Continental announced a collaboration with Synopsys to accelerate the development and validation of software features and applications for the Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV).
“This new collaboration integrates Synopsys’ industry-leading virtual prototyping solutions for virtual Electronic Control Units (vECU) within Continental’s Automotive Edge (CAEdge) cloud-based development framework. The results are digital twin capabilities for software development that help automakers accelerate software development and speed up their time to market,” Continental said.
“The Software-Defined Vehicle requires working on hardware, software, applications, and validation in parallel, all while maintaining the highest level of quality and safety,” said Gilles Mabire, CTO at Continental Automotive. “Synopsys’ virtual ECUs and vehicle digital twin capabilities enable us to develop and test advanced software solutions earlier, so they can be deployed to vehicles faster.”
The modern SDV promises drivers a cutting-edge user experience with continuously improved and enhanced software features, according to Continental. In order to fulfill this demand, car manufacturers and suppliers rely on comprehensive tools to simulate the performance of digital features and confirm their compatibility with existing and new car models.
CAEdge provides vehicle manufacturers and their partners with a cloud-based development environment for software-intensive vehicle architectures, to develop solutions in a fraction of the time traditionally needed, Continental added. Its modular hardware and software platform connects the vehicle to the cloud and features a virtual workbench to develop, supply and maintain software-intensive system functions. Within this framework, digital representations of the real-world physical devices, such as vECUs and the vehicle digital twin, facilitate the development and validation of software solutions prior to general hardware availability.