ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2023 - 20

Software
Panelists for
the " Moving
Towards a Software-Defined
Vehicle "
session
at the WCX
2023 conference
in Detroit.
differentiation still can happen " on top " of the base
software in a process an OEM or Tier 1 supplier can
guide to produce more discrete requirements. " Nobody
ever bought a car for it's operating system, " quipped
Jones in supporting the notion that much of the work
of software development can and should be collaborative
because so much is unseen by vehicle consumers.
" Software transformation is being managed with a
hardware perspective, " agreed Glen De Vos, SVP, transformation
& special programs at Aptiv. He said there
is much to be learned from how industries such as
telecommunications and aerospace/defense embraced
software development and deployment.
Learn from mistakes, leverage what knowledge
and existing work already is available - and nurture
software developers as partners, added Elektrobit's
Anhalt. " It goes to collaborations, " said William Foy,
director, Automotive Solutions for Amazon.
Speed and standards
Apart from ripping up the top-down development
approaches of the past, effective processes for software-defined
vehicles have to change because, some
panelists insisted, the old ways simply are too slow.
Moreover, the collaborations that have helped in the
past - development of standards, for one - also are
inherently plodding, consensus-centric models that
mitigate against the speed that customers of software-driven
products demand.
Ford's Jones suggests one approach is to view
software development as little different from how
vehicle development occurred in the middle of the last
century, when the factory was the focus of the process.
" What is the equivalent of a software factory, " he asked
Elektrobit CEO
Maria Anhalt
estimates that
60% of vehicle
software is
invisible to vehicle
owners.
rhetorically. He said that a similar, automation-intensive
mindset would help to bring efficiency - and
speed - to software development.
Aptiv's De Vos said that the partnering relationships
most of the experts recommended to help create a better
end product also serve to improve the software-development
speed. " We need to partner, without trying to
grow organically, " he stressed. " It takes too much time. "
Standards can be important to aiding the software-creation
process, De Vos said, but " standards
take time. " Moreover, added Stellantis' Rober, " Nobody
can agree on a standard. " Ford's Jones added that a
patchwork of alliances between OEMs and software
developers hasn't helped to create consensus-based
standards or an open-source ecosystem - tools that
once developed are generally agreed to reduce future
development time and cost.
However, even open-source agreements aren't a
panacea, said Elektrobit's Anhalt. She noted that more
open-source projects have failed than have succeeded.
And Rober added that in individual companies' haste
to gain competitive advantage, " We never allow for a
standard to change and grow. "
Despite the session panelists' agreement that the
auto industry is in the early days of a transformation
that's required if the software-driven vehicle is to fulfill
its promises, most expressed optimism that the change
will happen - and happen for the better. " We're at a
really interesting point in our industry, " said De Vos.
It'll be exciting to see how this plays out. " ■
20 July 2023
ADAS & AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
SAE/Bill Visnic
Elektrobit
ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2023

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