INDUSTRY FOCUS - AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS
Five ways to shift up a gear in automotive design
By Kamal Khan, vice president North America automotive/ semiconductor, Perforce Software
T
he automotive industry is undergoing a profound period of change, with software at the forefront, reshaping everything from design and testing to ongoing enhancements once a vehicle leaves the car dealership. Trends such as the shift towards software- defined vehicles (SDVs), over-the-air (OTA) updates, and the evolution of human- machine interfaces (HMIs) and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) all represent a learning curve for development teams. Similarly, the rise of digital twins enables smart innovation, but it also requires adopting game engine technology and establishing robust, integrated platforms to achieve success. At the same time, secure and effective collaboration across both hardware and software teams, often spread across the globe, is now essential. Safety and reliability are non-negotiable, as is the need to adhere to compliance in an increasingly regulated market.
It is a lot for any automotive development team, and the 2025 Perforce State of Automotive Software Development Report underlines that fact. Of the 656 respondents to the report’s question about their main challenges, 57 per cent cited maintaining their competitiveness, 30 per cent modernising their tech stacks and 26 per cent pointed to finding ways to ease compliance. When asked about their single biggest development concern, 29 per cent said quality and the same percentage said safety, with security in third place at 23 per cent. Forty six per cent believe that maximising existing resources is a challenge.
So, to remain competitive, while also ensuring quality, safety and security, organisations involved in automotive development must explore new tools (including those that involve automation and AI), and develop workflows that support virtual prototyping, simulation, visualisation and over- the-air updates to remain competitive. Here are some of the primary steps we see successful teams are taking.
Embrace integrated toolchains and pipelines
Break down siloes by integrating CAD models,
simulation platforms and software repositories to ensure alignment between design, mechanical, electrical and digital environments. In turn, this accelerates decision-making and reduces costly late- stage conflicts.
Take on DevOps practices Long-established in the mainstream enterprise technology market and increasingly in others such as automotive, continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD) pipelines can be optimised for embedded software, ECU firmware and safety-critical validation. So, teams can push incremental updates through automated builds, hardware-in-the-loop testing and compliance checks. This radically speeds up the whole development process and eliminates manual toil work, even more so when using the latest generation of AI- enabled DevOps tools.
Adopt models-based systems engineering (MBSE)
By integrating system design, simulation and verification in a single workflow, MSDBE ensures that requirements traceability, functional safety analysis and design validation occur in parallel. Using models to drive decision- making means that engineers can test scenarios early, deal with complexity better and continually validate against evolving requirements.
Build a foundation of unified, secure data management
Modern vehicles require tens to hundreds of thousands of design files and might run on over 100 million lines of code. Without a unified approach to data management, even minor software changes can have a significant impact on hardware performance, and vice versa. Creating a foundation of scalable, secure data management will help manage component versions, variants and configurations in a single coherent workflow, enable cross-functional collaboration and assist with compliance.
Create the right culture Establish a future-facing foundation for innovation, rather than struggling with outdated legacy systems and processes that are no longer fit for purpose. Use AI strategically where it can make a tangible difference, not just on an individual basis but to enable teams to shift up and collaborate together in a more integrated aligning with business outcomes.
The automotive industry has a lot to navigate right now, balancing innovation and competitiveness with safety, security and compliance. Addressing the challenges takes time. Getting the right building blocks in place today will pay dividends in the years to come, helping teams involved in automotive development remain agile and effective without compromising the rigour that the market demands.
OCTOBER 2025 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS 31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42
