The idea of keeping a vehicle safe and secure throughout its whole life cycle, as well as having the opportunity to add functionality after initial delivery, is the key motivation behind automotive software updates. Today, safety or security issues that appear after vehicle delivery need to be resolved by starting a recall campaign. These campaigns require the vehicle user to visit a car repair workshop to get an update. Over The Air (OTA) software updates, being location-independent, can pave the way for higher update frequencies and more efficiency regarding customer satisfaction, resource consumption as well as safety and security.
In this paper we analyze requirements for OTA software updates phrased in various standards and regulations as well as in existing development and type approval processes. Prevailing challenges for OTA updates are extracted to identify necessary activities and artifacts within the procedure. Based on that a concept for the approval and execution processes of OTA updates is designed. This concept includes the involved entities, required communication and exchange paths as well as the OTA update specification.