Empowering Tomorrow's Automotive Software

While passenger cars rapidly shift toward high-performance compute platforms, commercial vehicles operate under unique economic constraints where fleet profitability, total cost of ownership and razor-thin operating margins drive every software decision. In this episode, host Bernd Graef sits down with Carlton Bale, Director of Software Defined Vehicle Strategy at Cummins, and Daniel Krippner, Open Source Technologist at ETAS, to explore open-source collaboration in software-defined commercial vehicles. Carlton and Daniel explain how open-source frameworks, specifically through the Eclipse SDV working group, allow heavy-duty manufacturers to solve shared architectural challenges without reinventing non-differentiating infrastructure software. Together, they break down the shift from closed NDA-based models to open collaboration, how to maintain safety certification under ISO 26262 using Trustable Software Frameworks (TSF), and how Cummins and ETAS are co-developing practical, production-intent SDV stack blueprints. Whether you are an automotive software engineer, systems architect, or fleet technology leader, this episode offers a practical look at how commercial vehicle OEMs and suppliers are collaborating to accelerate time-to-market. In this episode: 00:00 - Introduction: Commercial Vehicles & The Software-Defined Shift 02:44 - Commercial Vehicle Economics: Fleet ROI, Total Cost of Ownership, and Incremental Architectures 04:58 - The Power of Open Source: Why Non-Differentiating Infrastructure Belongs in Open Collaboration 11:36 - Standardizing Powertrain Interfaces: Hands-On Work with uService and OpenSOVD 18:20 - Safety Certification & Open Source: Navigating ISO 26262, Non-Safety Domains, and TSF 27:20 - Bridging Commercial and Passenger SDVs: Shared Infrastructure vs. Domain Specifics 33:04 - Getting Involved: Eclipse SDV Commercial Blueprints, Code Contribution, and Culture Shift Useful links from the discussion: Commercial SDV Stack Blueprint: https://github.com/eclipse-sdv-blueprints/commercial-sdv-stack Eclipse SDV Blueprints: https://sdv-blueprints.eclipse.dev/; Joining Eclipse SDV Community: https://eclipsesdv.org/get-involved/   Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website  Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

Agriculture is undergoing a rapid digital transformation, with automation, connectivity, and AI reshaping how the world grows food — and raising the stakes for cybersecurity along the way. In this episode, ETAS host Elder Avila sits down with Thiago Pereira, Head of Software Engineering for Smart Agriculture at Bosch in Brazil, to explore how connected machines and software-defined systems are transforming farming, and why cybersecurity has become a business-critical concern rather than a niche IT issue. Thiago shares why Brazil, as one of the world's leading agricultural producers, has become a proving ground for smart agriculture innovation, walking through the automation, connectivity, computer vision, and AI technologies driving productivity gains across the farm. The conversation then turns to the EU's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), where Thiago breaks down its three pillars, security by design, lifecycle vulnerability management, and incident reporting, and explains why compliance matters even for companies operating outside Europe. Whether you are an agricultural technology leader, embedded software engineer, or cybersecurity professional, this episode offers a clear-eyed look at how the industry is balancing rapid innovation with the security demands of an increasingly connected food supply chain. In this episode: 00:00 - Introduction, Welcome 00:32 - Meet the Host and Guest: Smart Agriculture at Bosch Brazil 02:32 - Why Agriculture Is Strategically Vital & Brazil's Global Leadership 07:18 - Defining Smart Agriculture: Automation, Connectivity, AI, and Computer Vision 12:16 - Why Cybersecurity Is Now Business-Critical for Connected Machines 14:06 - Inside the Cyber Resilience Act: Security by Design, Vulnerability Management, and Incident Reporting 20:23 - Balancing Innovation and Security: What's Ahead for the Next 5-10 Years 23:50 - Closing Thoughts and Key Takeaways To learn more about ETAS's cybersecurity and diagnostics solutions for off-highway and commercial vehicles, visit: https://www.etas.com/ww/en/topics/cybersecurity-diagnostics-off-highway/?std1=Partner&std2=other&std3=701Tq00000q8xeZ&std4 Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website  Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

