MDS Technology successfully held 'Automotive SW Developer Conference 2017'
Introducing key technologies related to autonomous driving such as ADAS , timing, and V2X

MDS Technology's Automotive SW Developer Conference, which has established itself as Korea's representative automotive technology event for the 8th year, has come to a close with a warm response.

Embedded solution specialist MDS Technology (CEO Jang Myeong-seop) announced that it held this event, which provides a glimpse into the current state and future of automotive SW development, with the support of the Society of Automotive Engineers of Korea and the Korea ITS Society. Approximately 1,000 SW developers from automobile manufacturers, parts suppliers, and electrical SW companies attended this event.

The conference featured a total of 22 sessions in three tracks under the theme of ‘SW technology trends and advanced overseas cases for future automobile development.’ In particular, about 20 world-renowned European automotive SW experts visited Korea and presented technologies being utilized to improve the efficiency and quality of SW development and actual application cases of advanced overseas companies.

What key content was introduced?

One of the topics of interest at this conference is the revision of ISO 26262, the international standard for automotive functional safety. This is because the first revised edition since its enactment in 2011, 'ISO 26262 2nd Edition', will be officially announced in January next year. 'ISO 26262 2nd Edition' applies not only to passenger cars, but also to buses, trucks, and motorcycles with less than four wheels. In addition, as autonomous driving technology advances and automobile functions diversify, the scope of application is expected to expand to the semiconductor field, so the automobile industry needs to respond quickly to this.

Also, the current status of core technologies related to autonomous driving such as ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and timing, as well as overseas advanced cases of solutions necessary for efficient development while securing SW quality were introduced. Currently, most ADAS ECUs recognize the surrounding environment through radar or camera sensors installed in the vehicle, but as the number of sensors increases or information received from various other sensors is collected, it becomes very important to increase the accuracy of the information and control it in real time. Therefore, the session presentation focused on functional development and timing analysis, integrated testing, and verification methods for performing autonomous driving.

V2X communication technology, one of the key technologies required to implement intelligent vehicles and next-generation transportation systems (C-ITS), also drew attention from attendees. The current status of standardization and practical application of V2X communication technology being promoted in the US and Europe, as well as the testing methods needed to improve the performance of V2X systems currently underway through the North American CV (Connected Vehicle) pilot project, attracted great interest from attendees.

What was covered in the keynote speech?

At this conference, Dr. Bernd Hindel, the founder of iNTACS, the certification body for Automotive SPICE, the international standard for SW processes in the automotive industry, gave a keynote speech on the topic of “Automotive SW Engineering Trends - Challenges for OEMs and Suppliers.”

Dr. Hindel recently emphasized that SW and system engineering will become increasingly important, citing the increasing complexity of automotive SW and safety/security issues. Accordingly, he argued that automotive OEMs and parts suppliers should increase development productivity through organic integration of development processes such as ISO 26262 and Automotive SPICE.

In particular, Dr. Hindel said, “With the autonomous driving revolution, the boundaries between the automobile industry and the IT industry will completely collapse within the next five years, and we will enter an era where SW developers will generate higher profits than manufacturers.” He added, “The future task will be to resolve safety and security issues such as accidents caused by SW errors and hacking.” Therefore, based on BMW's success story, we repeatedly emphasized the need for Automotive SPICE Level 3 certification.

MDS Technology Vice President Woo Jun-seok said, “Although competition to lead the global smart car market is becoming increasingly fierce, domestic companies’ investment in and technological level for automotive SW technology, which can be considered a core competency, are still insufficient.” He added, “In order to secure global quality competitiveness and gain an edge in the future automobile market, we need to pay more attention to SW technology.”

MDS Technology, Automotive Segment Grows to 30% of Company Sales

MDS Technology introduced its business performance in the automotive sector from the early 2000s to the present through a press conference. It stated that it had been actively targeting the automotive market since 2010, and had grown from sales of 8.6 billion won at the time to 33.5 billion won in 2016, accounting for 30% of the company’s total sales.

The main driving force behind MDS Technology's growth into Korea's leading embedded solution company with sales exceeding KRW 100 billion can be said to be the acquisition of a one-stop solution necessary for automotive electrical SW development. MDS Technology is the only company in Korea that provides total solutions, engineering services, consulting, and education for the development process of automotive SW, including requirements management, SW design, implementation, and verification.

In addition, MDS Technology has contributed to the improvement of SW development efficiency and quality by providing customer-oriented technical support with 80% of its total workforce consisting of professional technical personnel. In addition, based on partnerships with global SW companies such as Germany and the United States, it has built a solid automotive SW business network and is recognized for its technological prowess by various customers across the domestic automobile industry, including manufacturers, parts suppliers, and electrical SW companies.

MDS Technology Vice President Woo Jun-seok told reporters, “As cars become smarter, the complexity of SW development is increasing,” and mentioned future issues and tasks that the domestic automobile industry must respond to. First, he insisted that new development methods different from the existing ones must be introduced in order to develop SW efficiently by applying various sensors and new communication methods to recognize the surrounding situation. In other words, he suggested the Model Based Design (MBD) and Diagram Based Design methods.

Virtual driving is essential because autonomous vehicles have limitations in testing in real road environments. He said that quality verification should be strengthened through HIL (Hardware-in-the-loop) Simulation, a technology that tests the performance and defects of a car using a virtual car before going into mass production. He also added that Google is actually testing 3 million miles through virtual driving every day.

In addition, as the number of electronic control units (ECUs) in automobiles increases, securing safety and actively utilizing international technical standards is becoming increasingly important. Accordingly, he emphasized that the domestic automobile industry also needs to have an accurate understanding of international standards and respond quickly. In other words, he said that global competitiveness should be enhanced by responding quickly to standards such as the international automotive functional safety standard ISO 26262, the international automotive SW development process standard Automotive SPICE, and the automotive SW development platform AUTOSAR (Autosar).