With the growing demand for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving capabilities, connected car technologies and software-defined vehicles, the ability to reuse and scale components across different models and platforms becomes crucial. Addressing critical aspects such as functional safety, cybersecurity, and domain-specific simulation/validation, is paramount to creating a scalable and reusable architecture that aligns with the overarching objectives for the advancing automotive technology. By implementing a robust architecture, the automotive industry stands to benefit from improved safety, enhanced user experience, and substantial long-term cost savings, enabling long-term sustainability, efficiency, and competitiveness in the market. A collaborative approach is essential to effectively address these challenges and drive the industry forward.
Challenges Faced by the Vehicle Manufacturer
The vehicle manufacturer currently manages different vehicle architectures for various models and variants, leading to several challenges as outlined below:
- High Development Cost: Developing the same feature for multiple vehicle platforms results in high development costs.
- Poor Scalability: Each new model requires separate development efforts, reducing the ability to efficiently scale production and respond to market demands. This fragmentation leads to inefficiencies, increased time to market, and difficulties in maintaining consistent quality across the product lineup.
- Regulatory Compliance: The legacy ECUs have limited processing power, making it challenging to add new features. As a result, there is a high risk of non-compliance with regulatory requirements such as FuSA and Cybersecurity.
- Poor Upgradability: Upgrading new features in the legacy ECU is difficult. Often, upgrading a feature or function requires updating the entire ECU software, resulting in high costs and time.
- Vehicle Weight: A high number of ECUs in each architecture increases the vehicle's weight. Every new model year with a new feature function requires additional space for that ECU.
Manufacturers face challenges such as managing the integration of new architectures with legacy systems, ensuring data privacy, designing future-proof architectures, efficiently managing resources, handling development costs and time-to-market pressures, and navigating regulatory compliance and certification processes.
Framework for Maximizing Reusability and Scalability
Auto manufacturers need to adopt centralized computing and operating systems, and follow industry standards for software and hardware integration through flexible software deployment methods, strong communication networks, and strict adherence to safety standards. To maximize reusability and scalability of the hardware and software infrastructure, a comprehensive framework is required.
Step 1: Perform a Study of Existing Platforms: First, a thorough study of existing hardware (including variants, BOMs, peripherals, and core chipsets ), software platforms, and supplier collaboration practices, is needed to identify gaps, limitations and areas for improvement.
Step 2: Adopt a Modular, Scalable, and Uniform E/E and Software Architecture: Integrate all processing power into a limited number of high-performance computing units to optimize efficiency and performance.
- Deploy customizable hardware solutions with removable memory and storage to meet specific operational requirements.
- Utilize a System on Chip (SOC) architecture with a scalable family of processors to cater to diverse computational demands.
- Enable multiplatform support, allowing the core computing platform to be reused while only peripherals, actuators, and minor ECUs need adjustments.
- Standardize interfaces and ensure their reusability across various vehicle models to enhance compatibility and reduce development time.
- Implement a uniform software architecture across all vehicle models to streamline development and maintenance processes.
The modular and scalable software architecture must addresses considerations such as functional safety, cybersecurity, and domain-specific simulation/validation at multiple levels. It should also ensure adherence to industry standards like ASPICE, ISO26262, and ISO21434.
Step 3: Ensure that the Components are Easily Upgradable and Future-Proof: Decouple software development from hardware constraints to facilitate straightforward software upgrades. Adopt a loosely coupled, service-oriented software architecture to allow upgrading individual software components rather than the entire software stack.
Step 4: Implement a Process to Streamline Integration: Establish CI/CD/CT pipelines and integrate a virtual validation platform to implement a shift-left approach, significantly reducing software development life cycles.
Step 5: Enable Validation and Verification (V&V): Multiple levels of validation must be enabled, including vehicle, system, software, and unit levels. Virtual ECUs can be leveraged to reduce hardware dependency and implement a feedback loop through a 'Shift Left' approach to gather insights and continuously improve the SDV platform.
Step 6: Enable New App and Feature Rollouts: Develop a dedicated app store and software marketplace in conjunction with a next-generation Over-The-Air (OTA) framework to streamline vehicle feature updates and expedite new feature rollouts.
Step 7: Enable Data-Driven Revenue Streams: Leverage AI/GenAI to apply advanced data analytics on vehicle data, creating premium data-driven services for customers and generating new revenue streams.
Mitigation strategies such as rigorous testing protocols, the establishment of a robust cybersecurity framework, a tailored strategy for flexible collaboration and the implementation of continuous validation processes can ensure the safety and performance of the software-defined vehicles throughout their lifecycle. Additionally, adaptability of the proposed architecture to future technological advancements and industry shifts is crucial to ensuring its continued relevance and effectiveness in the rapidly evolving landscape of automotive technology.
Tangible Benefits of Maximizing Reusability and Scalability
The transition to this framework offers a multitude of benefits, including enhanced reusability and scalability, improved efficiency and transparency in the development lifecycle, and the creation of a future-ready architecture that aligns with the industry's objectives for advancing automotive technology. Clients can expect quantifiable improvements in safety, user experience, cost savings and a deeper understanding of the scalable and reusable architecture.
Industry examples of successful implementation abound, particularly in the seamless integration of software and hardware architectures in electric vehicles, autonomous driving systems, and advanced driver assistance systems. Tesla's scalable and reusable software architecture has allowed for over-the-air updates, enabling continuous improvements in vehicle performance, safety features, and user experience. Similarly, Volvo's implementation of a scalable and reusable E/E architecture has streamlined the integration of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving features across its vehicle lineup. These examples serve as a testament to the potential for innovation and scalability in the automotive sector.
What Wipro Can Do for You
Wipro offers comprehensive support for the migration to next-generation architecture and the software-defined vehicle (SDV) development process. With extensive industry experience in transitioning from monolithic to Service-Oriented architectures, Wipro has successfully implemented such transitions at renowned companies like FORD, Magna, and Astemo.
Leveraging the Cloud Car Platform, including reusable components like the Legacy Migration Factory, Wipro provides robust assistance for migrating from monolithic to microservices-based architecture. Additionally, Wipro has a proven track record in establishing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines for numerous clients, including leading automotive brands such as Mercedes, LG, Denso, and Marelli.
The Virtual Vehicle Validation Platform powered by Siemens Pave360 further enhances Wipro's capabilities, supporting virtual validation and ensuring a seamless integration process. As a founding member of the Software Marketplace ‘SDVerse,’ Wipro facilitates the creation of a dynamic software marketplace for clients, and our extensive experience in developing and rolling out containerized applications ensures efficient and effective aftermarket new app and feature rollouts.
Furthermore, Wipro's expertise in developing data management platforms with various cloud provider partners, including AWS and AZURE, and substantial experience working with various Over-the-Air (OTA) vendors, positions Wipro as a reliable partner for next-generation.
In conclusion, the transition to a scalable and reusable architecture is not just a strategic move; it is a necessity for the industry's continued progress and relevance. We call upon automotive manufacturers, suppliers, technology partners, and regulatory bodies to join forces in this transformative journey. By working together, we can overcome the challenges and unlock the full potential of next-generation vehicles. Let us drive the future of automotive technology, ensuring a safer, more efficient, and sustainable world for generations to come.
