Standard Interfaces and Standard Software Architecture as a Means For “Go Fast” Engineering

The global market pressure of requiring high quality vehicles at lower prices has forced automotive manufacturers to change the way they engineer their products.

In the electrical/electronic part of the automobile business, a strategy of reusing common hardware and software components was needed to support these market pressures. The General Motors strategy was to develop a standard electrical architecture.

This paper will identify what a standard electrical architecture is, how a standard electrical architecture helps General Motors meet market demands, and issues that General Motors encountered in trying to implement this standard electrical architecture.