Technology adoption in automotive product development

Abstract

The automotive industry is characterized by the early adoption of technology into their products. In recent years, the automotive industry has developed infotainment systems that encompass navigation, digital media, phone calls, safety and other elements. These infotainment systems are based on componentry similar to smartphones or tablet computers. In contrast to tablet computers, the automotive infotainment systems have followed the typical automotive product development pace, leaving the automotive infotainment systems with outdated hardware and software when compared to the consumer electronic industry. The automotive industry follow a model year cycle while consumer electronics quickly adapt to consumer demand with many releases over a single calendar year. The objective of this thesis is to present a new architecture specific to In-vehicle infotainment systems; providing a faster componentry adoption and faster software updates.