Automakers focus on soft money

The huge surge in software makes it a focus for cost cutting.

The broad increase in automotive electronics content is fostering an even broader expansion in the amount of software in vehicles. Increasing amounts of software are a key differentiating technology, prompting a focus on reducing the cost of creating and verifying computer code.

Software is a key differentiator as automakers race to outdo each other with innovative features. “New functions are not being introduced by new hardware but by new software,” said Wolfgang Ziebart, CEO at Infineon Technologies AG.