Why Efficient Software is a Must to Develop Cars Faster?

Auto Tech Outlook | Monday, May 11, 2020

The automotive industry is highly competitive and the gain market share, automakers must innovate using highly effective software.

Fremont, CA: The automotive industry is rapidly evolving, and the industry players have to innovate to stay relevant in the game continually.  OEMs, tier 1 supplier and tier 2 suppliers that are developing software for cars need to pick up the pace to stay competitive. To stay ahead of the curve, software development teams must know the future of technology in the automotive industry lies in autonomous vehicles. Companies have invested a cumulative of $90 billion as they are working towards level 4 and full level 5 automation.

Software is present in almost every aspect of modern life. In a car, it is present in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and standard functions such as entertainment, braking, and navigation systems. As autonomous technology matures, these systems will grow as well. Experts believe that the number of chips in cars will triple, and the lines of code will increase up to one billion against 100 million of today, according to a survey by Perforce in which they interviewed 400 professionals working in the automotive industry. The majority of them are working on connected and autonomous components, and regardless of the system they were working on, they faced three challenges, including increasing team productivity across hardware and software teams, ensuring safety, especially across the supply chain, strengthening security while leveraging connectivity.

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With the right development tools, a team can innovate faster. For instance, the Helix Core version enables a team to maintain safety and security and, at the same time, improves team productivity. Embedded development teams can trust Helix Core as it helps the team innovate even as they grow to thousands of users and millions of files. A transition from manufacturing to software drives innovation in the automotive industry, but teams are struggling to transit from a manufacturing mindset to a software mindset. On top of that, outdated toolsets increase the struggle of the team. Helix Core allows the team to adopt DevOps so that they can shift their mindset, innovate at an unrivaled scale, accelerate the software delivery pipeline, and collaborate across hardware/software teams.

The software teams must collaborate with hardware teams to share designs, code, and binary files to further design and manufacture a car. The majority of the teams receive large files in large numbers, which is challenging to maintain. As a result, the design aspect of the vehicle is prolonged. Helix Core enables struggling teams to share files with globally distributed teams, manage binary files and other assets efficiently, and reuse code and ensure that it works.

In recent times, cyber attacks have become common. A single attack could take down codebase and compromise a vehicle.  Recently, a hacker exposed sensitive documents from 100 automakers, including top OEMs. Hence, it is essential to ensure IP protection and secure access to codebase. Helix Core provides granular access controls. Thus, it eliminates the risk of someone downloading the code for an entire autonomous vehicle. To innovate, the automotive industry needs the right software development tool which assists in the designing, developing, and securing the manufacturing process.

see also: Top Cyber Security Solution Companies

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