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Shaping Europe’s digital future

European Digital Vehicle Ecosystem

The European Commission is working with the European automotive industry to build the critical mass of investment and engagement needed to maintain the EU industry’s competitive edge and leadership.

The EU’s automotive industry is facing several challenges: growing competition from non-EU manufacturers, car makers and tech companies, an increasing software complexity, the risks of dependence in supply chains, and a shortage of talents.

The EU’s automotive industry acknowledges these challenges and stakeholders are willing to collaborate for further developments in both automotive software and hardware:

  • Regarding the software-defined vehicle (SDV), several alliances have been launched (ECLIPSE SDV working group, COVESA, AUTOSAR, SOAFEE, digital.auto, etc.). However, they lack a methodical system-level approach.
  • Regarding digital automotive hardware, new open hardware architectures for automotive processors, including AI processors and chiplets are emerging. The EU could play a role in accelerating these developments and strengthening coordination.
Ecosystem for the Vehicle of the Future Initiative

Figure 1 - European Vehicle of the Future Initiative

Automotive software 

The first stream of the initiative, the Software-defined vehicle of the future (SDVoF) ecosystem involves all major European automotive manufacturers and suppliers, and emphasises common, largely open-source building blocks, interfaces, and tools. Driven by a “code-first” approach, it promotes modular software based on open-source standards with improved maintainability, portability, and faster time-to-market.

Organisations participating in the FEDERATE and HAL4SDV consortia:

Automotive OEMs Automotive Tiers SW development tool providers Industry associations Semiconductor companies Academia & RTOs
BMW Accenture AVL ANFIA ARM AGEN.EST.CON-SUP.INV-CIENT
Alkalee Dassault Astazero
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Daimler Truck Bosch-ETAS Eclipse Europe AUTOSAR CAE List Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA)
Continental - Elektro Bit FEV DLR
Fraunhofer-IKS
Ford Otosan Critical Software Metis Baltic COVESA INFINEON FZI
Dimecc Teraglobus INRIA
Instituto Superior Port
Mercedez Benz Forvia Trustinsoft EUCAR NXP KIT
Resiltech Vector Politecnico Di Milano
Politecnico Di Torino
Renault-Ampere Rovimatica Verum PFA ST Microelectronics RTWH Aachen
Sysgo GmbH   TU Berlin
TU Eindhoven
Stellatlantis Tensor Embedded GmbH   VDA   TU Lulea
TTTech   TU Munich
Univ. Ostrava
Volvo Truck Valeo   VDI/VDE-IT   Univ. Bologna
Vitesco     Univ. Côte d'Azur
Univ. Stuttgart
VW-Cariad ZF       Univ. Oulu
Univ. Modena e Reggio Emilia
VIV

A governance structure has been established, with the major European automotive OEMs and suppliers steering the initiative. Participating companies have developed a Joint Roadmap and Vision document for the SDVoF ecosystem. 

Several EU-funded actions have been launched in Horizon Europe, largely under the Chips Joint Undertaking of supporting joint developments and coordination. This includes the HAL4SDV project, which focuses on the hardware abstraction layer of the automotive software stack. Actions focusing on the middleware and API layer, on tools for SDVs enabling zero-emission mobility, and on in-vehicle electronic control architecture for connected and automated mobility are expected to be launched end of 2024. 

Further actions are under consideration for the future. The FEDERATE coordination and support action orchestrates different research and innovation activities in the area, supports the governance of the initiative, and helps building a dynamic ecosystem.

Automotive hardware

Under the second stream of the initiative, the European Commission is promoting a broad pre-competitive collaboration on a RISC-V based automotive hardware platform, led by a coalition consisting of European integrated device manufacturers, research and technology organisations and upcoming start-ups/SMEs to deliver a next generation hardware architecture, including processors with AI computing capacity. This coalition has been working together on a joint roadmap, paving the way for future calls under the Chips Joint Undertaking. Further, it will focus on standardisation and collaboration to avoid duplication between efforts.

The roadmap is split into four key elements of RISC-V based processors:

  1. Scalable automotive real-time control processors
  2. High-performance application domain processors 
  3. AI and machine learning accelerators
  4. System integration and interfacing, with particular emphasis on advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration.

In deploying these four elements together, the initiative aims to realise a comprehensive suite of processors and reference architectures for the automotive industry. 

Evolution of architecture towards next generation vehicles

McKinsey & Company

Figure 3 - Evolution of Electrical/Electronic (E/E) architecture towards next generation vehicles

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Big Picture

The European Commission has established the Vehicle of the Future initiative to enhance the competitiveness of the EU’s software-defined vehicles industry.