Continuous process optimization in vehicle development
Optimization of development processes in vehicle development is both essential and challenging. The goal is to streamline processes and shorten development cycles to minimize costs and identify and eliminate issues early. Companies can overcome these challenges by integrating virtual prototypes.
CarMaker offers a real-time capable and highly accurate simulation solution that can be used throughout the development process. This allows the creation of virtual prototypes at an early stage, shifting testing efforts upstream in development.
VIRTO provides the infrastructure required to ensure secure data and workflow management.
What application areas are you interested in?
Autonomous vehicles
Challenges in autonomous vehicle development
- Guaranteeing safe and reliable operation of autonomous systems in complex, dynamic environments
- Systematic coverage of the ODD in a controlled and safe environment
- Ensuring a robust perception of the environment
- Autonomous driving functions must be tested for a wide range of applications early on in the development process
- Minimizing manual testing effort to enable rapid feedback after software changes
How we can help
- Powerful and highly detailed physical sensor models for simulating complete sensor sets
- Cloud-based solutions with central data and workflow management for processing large-scale tests
- Turnkey test systems and hardware for end-to-end testing on the target platform
- Test system solutions for both scenario-based and data-driven test applications
- Industry-leading engineering services and expertise: Overcome simulation challenges together
ADAS
How we can help
- Simulation-based testing and validation to address the complexity of modern ADAS
- Extensive catalog of 3D objects and various sensor model classes (ideal, phenomenological and physical sensors) for detection at any stage of the development process
- Extensive portfolio of ready-to-use NCAP packages
- Turnkey test systems and hardware solutions for system validation
- Consultation on virtual homologation with over 15 years of experience in virtual homologation of vehicle applications
Daily challenges in ADAS development
- Increasing complexity of systems leads to higher development and validation costs
- Progress in sensor technology and system communication increases requirements for development resources
- Limitations of conventional test methods, such as real-world test drives, create bottlenecks and lower test coverage
- Ensuring integration of ADAS into existing vehicle architectures
- Guaranteeing compliance with legal provisions, ratings, and regulations such as ISO 26262 and Euro NCAP 2026
Powertrain and electric mobility
Daily challenges in conventional powertrain development
- Complex and variable test conditions, such as temperature dependencies, make it difficult to reproduce and optimize test processes
- Developing flexible powertrain concepts for different application areas and user profiles
- Total cost of ownership as the key driver for achieving maximum efficiency at low costs
- Emission regulations and laws drive development
How we can help
- Simulation allows integration and testing of various powertrain concepts in different virtual vehicle chassis
- CarMaker offers a high degree of flexibility, allowing the integration of custom battery or fuel cell models
- A digital twin of the powertrain provides an efficient way to optimize performance and helps eliminate dependence on real-world testing
- Virtual testing using road networks based on real map data, with reproducible environmental, traffic, and road conditions supports compliance with emission directives
Vehicle dynamics
How we can help
- Enabling decisions throughout the development process based on simulation results rather than costly prototype testing
- Safe investigation of malfunctions and edge cases under laboratory conditions
- CarMaker provides highly accurate vehicle dynamics models that closely correlate with real vehicles
- Models can be refined and adjusted within the development process, and the quality of the model can be verified at any time using VIRTO
Daily challenges in vehicle dynamics development
- Increasing integration of electronic vehicle control systems and ADAS into the development process
- Real prototypes are expensive and in short supply, and require experienced test drivers
- Performing extensive validations under various road and driving conditions
- Testing in a safe and controlled environment is difficult to achieve
- Improving energy efficiency and minimizing power losses in the chassis
Use cases
Validating vehicle functions in the cloud using scalable CI/CT/CD processes
The share of software in vehicles keeps growing – and the development process needs to adjust to this new reality. New versions must be tested continuously. A CI/CT/CD environment enables the automated integration, testing and distribution of software, while test cases are being generated based on requirements, and implemented in cloud simulations. Functions can be validated quickly, which significantly increases test coverage.
Real-time capable physical tire models for realistic HIL tests in ECU development
Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) is an integral part of control unit development. Traditionally, this has been based on simple, empirical tire models. While these provide fast calculation, they are unable to deal with exceptional driving situations. With a real-time capable physical tire model, complex scenarios such as ABS braking on uneven surfaces or sudden loss of tire pressure can be simulated, and control units can be tested under more realistic conditions.
