Automotive software and systems engineering

Information technology has become the driving force of innovation in many areas of technology and, in particular, in the form of embedded systems in vehicles. Embedded hardware/software systems control innovative functions in cars, support and assist the driver and realize new features for information and entertainment. A rapid development brought more and more digital hardware and software into a modern car only within little more than two decades. Systems and software engineering for embedded systems in vehicles is today one of the great scientific, methodological, and technical challenges. In modern cars we find all issues of software systems in a nutshell. This brings a wide spectrum of challenges for the automotive industry, including business, management, and technical issues. In the following we outline the main problems, research challenges and approaches to deal with them.