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The heavy-duty diesel industry continues to expand the use of sophisticated electronic controls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy in the transportation sector. This inevitably leads to a need for increased knowhow in all aspects of embedded software development, e.g. in writing model-based specifications, rapid controls prototyping, automatic code generation, and hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) testing. In addition, the software development organization has to recognize the need to establish maturity in its verification and validation test framework, which includes, among other things, a proper definition of testing process and workflow, greater organizational focus, and a robust tool architecture for software testing. Navistar has already undertaken a model-based approach to software development and continues to improve their processes, technology, and tooling in this area.

The process of developing new functions and software for powertrain embedded control units (ECUs) is undergoing a sea change. One of the reasons is the pressure to meet regulatory requirements (e.g. emissions, fuel economy) in addition to managing the normal growth in software complexity. Traditionally, the vehicle manufacturer (OEM) would write new specifications and hand them over to the software supplier (Tier1). This process required a substantial review and testing process at the OEM to ensure that the requirements were interpreted and implemented as indented. Today, a number of parties are involved in creating specifications (including the software supplier and 3rd party engineering companies), thus making the verification task even more complex.