(Newswire.net — May 27, 2022) — Tesla, autonomous driving, electric vehicles, decarbonization. The automotive sector is transforming rapidly, and the process is often described with these few popular keywords. Meanwhile, insiders observe continuous improvement and technological advancement in a key area – automotive software development.
The future of the automotive industry belongs to self-driving cars leveraging advanced driver assistance systems, Big Data and Machine Learning technology, AI-based software, in-vehicle infotainment, and many more solutions implemented to increase efficiency, and unlock new business opportunities, and provide a personalized experience.
Traditional players – vehicle manufacturers, shared mobility providers, automotive OEMs, and Tier 1 Suppliers are turning into tech companies employing more software developers than other industries. Competing in developing automotive software encourages the auto industry to build in-house software development teams and create strategic partnerships with technology consultants and automotive software experts.
What impacts the software development process in the automotive industry
You probably heard it before – software is eating the world. Also the automotive world. Who would have thought that automotive companies will be competing in software development? Not in design or performance optimization? Let’s see how automotive software development works. At this stage, the value proposition communicated to end-users – autonomous driving, driver assistance systems, or in-vehicle infotainment solutions – is translated into software architecture, applications, and features.
According to McKinsey’s study, a lack of modularity within automotive software leads to design complexity. Furthermore, automotive software often has suboptimal architectural component boundaries. Such an environment requires software development teams to modify more components when working on new features. Also, tracking errors and analyzing specific modules isn’t easy and generates time and resource costs.
Addressing these issues, a well-defined automotive software development process focuses on making software complexity manageable with modularization, standardization, separating hardware and software development lifecycles, and building solutions with service-oriented design principles in mind. The automotive industry leverages automotive cloud platforms and APIs to reduce work with redeveloping software across platforms.
Service-oriented design is a must while the future success of every company in the automotive industry depends on its ability to implement the software-defined vehicle concept. SDV, as the name suggests, is an approach to building modern vehicles with a particular focus on software solutions.
Automotive software development in the era of SDVs
Automotive production these days is led by a software-first approach, both in hardware and software teams. The final product is no longer defined by performance or design. Now it belongs to customer satisfaction, and that is provided by numerous automotive software solutions. Working with top automotive companies on implementing SDV technology, Grape Up encourages their software development teams to build their systems on the solid pillars: automotive cloud, seamless connectivity, Internet of Things, and Over-the-Air upgrades. Such an ecosystem requires expertise in cloud services technology, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Big Data, Machine Learning, and many more tools.
Automotive software development services
Transformation towards the software-defined automotive industry is tough. To understand how crucial the process is, we have to keep in mind that it’s not about employing a few software teams and allowing them to deliver some automotive applications. Once Tesla paved the way and other automotive companies joined the movement, the entire revolution focused on building vehicles, starting with prototyping software solutions. Not just on building some applications at the end of the production.
We observe the transition from traditional automotive companies providing vehicles and some modest systems into software-first tech enterprises where the vehicle is both a device and a platform for software solutions. Seems familiar? Precisely the same revolution changed the mobile phone market.
How do automotive companies address the need to undergo a total transformation and do it correctly? Especially while operating in critical environments and having an impact on the safety of millions of customers?
Like other industries before them, the automotive market collaborates with consultants specializing in automotive software development services. Companies like Grape Up join the software development process and ensure domain expertise. Software developers, a software technology consulting experts, and product owners provide end-to-end services from prototyping application development to delivering production-grade software.
Through the years of providing innovative software solutions for the automotive industry, Grape Up gathered know-how that combines designing technology stacks, prototyping, building platform and software architecture, creating applications and developing new features that meet changing customer needs. Expertise in technology consulting and industry standards need to be supported by the most effective approaches to automotive software development: Agile, DevOps, ownership, and proactive leadership.
Key elements of the successful automotive software development process
Ensuring top-quality automotive software development services requires following the best practices and proven solutions.
- Setting well-defined priorities and continuously adjusting to the changing market conditions.
- Before a company starts prototyping automotive software, the team and development partners need to understand business goals and value propositions. Planning is crucial but the fast-changing market obligates every software company to reevaluate its strategy and find solutions to tackling new challenges.
- Keeping it simple – avoiding over-specification.
- By establishing clear categories and requirements for automotive software development, companies can reduce potential software complexity. Simplicity and transparency increase productivity, improve software testing, and make a market entry for new solutions easier.
- Listening to the customer feedback.
- Leveraging lean startup methodology and testing customer experience improve the entire automotive software development process as end-users are the best sources of insights about business value and usability.
- Tracking end-to-end services.
- Efficient
- monitoring is a proven solution to avoid issues with software development. It starts with test cases, requirement tracking, monitoring code updates, and managing the backlog.
Before a software development team focuses on introducing autonomous driving solutions into production or building sophisticated applications that utilize Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning, it needs a well-working environment.
Future of the automotive software companies
In the new market reality, where enterprises compete in implementing autonomous driving solutions, delivering advanced software, and monetizing new business models, hunting for software developers is accelerating. While automotive companies still need to meet industry standards in hardware development, electronic architecture, and vehicle safety, the value chain has changed with software at the center stage.
Transforming to software-first companies will be difficult for many traditional auto enterprises. To tackle this challenge, they invest in joint ventures or startups and build long-term relationships with automotive software development and consulting companies. These agile, software-first teams like Grape Up support their efforts in implementing software-defined vehicle concepts.