How do you build, validate, and scale software for modern vehicles when complexity is rising every day? In this episode, host Suresh Sivavarman sits down with Cedric Armand, Director of Virtualization at Ford Motor Company, to explore the industry's massive evolution from a physical-first testing mindset to a virtual-first engineering approach. Cedric breaks down the foundational building blocks of scaling simulation, from virtual ECUs and plant models to cloud-based co-simulation platforms, and shares why shifting left has a massive return on investment (e.g., shortening development timelines by up to 12 months). He and Suresh also dive into the cultural changes required for organizational buy in, the limits of physical HIL benches, the future of AI in diagnosing test failures, and why strategic industry partnerships are vital to keeping pace with the software-defined vehicle (SDV) revolution.  Key Takeaways: Virtualization vs. Simulation: Clearing up the definitions and how they work in a closed-loop environment for software testing. The ROI of Shifting Left: How virtual-first environments let OEMs run millions of automated regression tests overnight, shifting defect discovery early enough to prevent costly field failures. AI as an Efficiency Enabler: Leveraging AI agents for initial analysis when tests fail and accelerating user adoption of virtual tools. The Power of Partnerships: Why legacy hardware experts and cloud providers must collaborate to build an open, interoperable ecosystem. Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website  Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In the final episode of our Enterprise series, host Vasili Kutscherjavenko sits down with ETAS experts Wolfgang Neufeld and Rene Reuter to demystify the collaborative world of Purple Teaming. Following up on previous discussions regarding independent red and blue team dynamics, the group explores how bringing attackers and defenders together in active workshops eliminates the traditional "blaming approach" and accelerates an organization's actual threat detection capabilities. The trio also take a deep dive into the modern cyber threat landscape, discussing how rapidly evolving generative AI models are altering the game, enabling even less-skilled attackers to rapidly execute zero-day vulnerabilities and accelerating the speed of enterprise breaches. Whether you are an enterprise security leader, a plant operations manager, or a cybersecurity professional looking to optimize your incident response times, this episode offers a highly practical blueprint for building mature, resilient defense systems. Check out our other Enterprise episodes: Introduction to Enterprise Red Teaming Introduction to Enterprise Blue Teaming Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website  Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this episode, host Suresh Sivavarman sits down with Sangeeta Tero, Virtual Validation Platform Lead at Stellantis. Together, they explore how the automotive industry is evolving from traditional hardware-centric testing frameworks to software-first engineering environments. As software deployment velocity continues to outpace physical hardware availability, strictly relying on traditional hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) setups is shifting from a core strategy to an operational bottleneck. Sangeeta shares how Stellantis leverages a "shift-left" mindset by scaling software-in-the-loop (SIL) platforms to achieve faster time-to-market, minimize late-stage risks, and drastically lower the overhead costs of physical vehicle prototypes. Key topics in this episode include: The "Shift-Left" Catalyst: Why system-level digital validation is essential for compressed, risk-mitigated development timelines. Overcoming the Trust Gap: How engineers can build confidence and establish reliable correlation between virtual behavior and physical target faults. What to Test in SIL vs. HIL: Understanding why 70% to 80% of functional and feature validation can bypass physical hardware requirements. Demystifying Virtual ECUs (VECUs): A breakdown of different abstraction levels, specifically unlocking the power of Level 3, Level 3 Plus, and Level 4 variants for system-level confidence. Global Complexity Management: How virtualization scales to support immense variation across complex global automotive brand portfolios. Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website  Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this episode, host Suresh Sivavarman, Customer Chief Engineer at ETAS, sits down with Raj Paul, Mobility Industry Leader at Microsoft. Together, they explore the engineering shifts and technological transformations that are redefining the future of mobility. The discussion focuses on how "cloudification" and the integration of AI are moving from industry buzzwords to essential drivers of competitiveness and development velocity. Raj shares insights into the power of data-driven decision making, the transition from on-premise tools to cloud-native engineering, and how AI-powered "co-pilots" are enhancing developer productivity. Key topics in this episode include: The Shift-Left Mindset: How virtualization and simulation in the cloud allow for hardware and software development to run in parallel, drastically reducing development timelines. Breaking Data Silos: Leveraging cloud compute and storage to create end-to-end visibility across engineering, manufacturing, and service. The SDV Backend Transformation: Building the feedback loops and data pipelines necessary for over-the-air (OTA) updates and proactive vehicle monitoring. The Road to 2030: A look at the forcing functions, such as competitive threats from new-age OEMs, that will accelerate the industry’s digital evolution over the next decade. Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website  Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this episode, host Zane Pelletier speaks with Ivan Granero from Bosch about the use and security of generative AI (GenAI) in the automotive domain. The conversation covers the transition from traditional machine learning to probabilistic GenAI models and takes a deep dive into the security challenges of large language models (LLMs) in a safety-critical environment. Zane and Ivan also talk about common threats, such as "jailbreaking" and injection attacks, and explore defense mechanisms like implementing "guardrails" and the "spotlighting method" to protect system prompts. If you are an automotive software developer, cybersecurity professional or AI engineer working int he connected vehicle space - this episode is a must listen! To view the tool Zane and Ivan mentioned in their discussion, click here.  Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this episode, host Zane Pelletier from ETAS is joined by Gabriel Gonzalez-Garcia, Director of Hardware Security at IOActive, for a fascinating look into the world of drone hacking. Gabriel shares his journey into hardware hacking and explains why unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) present a compelling target for security research.  The conversation explores fault injection attacks, including what they are, why they’re difficult to execute, and how they can be used to bypass embedded security features. If you're interested in embedded systems, hardware security, or the evolving threat landscape in connected devices, this episode is a must-listen. To learn more, check out Gabriel's whitepaper:  https://www.ioactive.com/drone-security-fault-injection-attacks-gabriel-gonzalez/ Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this webinar recording, we highlight the critical role measurement and calibration play in developing automotive software functions for microcontrollers by exploring emerging trends and future advances in measurement and calibration technologies, and understanding their potential impact on the industry.  You'll discover why precise measurement and calibration are essential for vehicle performance and efficiency, and learn about advanced measurement techniques and effective calibration methods that ensure accuracy and reliability in vehicle systems. We also cover strategies for integrating these practices into your development workflows, enhancing both efficiency and performance, and help you gain insights into how powerful ETAS tools can optimize these processes.  Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this episode, ETAS host Zane Pelletier speaks with cybersecurity expert Tiffany Rad about the evolving threat landscape in automotive and transportation systems. They explore autonomous vehicle vulnerabilities, supply chain risks, insider threats, and the role of AI in embedded systems. Tiffany also shares insights from her work in industrial control systems and space cybersecurity, offering guidance for students and professionals entering the field. If you want to learn more about some of the challenges mentioned in the episode, see below: https://www.cyberdrone-challenge.org/ https://www.cyberauto-challenge.org/ https://www.cybertruckchallenge.org/ Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

