KPIT, dSPACE, and Microsoft Team up to Offer a Solution for the Homologation of Autonomous Vehicles

Data-driven simulation and homologation for the development of autonomous driving is a new field that demands expertise in various areas, including, DevOps, cloud computing, simulation, and automation. Benefit for the mobility ecosystem: accelerated development of autonomous driving development at optimized technology spend. The companies combine excellence in areas of artificial intelligence, software, hardware, verification & validation, and cloud services. The solution will accelerate and optimize the complete development process, from data collection and software development to integration and in-vehicle testing. KPIT Technologies, dSPACE, and Microsoft have teamed up to offer a unique solution for OEMs and Tier-1s seeking homologation (self-certification in the USA) for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving. Certification for autonomous vehicles requires millions of miles of testing, which can only be achieved through data-driven simulation., This is a fairly new field that requires multiple skills and tools to manage petabytes of data (e.g., domain expertise, software development capabilities, unique tools, and infrastructure). A collaborative approach among experts in infrastructure, autonomous driving, and solution expertise will deliver efficiency and effectiveness through a one-stop solution for OEMs, thereby optimizing technology spends. KPIT, dSPACE, and Microsoft combine all of these competencies to provide a one-stop solution for the mobility industry.

KPIT will leverage decades of experience in working on the development, validation, and integration of applications for autonomous driving for next-generation technology roadmaps. The company will contribute its expertise in software development, integration, and validation to this collaboration. KPIT will also use a suite of virtual simulation and validation tools purpose-built for autonomous driving use cases. dSPACE will contribute tools and solutions for data-driven development, simulation, and validation. The company has been helping its customers improve their validation methods for more than 30 years and offers OEMs and Tier-1s new solutions for the development of applications for autonomous driving. To this end, dSPACE recently launched SIMPHERA, a web-based, highly scalable, cloud solution that lets users perform the computation-intensive validation of functions for autonomous driving quickly and easily. SIMPHERA supports the collaboration of development teams that are distributed worldwide and lets customers seamlessly integrate their applications. Microsoft Azure Core and Services help automakers accelerate their digital transformation by providing global cloud services and computing capabilities uniquely tailored to deliver virtualization of infrastructure and networking for ADAS feature development and validation in a cost-performant, scalable, and repeatable manner.

The solution developed by this collaboration accelerates the companies’ clients’ time to market. Clients will also save development costs for integration by using a complete solution with ready assets and accelerators that are globally available through a cloud infrastructure. Anup Sable, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Technology Officer, KPIT Technologies, states, “We are excited to collaborate with dSPACE and Microsoft. Mobility ecosystem needs robust solutions that harness expertise from different dimensions. At KPIT, our involvement in software development and integration in multiple ADAS/ AD production programs and a strong focus on virtual validation is key. We are among the largest software integration partners and provide simulation as a service (SimaaS) to 12+ major OEMs and 4+ Tier1s. Our experience with dSPACE and Microsoft expertise will create solid value for our clients.” Tino Schulze, Executive Vice President Automated Driving & Software Solutions, dSPACE, notes, “Introducing and operating a data-driven development and validation toolchain is a huge effort for our customers. This collaboration enables the rapid adoption of tools as well as engineering and cloud expertise to deliver a complete end-to-end solution. This significantly increases development speed, which is key in this fast-moving ADAS/AD market.” Dwayne Crocker, Industry Solutions Director for Autonomous Development, Microsoft, says, “The combination of Microsoft Azure hyperscale infrastructure and cloud services with KPIT and dSPACE’s services and industry experience packages our enables seamless ADAS/AV feature development and validation on a global scale for our automotive customers.”