Software quality will be key in the car of the future

The automotive industry is going through its greatest transformation ever. This is mainly driven by the trend that vehicles are becoming Autonomous, Connected, Electric, and Shared (ACES). This development has a major impact as it is not only the car itself that changes, but also the way people use them and pay for them (for instance shared use models). The electrification also makes it much easier for newcomers to enter the market and speed up the development.

Launch excellence will become decisive

All of this means that success is no longer determined by the design and driving properties, but rather by the time-to-market regarding new functions. Like a smart phone or a computer, a car’s functionality will only increase during its lifetime, so a car factory’s ‘launch excellence’ will make or break its success in the future. They will have to add specific vehicle software expertise to their mechanical knowledge and skills, because the development of high-end software for digital ACES cars will become a core activity. The time-to-market related to new software functionalities will become one of the main competition factors.