Gerard Vink from Tasking, shares his views about trends in automotive sector and Tasking.
Q: Can you briefly share about Tasking business activities in automotive sector?
TASKING is a leading provider of software development tools headquartered in Munich, Germany, offering high-performance, high quality, safety & security-oriented embedded software development tools for multi-core architectures. TASKING’s development tools are used by automotive manufacturers and suppliers, as well as in adjacent markets around the world to realize high-performance applications in safety-critical areas. The TASKING Embedded Software Development solutions provide an industry-leading ecosystem for your entire software development process. Each TASKING compiler is designed for a certain architecture and meets the specific requirements of the automotive market. As the recognized leader in high-quality, feature- and safety-compliant embedded software development tools, TASKING enables you to create code with best-in-class size and performance with compilers, debuggers and RTOS support for industry-leading microprocessors and microcontrollers.
The acquisition of iSYSTEM further enhances TASKING’s safety and security-oriented software ecosystem and broadens its capabilities as a one-stop shop for embedded software development tools and services with a strong emphasis on the automotive safety market and its related applications.
Q: Will the software-driven vehicle see increased usage of embedded software development tools?
The Software Defined Vehicle (SVD) creates all kind of change within the organizations of OEMs and suppliers. Software and modern tools for software development are now first row citizens often with a dedicated focus from company’s top management. The continuing transformation, and consumer demand, for connected and autonomous technologies means vehicles need increased functionality that can be updated and improved over the vehicle’s lifetime. All this is done with software.Software-defined vehicles drive next-gen connected EV development.
Many car drivers expect their vehicles to be fully combined into their digital lives. In addition, new connectivity, automation, and personalization features will be increasingly executed with software in the future.
In the forthcoming, new features can be activated exclusively according to the driver’s needs. With regular updates, the value of the vehicle can not only be maintained but also increased throughout the entire life cycle.
Q: What are your views about connected vehicle safety? Do you think there could be a role for companies like Tasking to ensure safer vehicles?
TASKING’s main area of expertise are compilers and tools for safety projects in the transportation market. The increase in HPC/Zonal architecture, heterogeneous and even OEM-specific SoCs will create a need for dedicated compiler and development tools to enable efficient software development. TASKING’s strength is to support this development especially for safety and performance critical applications and services.
Automotive software and its development process must comply with international standards such as ISO 26262 “Road vehicles – Functional safety” and ISO/SAE 21434 “Road vehicles – Cybersecurity engineering”. The cybersecurity standard is very important for OEMs because compliance is mandatory to obtain type approval and gain market access.
Therefore the TASKING VX-toolset for TriCore/AURIXTM v6.3r1 has been certified against the ISO functional safety and the ISO cybersecurity standards by safety experts from TÜV-Nord. TASKING is proud that it was the 1st compiler supplier to receive such ISO/SAE 21434 certificate.
Q: How do you see your products/tools evolve for connected and autonomous vehicle in future?
To say that software is mission-critical in advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles is an understatement. It’s the differentiating factor between one vehicle and the next in terms of capability, performance and self-driving experience. The initiation of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) means that automotive manufacturers could bring cutting-edge systems and tools to support automakers in streamlining workflows, increasing product quality, and optimising production. TASKING continuously provides updates for its products, such as SmartCode – a set of compilers for Infineon’s AURIX TC4xx. We also added more ARM targets to our VX-toolchain with TRAVEO T2G and released the TriCore Inspector, a tool for software quality analysis. On the roadmap are further device support for ARC cores , RISC-V to list of supported targets and a new Safety Checker with enriched usability.
Our R&D department is fully loaded with adding new instruction set architecture support, new devices and optimization our customer ask for. In addition, we’re adding qualified libraries for safe (re-)use within customers safety system to our portfolio.
Q: What are your views about the automotive market in India?
The Indian automobile industry is setting out on a journey aiming for a sustained growth momentum in 2023 and further embracing clean technology amid the lurking speed breakers of rising interest rates and cost increases due to new emission and safety norms, having witnessed a strong comeback from the COVID-led downturn this year.
As per industry observers, 2023 will also see acceleration in adoption of electric vehicles, which has already started taking root in 2022, especially in the two-wheelers segment. With the increasing demand for vehicles, the need for improved security standards is also on the rise. Automotive cyber security in India is still in its early stages. It is estimated that 40 percent of new vehicles will have connected features over the next five years. Indian OEMs and government have acknowledged the need for improved cybersecurity measures.
Views shared by: Gerard Vink, Industry Specialist Product Definition, Tasking
