Electronic control units (ECUs) are small computers that manage functions within a car, from essentials like battery management systems to advanced driver assist systems and in-vehicle infotainment. Increasingly, how and where ECUs are deployed is coming under scrutiny as the shift to software-defined vehicles (SDVs) prompts automakers to reassess their architectures. For many, the biggest consideration is how to move from a complicated domain-oriented approach to the relative simplicity of zonal architecture.
However, developing and testing software for physical ECU hardware can be a time-intensive process for automotive as it strives to attain Big Tech agility. To address this problem, brands like BMW are championing virtual ECUs (vECUs) as an ideal method for accelerating the development cycle without sacrificing safety or quality in the final product. In March, the company announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to create modular and flexible software architectures in simulation.
Céline Laurent-Winter, Vice President of Connected Vehicle Platforms at BMW Group, explains how vECUs work, why they could be an SDV gamechanger, and where they could take the automaker’s software strategy going forward.
What have been the deficiencies of in-vehicle software development so far?
One major issue has been the dependency on physical hardware for development, integration, and testing. This reliance on hardware creates significant constraints and can slow down the development process. Additionally, maintaining hardware adds another layer of complexity and requires careful resource allocation.
Since hardware resources are limited, developers often need to share them, which can lead to further inefficiencies and bottlenecks. Furthermore, challenges related to the availability and accessibility of development resources have emerged, particularly for globally distributed teams. These teams often struggle to coordinate their efforts and access the necessary tools and platforms across different locations.
How do vECUs address these issues?
They effectively tackle these challenges through scalability and global accessibility. Since vECUs are not tied to physical hardware, they can be deployed extensively without the constraints imposed by hardware availability. This scalability fosters a more flexible and dynamic development environment.
With vECUs, each developer can have dedicated testing benches—potentially even multiple ones—eliminating the need to share limited physical resources. BMW can utilise vECUs to test scenarios across various versions and configurations in parallel, a feat that is difficult to achieve with physical hardware due to the time required for reconfiguration and the costs associated with acquiring sufficient hardware. Moreover, vECUs can be accessed from anywhere in the world, facilitating seamless collaboration among distributed development teams, regardless of their geographical locations.
