How Automotive Technology Changed Canada
Software is the new king.
Now that smart cars can respond to voice commands, display 3-D maps, and evade obstacles, the electronics, and automotive software for these features tend to cost more than the vehicle’s raw metal.
According to an estimate made by IHS Automotive, the average price for a vehicle’s software can range from $400 to $1,000. And with electronics hardware, the displays, user controls, and computer chips will add up to $2,000 to $6,000 to your vehicle’s cost.
As suppliers increase their software development, searching for automotive software engineering talent can be a bit of a gold rush. To cope with the shortage of software engineer shortage, suppliers like Vision Corp are hiring engineers from video game and movie industries.
Here are some challenges that the automotive software engineers tend to fast.
Testing
Some of the main challenges that automotive software engineering experts face is requirements, automation, and test management. The solutions are to share the test results across systems and teams, streamlining system verification, and developing better automation standards.
Agile Practices
The main issue in automotive software engineering is deploying and synthesizing functions without compromising quality attributes such as safety and performance. Since integration is an error-prone and expensive process, practitioners need to integrate and automate the deployment and synthesis of software functions with continuous integration (CI) systems.
Software Quality
Research showed that automotive software relies on “effective resource allocation, release-readiness evaluation, product quality improvement.” Studies show that management models help improve automotive system’s maintenance and quality.
General Motors Supports Automotive Engineering
Today, Kathleen Wynne has joined with General Motors Executives and Justin Trudeau to state that Ontario, Canada is the new location that General Motors is using to expand their software and engineering work. Based on the company’s investment, the project will boost the economy and provide up to 700 jobs.
As one of the leading vehicle producers in North America, Ontario has become the new automotive hub. Due to the province’s automotive presence, it has been the main reason why General Motors has chosen Ontario to invest in. As a result, the Canadian Technical Center will play a leading roll in the development of autonomous, connected, and alternative-fuel vehicles.
How Does Canada Benefit?
To add onto their investment, General Motors will create a major software development center in Markham and improve its testing facility in Kapuskasing, which will double its overall length. And within the next few years, General Motors will bring about 700 jobs into the location.
Ontario has been a longstanding partner towards the automotive sector. In fact, they have been known to invest over $1.1 billion since 2001 in order to leverage over $10 billion in their total industry investment. Since they are the first Canadian province to test automated vehicles, we can see this area playing a major role in Canada’s automotive development.
Conclusion
Overall, we can see that the demand from automotive software developers is at an all-time high. This means that new developments are made, and companies are actively searching for developers to help complete their project goals. We can expect that the industry will continue to grow and make more innovative cars in the future.
Sources:
- https://www.investinontario.com/news/general-motors-expands-vehicle-software-development-and-engineering
- https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2015/10/ontario-first-to-test-automated-vehicles-on-roads-in-canada.html
- https://publications.computer.org/software-magazine/2017/11/16/automotive-engineering-software-and-agile-development/
About the Author
Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.
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