Driving innovation in the automotive industry: Lessons from space, avionics, and cybersecurity

Learning from other industries

For over 40 years, GMV has been at the forefront of developing solutions for some of the world’s most demanding sectors. In space exploration, avionics, and safe navigation, there’s no margin for error. Missions must succeed, lives depend on precise calculations, and systems need to be resilient under extreme conditions. These disciplines have taught us how to design, validate, and deploy safe and reliable systems.

This experience is particularly valuable for autonomous driving technologies, where precision and safety are paramount. For example, our GMV GSharp® positioning solution provides trustworthy high-accuracy localization essential for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and autonomous driving applications. This technology minimizes uncertainty, offering reliable navigation even in challenging environments and has already been successfully used in some L3 automated driving functions by some of the most important premium OEMs.

The software-defined vehicle revolution

The SDV concept represents a paradigm shift in the automotive ecosystem. Traditionally hardware-centric vehicles are now increasingly defined by their software capabilities. This transformation is enabling:

• New Business Models: Subscription services, over-the-air updates, and feature customization are creating additional revenue streams and reshaping the industry’s economic model.

• Enhanced User Experiences: From personalized driving settings to real-time diagnostics, SDVs provide unparalleled value to drivers and passengers.

• Increased Innovation (also at procedural level): Flexible software platforms allow automakers to adopt incremental development processes, enabling rapid deployment of new features and technologies.

However, the SDV era also brings challenges, particularly in the realm of cybersecurity. Increasing a vehicle’s connectivity makes it more vulnerable to attacks, underscoring the need for robust protection mechanisms. Moreover, the increasing number of LOCs associated with this new vehicle concept adds complexity to the equation. Additionally, the trend towards new centralized architectures, where physical isolation that was derived from the distributed architectural approaches no longer exists. GMV has understood how to play a critical role in this situation, as we emphasize a holistic approach to cybersecurity, ensuring that safety-critical systems are not only reliable but also secure against potential threats.

Collaboration and the path forward

In this dynamic landscape, collaboration across disciplines is essential. At GMV, we believe in bringing together expertise from different sectors to tackle the automotive industry’s most pressing challenges. This is what we have been doing for some years now, following a strategy where we exploit our cross-industry synergies first, and then working closely with OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and technology providers next. With this approach, we are helping to develop vehicles that meet the highest standards of safety, reliability, and user satisfaction.

For example, our partnerships in positioning and autonomous vehicle development focus on incremental, agile solutions that are rigorously tested and compliant with the strictest standards, including ISO 26262, SOTIF and ISO 21434. These efforts ensure that the shift to CAVs and SDVs occurs without compromising safety or public trust.

Looking to the future

As we look ahead, we see a few guiding principles that will shape the future of automotive innovation:

1. Multidisciplinary Approaches: Applying lessons from industries like space and avionics and the IT world is critical to addressing the unique challenges of automotive systems.

2. Agile Development and new methodological approaches: Incremental progress and iterative validation are essential for building reliable and adaptable solutions.

3. Focus on Safety, Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability: High precision, rigorous validation, and compliance with safety standards are non-negotiable to earn consumer trust.

4. Cybersecurity as a Cornerstone: The interconnected nature of SDVs demands a robust and proactive approach to securing systems against evolving threats.