Smart mobility of the future – a challenge for embedded automotive systems

Smart, connected, and automated vehicles will have a significant impact on the safety, efficiency, and convenience of future transportation and mobility. However, most of the related services and technological features will be implemented in millions of lines of code running on hundreds of computers, embedded into each car. While classic automotive hardware and software are mainly designed statically and with just safety and real-time capability in mind, future systems also have to consider security and flexible maintenance aspects: Wireless communication across car boundaries requires solid protection against attackers and dynamic update mechanisms are required to reflect changing customer requirements and legal regulations throughout the entire lifetime of the cars. This article discusses specific challenges on embedded operating systems and processor architectures for highly dependable and compositional computing platforms in future vehicles.