This episode features a conversation between host Janak Patel, a technical director at ETAS, and guest Hugo Ochoa, a product marketing manager at Infineon. The discussion focuses on the collaboration between ETAS and Infineon to address the challenges of vehicle software, specifically to optimize the security, performance, and functionality of next-generation microcontrollers.  The conversation highlights how this collaboration helps the automotive industry, particularly with the shift toward software-defined vehicles, exploring the integration of ETAS's CycurHSM software into Infineon's AURIX™ TC4x microcontroller family to enhance cybersecurity, which creates a solution that meets industry standards and provides a robust security concept that eliminates performance bottlenecks. To learn more about how ETAS and Infineon are working together to optimize vehicle security, check out these additional resources: White paper Webinar recording Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this episode, ETAS experts, Subash Scindia and Nigel Tracey discuss the significant shift in the automotive industry toward OEMs developing and owning scalable, safe and resilient software platforms. They emphasize the importance of trust, safety and security in automotive software, and highlight the trend of centralized architectures in vehicles.  Also discussed are challenges OEMs face in integrating various ECUs, the evolving requirements for safety and security in high-performance computers, and how ETAS is helping navigate this evolving landscape.  If you are involved in automotive software development in some way, shape or form, you don’t want to miss this episode!  Click here to find out more about ETAS’ AUTOSAR Classic solution RTA-CAR.   Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

As vehicles become smarter and more connected, they're also becoming high-value targets for cyberattacks. In this episode, we explore why microcontroller security is critical in today’s automotive landscape and how regulations are pushing the industry to act. We share real-world examples of vehicle hacks that led to theft, showing that security is far more than a buzzword.  Learn how AUTOSAR offers key building blocks to help secure vehicle functions, along with its limitations. Finally, we look at how Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) can fill the gaps left by AUTOSAR, offering a more robust approach to securing microcontroller-based ECUs. To learn more: https://www.etas.com/ww/en/support-training/webinars/securing-your-microcontroller-software-with-autosar-and-beyond/  Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

