Automotive software: The fusion of automotive and IT expertise

Our image of the car is being rapidly transformed. Horsepower and spacious interiors are no longer the deciding factors. Now, more than ever before, when customers shop around for a car, they’re interested in integrated intelligence. “Software enhances the driving experience, and above all, it makes drivers’ lives easier,” says Stefan Hartung, chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector and future CEO of Bosch. For example, they can hand over the irksome task of stop-and-go driving to a traffic jam pilot and in the very near future, electric cars will be able to automatically book the cheapest vacant charging station along the route. Automatic parking makes it possible for vehicles to automatically navigate the parking garage and park themselves. “Turning these solutions into reality requires well written code, connectivity, and artificial intelligence,” explains Hartung. So automotive suppliers such as Bosch are becoming software companies for mobility.

Automotive IT has to interact reliably and infallibly with the powertrain and brake systems at all times. “Once again, this is where high-tech suppliers come in — suppliers that are equally at home in the world of on-board electronics and the Internet of things, with which the cars of the future will be connected,” explains Hartung. Such suppliers have an especially good chance of tapping into the rapidly growing market for automotive IT. This is why Bosch has set up a division specifically for automotive electronics and software. All in all, the company already employs some 34,000 software engineers, more than 26,000 of whom work in its Mobility Solutions business sector.

The growing significance of software is bringing about a change in the development cycles in the automotive industry. “Gone are the days when work on a car was done and dusted as soon as it left the factory,” says Hartung. “Now, even its hardware has to be upgradeable, even if only to replace a vehicle computer after five years, like a hard drive.” Typically, however, these original equipment computers are capable of more than may initially be necessary. This means they remain receptive for software updates, enabling them to download functions such as automated parking over the air. In this way, cars can be updated with new functions far more quickly than in the past. “Without changing its appearance, a vehicle that has been on the road for some years can be updated to version 2.0 or 3.0. In this way, software development is becoming divorced from hardware,”” asserts Hartung. For the IT industry, this is nothing new, but the safety standards automotive electronics architecture has to fulfill are incomparably stricter.

Automakers have long since realized that this challenge is also an opportunity. They are developing software specifically for their vehicles, all the way to proprietary operating systems. They are also enlisting specialist suppliers of software and chips. “This is changing the relationship between automakers and suppliers such as Bosch,” says Hartung. Two trends are emerging. First, operating systems have to be capable of handling the many variants in a range of models. Owing to their domain and process expertise, suppliers can help here. Second, in the increasingly complex electronic architecture, there has to be compatibility among the software modules from diverse sources. “Here as well, help can come from suppliers that understand the vehicle as a whole, and not just its individual domains,” adds Hartung. Such integrative expertise will be more and more in demand.

One thing, however, will not change: In the future, suppliers such as Bosch will remain key partners of the automotive industry. “Not least, we will contribute the basic software that is needed across the boundaries dividing individual automakers and vehicle generations,” reports Hartung. And regardless of the automaker, there will be a need for tools to develop and maintain the software. Even in a software-dominated automotive world, there will be plenty of business for suppliers and automakers alike. Stefan Hartung elucidates with an analogy from the ‘old world’ of the automotive industry: “All the automakers make engines, but Bosch makes injection systems for many customers. This saves costs for all involved, and the automotive software business will not be any different.”