digital.auto
Working together to create
the software-defined vehicle experience.
About the digital.auto initiative
Welcome to the digital.auto initiative. Our open community of car manufacturers, suppliers, start-ups and end-users is working together to create the next generation of software-defined vehicle experiences.
The automotive industry is rapidly changing, exploring new ways of value creation. The software-defined vehicle (SDV) is a platform for continuous, customer-centric digital innovation. digital.auto is supporting this new way of thinking and working #digitalfirst. Our use-case driven co-creation approach helps delivering tangible results fast, validated by real end users. As an open, product- and vendor neutral initiative, digital.auto is fostering interoperability in the SDV ecosystem, helping OEMs to create the best-of breed tool chains they need today to deliver exciting and differentiating digital innovations to their end-customers.
The digital.auto target picture
digital.auto following the digital and the physical value stream.
The target picture for the automotive industry includes internet best-practices such as DevOps and Continuous Improvement.
However, the specifics of the automotive industry can make this difficult – including software real-time requirements, functional safety and long lead-times for hardware-related innovations.
This is why the target picture also needs to include methods for virtual exploration in a #digitalfirst way – helping OEMs to do market and UX validation as early as possible in the lifecycle of new features and functions. Today, “shift-left testing” is well established in the software industry, helping to avoid exponential downstream costs. We want to help establish this also for the automotive industry. The complete target picture of virtual exploration, productization and continuous improvement is what is driving our work at digital.auto.
digital.auto contributions
The digital.auto playground for virtual exploration
To support shift-level testing for SDV applications, we have created the digital.auto playground. This is a cloud-based, rapid prototyping environment for new, SDV-enabled features. The prototypes are built against real-world vehicle APIs and can be seamlessly migrated to automotive runtimes, such as Eclipse Velocitas. The playground is open and free to use. Try it out, or join our development community at Eclipse.
Our cloud-based rapid prototyping environment for new software-defined vehicle (SDV) features: the digital.auto.playground
The digital.auto dreamKIT for automotive-grade hardware tests
The digital.auto dreamKIT allows you to have a touch and feel experience of your software-defined vehicle solution. It is a proof-of-concept hardware, that is seamlessly integrated with the playground.digital.auto and allows you to try out your digitally developed SDV features on a physical device. With the dreamKIT you can transfer your use case from the virtual exploration phase into the productization phase.
Learn more about the dreamKIT here
Our PoC hardware to try out digitally developed software-defined vehicle features on a physical device.
Towards an open test fleet
Our vision is to enable automotive developers to go from a virtual test environment to testing in real vehicles as fast as possible. We are currently working on creating an open test fleet, which can be used by anybody to test their new features in real vehicles within a controlled, functionally safe environment.
Our cloud-based rapid prototyping environment for new software-defined vehicle (SDV) features: the digital.auto.playground
Interoperability
Interoperability along the SDV value chain
In order to enable best-of-breed tool chains for original equipment manufacturer (OEMs), interoperability is key. The digital.auto playground, the dreamKIT and our open test fleet are designed to use open source and open standards, enabling interoperability along the tool chain and also integration with best-of-class commercial (closed source) products.
Our aim of an open tool chain for software-defined vehicles.
Partnerships for interoperability
As digital.auto we aim to enable an open tool chain for the software-defined vehicle. Interoperability is key. Therefore, we have teamed up with many partners to start an SDV interoperability initiative. Find more information about the current state of the digital.auto inter::op proof points here.