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IoT and Digital Engineering
Bringing Together IoT and Digital Engineering to Create Rich Experiences
Highlights
- With digital cockpit systems becoming feature-rich and getting frequent over-the-air (OTA) updates, rigorous testing in a short time is a mandate now to ensure safety, security, and quality.
- Automated testing is a must, but with geographically dispersed teams, multiple challenges exist, including the efficient use of cost-intensive test infrastructure.
- A cloud-based remote automation testing approach increases the productivity of multi-location teams, optimizing the utilization of cost-intensive test infrastructure.
- It shortens the development cycle and improves the overall quality and stability of the software developed.
On this page
Digital cockpit
Feature-rich and connected digital cockpit systems are redefining the driving experience.
In-vehicle digital cockpit systems, including infotainment displays, instrument clusters, passenger displays, and heads-up displays, significantly enhance the overall user experience. To elevate this experience further, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are incorporating new modalities such as voice and gesture recognition inside vehicles.
Modern digital cockpit systems extend beyond navigation and standard infotainment features such as media, tuner, and bluetooth to offer a diverse set of connected features such as emotion and face recognition, conversational artificial intelligence (AI), driver health and wellness, smart home integration, social networking, camera services, and internet radio. Notably, for most of these features over-the-air (OTA) software updates can be done post-vehicle purchase. The cockpit feature set can be further expanded using downloadable apps of users’ choice.
Cockpit validation
In the era of OTA updates, digital cockpits require continuous validation for safety, security, and quality before any software updates go live.
This validation process involves different types of testing, including unit, functional, system, security, user interface and user experience (UI/UX), compliance and standards, localization, and user acceptance testing. For large systems, the number of test cases can soar beyond a few hundred thousand across multiple vehicle programs, resulting in the demand for automated testing.
During the development life cycle of a digital cockpit system, these test cases are executed more than once on device under tests (DUT) at different stages. The advent of OTA has also transformed the testing landscape, necessitating continuous validation throughout the vehicle's lifespan. In response, automated testing has emerged as a cornerstone, increasingly embraced by numerous OEMs and tier-1 companies in the digital cockpit domain.
Challenges
Automated testing in an agile environment with multiple geographically dispersed stakeholders presents unique challenges.
Some of these challenges are:
- Effective utilization of cost-intensive test infrastructure: Automated testing of digital cockpit systems requires a sophisticated and costly testing infrastructure. This infrastructure encompasses high-power and robust computers, signal generators, cameras, peripheral control sub-systems, and robotic arms, among others.
The software development ecosystem, involving numerous stakeholders, extends beyond OEMs to include software development partners, platform providers, niche technology partners, tier-1 players, system integrators, and program management partners. These stakeholders are mostly dispersed globally and engaged in multi-location co-development, integration, and testing. Replicating high-cost auto-test setups across multiple locations may not always be feasible. The solution lies in effectively using the existing auto-test infrastructure so as not to impact the program costs, schedule, and software quality.
- Support for automated test cases involving interaction with peripheral hardware like smartphones, smartwatches, and cameras: To enable multi-geography development and testing, many OEMs are considering cloud-native development and testing of automotive software, where the complete development and testing are done in the cloud. Cloud-native development enables remote testing of the software at a very early stage, when the hardware is not even available, replicating the actual environment of a target vehicle. However, cloud-native testing does not fit that well for the digital cockpit where many use cases involve interaction with different devices such as smartphones and smartwatches, and working with camera input. Simulating such interactions with external accessories would be difficult in the cloud environment.
- Seamless integration of test automation systems with project management tools: Customized automated testing solutions often lack seamless integration with bug tracking or project management tools, leading to time-consuming and cumbersome manual efforts in incorporating test results. Additionally, the absence of comprehensive logs from the DUT or video streams of testing steps complicates bug reproduction and analysis for developers.
Novel approach
A novel approach to cloud-based automated testing can enable accessibility to hardware remotely in real time and ensure optimal use of existing test infrastructure.
Overcoming the challenges of effective utilization of existing hardware and automated test cases involving other peripheral devices requires a novel approach. One that allows accessibility to hardware remotely and in real time via the cloud, optimizing existing infrastructure for testing purposes.
We envision an approach involving:
Remote access to on-premise testing setups, improving the productivity of geographically dispersed teams: This involves using a user-friendly web portal that allows individual team members from various geographical locations to remotely access and manage existing auto-test setups. Through this portal, users can schedule test cases, continually receive test case execution results, and review execution reports. This approach allows the auto-test infrastructure, including cameras, smartphones, smartwatches, and DUT, to remain on-premises while being remotely accessible through the cloud.
Complete test case coverage with efficient issue analysis: With remote accessibility, all testing can be executed on the actual hardware, ensuring alignment with the real digital cockpit system. Users can keep track of all the activities through an intuitive interface for viewing DUT logs, and live and recorded test case videos. They can also access dashboards displaying current and past test executions, providing valuable insights into test coverage and overall software stability.
Easy integration with other systems with APIfication: APIfication of services facilitates seamless integration with continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) systems, making functional automated testing an integral part of the build pipeline. This integration enhances software stability and quality during the development phase. This approach also includes adapters for easy integration with bug tracking and project management tools, allowing test results to be published directly to third-party solutions and triage teams.
Driving innovation
Cloud-based remote auto-testing of digital cockpits ensures rapid, stable, and secure deployment of software updates and new features.
By leveraging the power of cloud and optimizing the use of existing auto-testing infrastructure, along with real hardware testing, such a remote automated testing approach for cockpit systems ensures swift and reliable deployment of new features. It will help OEMs adhere to standards of safety, security, and quality that are crucial for safe mobility. Such an approach becomes all the more important as we move to a time when vehicle features and functionality are continually updated through frequent software updates and throughout a vehicle's lifetime. It’s the way forward for OEMs, tier-1 companies, and other stakeholders—one that not only elevates software quality but also increases the returns on investments.
