I’ve just read “Challenges in Automotive Software Engineering” by Manfred Broy, and I can almost feel my mind tickling.

The article is a bird’s-eye view of the challenges that the automotive industry faces with regard to engineering the software used in cars. In a sense, in the automotive realm, all those issues related to software in the aerospace realm such as safety, quality and so on, collide with the issues brought forth by massive, decentralised production, rapid development cycles, extremely cost conscious management and all that coupled with having to overturn (very) well established technological mores of almost 100 years. (One could even claim that the article is a good insight of how actual industrial production is transformed dramatically during the passage from the Industrial to the Information age)

The issues in Automotive SE range from requirements engineering, human-machine interfaces, data modeling, the software development process, software compatibility, integration and versioning, quality assurance, decentralised  production and maintenance (software maintained in …garages, eh?) and so on and so forth. Practically all facets of Software Engineering are represented in the automotive industry while at the same time, apropos the domain’s characteristics, taking very interesting twists.

All in all, the article is a great read for anyone who wishes to get introduced to that exciting technological realm. On top it, it’ very nicely written, making up a really smooth and engaging read!