ISO26262)

Enhancing HW utilization, considering legacy ECU

Service Library (Apps Store)

(RT)OS A

Middeleware A

(RT)OS B

Middeleware n

Software Module A

Software Module B

(RT)OS n

Middeleware B

HighEnd A

Middle-end A

HighEnd B

Middle-end n

HighEnd n

Middle-end B

Lowend A

Lowend B

Software Module n

HW Store

Lowend n

E/E System Configuration

OEM's functional specification

Middleware C

HighEnd A

Software Module n

Software Module B

Software Module C

Body

Chassis

IVI

(RT)OS A

Download the Toolkit

Industry Insights Toolkit

When will you deploy a new in-vehicle architecture?

When will SOA (Service - Oriented Architecture) appear in vehicle software architectures?

In-vehicle health monitoring

30%

In-vehicle digital experiences (entertainment, m-commerce)

39%

Smart charging grid

40%

Integrated transport & mobility services

44%

Over the air feature upgrades

46%

Smart city services (parking, tolls, fines)

54%

Memory Bandwidth

Compute power

14%

That shift is continuing, with even more advanced ADAS systems, new levels of connectivity and in-car functionality becoming the norm. And the traditional view that the automotive business is solely about the vehicle itself no longer applies. The industry now is keenly focused on the strategic importance of technology, the number of semiconductors required to support those advanced systems, the role of software and applications and the power of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.

Respondent Count:

302

Importance of the top software development areas for vehicles

Which technologies are rated as most important

Download the Research Report

Watch the Webinar

Download the Infographic

Download the ebook

Download the Whitepaper

Gateway

Front Right

Front Center

Center Left

Rear Left

Center Right

Rear Right

This data is based off of a 2020 Wards Intelligence survey sponsored by Dell Technologies of 300 participants in the automotive industry, give stats on who we surveyed, etc make it look like it can be used as a source.

Get access to the full research report and additional resources by registering today:

Download the eBook

Download the Infographic

Download the Whitepaper

Download the Research Report

Download all assets for The Software Revolution and the Future of In-Vehicle Electronics:

Explore More Content