We’re following up our Enterprise Red Teaming episode with the logical next topic: Enterprise Blue Teaming. ETAS’s Rene Reuter, Product Manager Enterprise Security Systems, and Wolfgang Neufeld, Subject Mater Expert Red & Purple Teaming, return and are joined by Sven Ulke, Sr. Manager DFIR at SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH. The trio provide a thorough look at Blue Teaming – what it is, who works on it, why it’s important, potential challenges and how to address them …they even touch on AI and the impact on automotive, especially regarding software-defined vehicles.   If you enjoyed the Red Teaming episode, you’ll definitely want to check out this one as well! Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

We’re once again diving into the world of software-defined vehicles (SDVs). In this episode we are joined by Florian Rohde, Managing Partner of iProcess, LLC. From founding Tesla’s system validation team to building an integration and validation team at NIO, he’s pretty much seen it all when it comes to SDVs. Florian joins ETAS’s Siamak Moshiri in a targeted discussion about the Chinese auto market, specifically SDVs.  Siamak has Florian share insights on consumer influence and demand for SDVs in China compared to Europe and the U.S., China’s trajectory in developing the SDV, as well as how the Chinese auto market approaches vehicle architecture, operations and process. It’s a quick discussion that is bursting with interesting information. To learn more about Florian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-rohde-iprocess/  Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this special episode, Madelyn Downs, Marketing Manager at ETAS, is joined by her colleague, Omar Alshabibi, Lead Global Product Manager, to reflect on the software-defined vehicle (SDV) news and announcements that already have been made this year, specifically at CES 2025.  The two cover a lot in a short amount of time – the emergence of AI in general and in automotive and the SDV, differences in how OEMs are approaching AI and SDVs, and SDV trends and key things to watch as we move through 2025.  Take a few minutes to check out their insights – you won’t be disappointed! Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

In this episode, ETAS experts Zachariah (Zane) Pelletier and Michael Scharl discuss enterprise testing, how it differs from embedded testing, and how they are starting to come together with the development of software-defined vehicles and increased external interfaces with the car (e.g., remote start apps). The conversation takes listeners through the realities of today’s vehicle having a broader attack surface, why OEMs need to understand this, and the importance of working together to bring knowledge and tools from enterprise and embedded testing together to secure our vehicles. During the discussion Zane and Michael reference an article by Sam Curry; you can find it here.  Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

ETAS’s Rene Reuter, Product Manager Enterprise Security Systems and Wolfgang Neufeld, Subject Mater Expert Red & Purple Teaming/Penetration Testing take us into the world of red teaming (i.e., real-world attack simulations). They talk about all things red teaming – what it is, why you should (or shouldn’t) do it, when to do it, how it’s done – as well as how it differs from pen testing and the pros and cons of internal vs external teams.  If you aren’t familiar with red teaming, or if you have some questions about it, this is a must-listen episode!  Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

Jake Jepson, Security Researcher, Red Balloon Security, joins Zachariah (Zane) Pelletier, Security Tester at ETAS, to talk about the research project he conducted as a student at Colorado State University to successfully hack a commercial truck. Jake takes us through how the project came to be, walks through the details leading up to the discovery of how electronic logging devices (ELDs) on commercial trucks may pose a grave cybersecurity threat and discusses the surprises he encountered along the way. You can see a video highlighting the successful attack here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwtTzk9ys20 Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS

There’s a lot of talk about innovation in the automotive control space, but not how to get there. Process and toolchains, decision-making complexity, the rapid evolution of technology and regulations, how OEMs manage all the different pieces of software and ensure they correctly talk to one another, and consumer expectations about vehicle features expectations are all challenges being faced in ECU development.  In this episode, ETAS experts, Tim Foster, Sr. Solution Consultant and Nigel Tracey, VP of RTA Solutions, discuss these challenges, as well as how to address and mitigate them. And while the auto industry can look to other industries that have evolved in a similar way, the vehicle isn’t like other products that have software updates – Nigel and Tim touch on this and many other aspects of this dynamic evolution.   Tell us what you think - send us a text message! Thanks for listening! Email us at: contact.us@etas.com Learn more about ETAS on our website Follow us on LinkedIn: @ETAS