Consider a radar system in a vehicle’s side mirrors that indicates a car following closely behind. In the past this mirror had a separate controller, but it was not truly connected to the central car computer. The Tier1-supplier provided both the hardware and the software for this feature. In the case of a lane-changing assistant, however, the necessary connections multiply. This radar is connected to steering and braking, and thus must be connected to a central car computer and then across sensors and actors from more and more subsystems.
Car manufacturers must take collaboration between their mechanical, electrical, electronics, and software engineers to a higher level and do so deliberately and thoughtfully. Both the expectation for innovation and the penalties for failure are high
