This morning the ATTI Forum got underway at Automotive Testing Expo (Messe Stuttgart, Germany, until June 25), offering visitors a variety of content to get stuck into. ATTI editor, Rachel Evans, welcomed visitors to the free-to-attend conference, which is now in its third year. The interactive format has proved popular with attendees.
The day started with a panel discussion on Euro 7. It’s a topic that has come in and out of the spotlight, and which ATTI has reported on several times over the past few years.
Next up was ATTI’s fireside chat with Dr Ahmed Ebada, an avid contributor to the magazine, on digital twins and AI. Asked what he hopes people will be thinking about – or doing differently – after they leave the discussion, he said, “I hope attendees leave with a more practical view of AI and digital twins. Rather than asking, ‘How can we deploy more AI?’ I would like them to ask, ‘How can we build trustworthy systems that continuously learn, validate and improve outcomes?’
“Whether we are discussing automated testing, digital twins, SDVs or autonomous systems, the key opportunity lies in connecting data, simulation, AI and real-world operations into a continuous feedback loop.
“Ultimately, I hope the audience recognizes that competitive advantage will not come from having the most AI models, but from building the most reliable and scalable AI-driven decision systems.”
Audience member Tatiana Sokolova, a professional truck driver, said she is especially interested in how AI, digital twins and intelligent testing technologies can better reflect real-world road conditions and professional driving experience. While the exhibition’s audience doesn’t typically include drivers, she was excited to add a practical, real-world angle to the discussions.
She commented, “I am especially interested in how real-world operational feedback from professional drivers can support testing, validation and safety discussions – for example, by helping to identify edge cases, unusual traffic situations, foreseeable misuse and boundary situations that may be difficult to capture only in simulations or standard test scenarios.”
The morning continued with presentations, and began this afternoon with another panel at 1:35pm, Safe by design, secure by default – navigating SOTIF, functional safety and cybersecurity in modern automotive testing, and more presentation and panels.
One of ATTI’s afternoon highlights is the presentation from Matthias Baert, CEO and co-founder of Marple, and Alessandro Pino, vehicle dynamics controls manager, Bugatti-Rimac – A modern lakehouse architecture for automotive testing – scheduled to take place at 2:25pm. Speaking ahead of the presentation Pino said, “Engineering teams often believe meaningful analysis requires local scripts, while server-based platforms are seen as tools for finance or business users. In reality, modern, server-based technologies are ideally suited to engineering workflows, enabling collaboration, scalability and faster insight generation.”
A panel discussion at 3:10pm will be led by ATTI on Euro NCAP 2026, which introduces the largest increase in test scenarios since the assessment program was launched is due to take place. Euro NCAP 2026: What the new safety framework means for the automotive testing community will cover key questions including how the changes are expected to affect testing and how long OEMs expect this transition to take, how tuning and verification activities will fit within overall development activities, virtual and physical analysis integration, and what Euro NCAP is doing to ensure its program isn’t disruptive to OEMs.
One of ATTI’s panelists, Emma Deutsch, director of customer-oriented engineering, test operations and DP office at Nissan Technology Centre Europe, who spoke to ATTI onstage last year, said, “I’m looking forward to discussing how we can work more collaboratively on vehicle safety. I hope that we can give the audience an insight into how these changes effect how vehicle design and development is being radically changed – and how this affects customers.”
The ATTI Forum will conclude with another panel followed by the awards.
Awards
Meet in the Atrium from 4:30pm (ceremony at 5:15pm) for drinks and to celebrate industry achievements across 13 categories and three sets of awards: the Automotive Testing Technology International Awards, the new Vehicle Tech Week Trailblazer Awards and the ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International Awards.
Automotive Testing Expo, part of Vehicle Tech Week Europe 2026, is open 9am to 3pm tomorrow, June 25
Read Dr Ebada’s column in the March 2026 edition
