Accelerating Automotive Software Defect Detection via Shift-Left with Virtual ECU Testing

The increasing software complexity in modern vehicles pushes traditional validation methods to their limits. As software-defined vehicles (SDVs) evolve, software verification is an integral part of development from day one. However, current validation approaches, reliant on hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and physical prototypes, face critical bottlenecks:

• Late-stage defect detection, increased rework costs, and prolonged development.
• Limited scalability, challenging efficient software variation testing.
• Fragmented validation environments, causing multi-domain integration inefficiencies.

To address these, the industry is shifting towards virtualization-driven validation. Virtual ECUs (VECUs) enable software testing before hardware availability, facilitating parallel validation, continuous testing, and faster iterations. This approach is bolstered by the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) 3.0 standard, which explicitly supports virtual ECU testing, enhancing interoperability. Meanwhile, OEMs adopt virtual validation, integrating VECUs with existing simulation infrastructure remains a challenge.

Learn about VECU execution integration with existing Simulink-based simulation infrastructure based in Simulink^®, enabling OEMs to leverage current environments for new VECU methods, benefiting from FMI 3.0. Transitioning from model-in-the-loop (MIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) to virtual testing, this solution facilitates FMU-based Level 2/Level 3 VECU simulation, calibration, measurement, and CAN simulation. Co-simulation of VECU (FMU) with Simulink enhances testing, reduces physical prototype needs, and accelerates development. This approach demonstrates improvements in efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and accuracy in automotive control system development.