The automotive Infotainment Industry has evolved from having standalone systems for various functions like infotainment, telematics, and diagnostics to more integrated systems with connectivity being the key. We have seen silos being broken and systems being more interdependent and inter-connected, resulting in real-time, on demand services like Spotify and Connected Diagnostics among others.

The auto industry is at an inflection point and the key for success is going to be how Auto industry address the growing demand for connectivity, convenience and convergence (3Cs) i.e. connectivity of a smart device, convergence of a high end Cockpit and convenience/comfort of a luxury car.

The consumer industry has seen rapid innovation with short product life cycles ranging from 6 to 18 months. Consumer devices like Mobile phone, iPad have become feature rich with intuitive user experiences. The consumer who has experienced these devices is expecting the same experience in automotive cockpit.

Traditionally there has been one ECU per function in a car. Due to the demand of more features, OEMs have integrated multiple ECUs, resulting in explosion of ECUs in cars. The number of ECUs in high end cars has increased from close to 40 during late 2000 to 125+ now in high end cars. The consumer expects a feature packed cockpit at a lower cost. Hence, there is a pressure to optimize the cost of cockpit solution.

In order to fulfill the demands of the customer, we need to find a way that can potentially reduce costs, testing/integration efforts that come with complexity, maintaining the software integrity and security. A few years back, computer server industry was also facing a similar problem that was solved using virtualization.

(Continued on next page)