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In the automotive industry, a steadily growing number of mono-functional electronic control units (ECUs) with increasing complexity on the one hand and restrictive requirements for power consumption and mounting space on the other hand are forcing changes in car electronics. This tendency is enforced by increasing requirements on security, comfort, fuel consumption and emission. In luxury cars, we are now at up to 80 more or less independent electronic units with low potential for synergies between functions (pan-functional services). The actual assembly of electronic units is certainly easily expandable, has very low error propagation but it also involves lots of logistic and bulky cabling with unwanted weight as well as extensive space and power consumption. If trends are properly interpreted, synergies between functions for more comfort, additional safety and security as well as minor air pollution are required in the future at least at unchanged costs in the vehicle's electronics.

In the automotive industry, a steadily growing number of mono-functional electronic control units (ECUs) with increasing complexity on the one hand and restrictive requirements for power consumption and mounting space on the other hand are forcing an architectural change in car electronics. Computer platforms with a client/server architecture could potentially reduce the number of ECUs in a car drastically, with a commensurate reduction of costs and space, better integration possibilities for enhanced functionality and additional services during the lifetime of a car. One of the problems which arises when those architectures come to the car is coping with the complexity of mainly software-based functionality and reliability issues under the aspect of rapidly evolving hardware infrastructure. The reorganization of car electronics also offers the possibility of a redistribution of functionality in the car which has been designed in the past for specific demands.

In the automotive industry a growing number of mono-functional control units with increasing complexity on one hand and requirements for reduced power con-sumption and mounting space on the other hand are enforcing an architectural change of the car electronics. Computer platforms with a client/server architecture are candidates to reduce the number of control units drastically followed by a reduction of costs, space and better integration possibilities for enhanced func-tionalities as well as additional services. The problem which comes up now if those architectures are coming to the cars is to cope with software complexity and reliability issues under the aspect of continuously evolving hardware infrastructure. To understand the problems better, the Corporate Engineering within Robert Bosch GmbH has build a multifunctional look-and-feel demonstrator in a first step using a component-based software architecture on a standard PC-platform. Experiences are reported.