“We set out to redefine tire design by asking ourselves, ‘What if we infused our racing expertise into an extreme-performance summer tire?’” said Joerg Burfien, CEO and president of Hoosier Racing Tire. “This was new territory for us. We leveraged Hoosier’s advanced motorsport technology to push the boundaries of what a road-legal performance tire can achieve. Our objective was to deliver exceptional track capability without compromising everyday usability.”

“The TrackAttack Pro truly embodies the spirit of motorsport,” added Martin Heckers, head of Hoosier Racing Tire Europe. “It’s designed for drivers who want to travel to the circuit, maximize their track time, and drive home on the same tires. We believe customers across Europe will quickly become fans of this exciting addition to our product line-up because it delivers the rare combination of motorsport-inspired performance, street legality and everyday usability in a single tire.”

Incorporating H-DNA technology, the TrackAttack Pro pushes boundaries and defies limits. H-DNA was forged from a legacy of unrivaled racing excellence and relentless performance.

“One simple question posed by Joerg Burfien (CEO and president of Hoosier Racing Tire) fundamentally changed our thinking about the relationship between road and racing tires,” said Nic Moncher, head of marketing, Hoosier Racing Tire. “Our goal was to combine Hoosier’s racing pedigree with real-world usability as we grow the TrackAttack family. By leveraging our motorsport DNA, the TrackAttack Pro enables enthusiasts to enjoy outstanding performance both on the road and at the circuit using the same set of tires. By combining the ultimate track day weapon with extreme street performance, we’re delivering a tire designed to help drivers conquer every drive.”

The TrackAttack Pro spans 45 sizes covering wheel diameters from 15 to 21 inches.

Look out for the next issue of Automotive Testing Technology International, which will feature an interview with Hoosier’s head of R&D, Mike Edison.

Users can now describe development, analysis, and testing tasks by entering a prompt in natural-language. Specialized AI agents will derive the corresponding steps or complete workflows from these instructions and execute them automatically. The underlying language model is provided by the users themselves, such as the LLM behind GitHub Copilot or Claude. Vector supplies the open AI layer consisting of agents, skills and MCP tools that can be extended with components and domain-specific knowledge.

Version 20 SP2 of CANoe introduces an integrated MCP Server and CANoe AI Package, enabling an AI agent to generate CAPL tests from requirements, execute them, analyze errors, correct the code and rerun the tests. Users can monitor the process in CANoe and control the level of agent autonomy, with tasks that previously took hours or days potentially completed in minutes.

The CANoe AI Package is based on an open ecosystem of AI agents that use skills and MCP tools. With prompts, users can read and customize configurations, control simulations, create tests, analyze communication flows, as well as generate and optimize CAPL, C# and Python code. Through Vector-RAG (retrieval-augmented generation), agents can access a knowledge base containing relevant information from the Vector documentation. As a result, responses are based on verified expert knowledge rather than assumptions generated by the language model. New users gain quick access to CANoe, while experienced users can integrate automated workflows into their environments – ranging from simple queries to fully orchestrated processes.

Recent news, Chery establishes UK R&D center at UTAC Millbrook

Gary Lan, CEO of Chery International UK and vice president of the right-hand-drive division at Chery International, said, “The establishment of our UK R&D Centre of Excellence is the next step in our long-term plan for the UK. We waited over 20 years for the right time to enter this market, and our ambition has always gone much further than simply bringing vehicles here.

“UTAC Millbrook allows us to turn UK customer insight into product development, from ride and steering to active safety systems. It is another step in our long-term investment in the UK, and its work will become part of Chery Automobile’s wider global R&D activities.”

The selection of UTAC Millbrook builds on Chery Automobile’s existing relationship with UTAC Group, including a homologation joint venture established in 2024 and use of the Linas-Montlhéry facility in France for active and passive safety testing and homologation.

At UTAC Millbrook, Chery Automobile’s engineering teams will have access to more than 70km of purpose-built test tracks, including the Hill Route, Alpine Circuit and specialized durability and NVH surfaces, alongside battery testing laboratories, powertrain testing facilities, semi-anechoic chambers, and ADAS and autonomous vehicle testing capabilities.

Kirsty Andrew, vice president of UTAC UK, said, “The decision by Chery Automobile to establish its UK R&D Centre of Excellence at UTAC Millbrook is a significant commitment to engineering and vehicle development in the UK.

“Creating a standalone engineering center here means Chery Automobile can develop and validate vehicles against the particular demands of UK roads and UK drivers, with direct access to our engineering expertise and testing environments throughout that process. This is about much more than testing individual vehicles. We see this as the sustained momentum of a long-term engineering relationship with Chery Automobile, and we look forward to supporting the team as its capability and development activity at Millbrook grow.”

In recent news, the hydrogen powertrain technology behind the JCB Hydromax world land speed record

The Aston Martin Thor Team tested a development version of the 6.5-liter V12-powered Valkyrie Hypercar at Silverstone, with factory drivers Ross Gunn and Harry Tincknell completing the session. The team oversees Aston Martin’s WEC Hypercar and IMSA GTP programs.

Aston Martin Thor evaluated a range of technical developments during the Silverstone test, collecting data to inform the future performance development of the Valkyrie Hypercar.

“This was a significant day for Valkyrie,” said Aston Martin Thor team principal Ian James. “Some of the developments we tried today will fuel our thinking as we consider the technical direction we go next with Valkyrie. We have been able to evaluate lots of areas of performance on the car, so Silverstone has proved an interesting place to challenge ideas. There’s more to come, and I think it gives us reasons to be excited about what might be next for Valkyrie.”

The Valkyrie has shown performance improvements across its 2026 WEC and IMSA campaigns. In WEC, it secured its first double-points finish at the 6 Hours of São Paulo; in IMSA, the car has recorded six top-10 finishes from seven starts, including a second-place finish on the road at its latest event.

“We’ve been happy with Valkyrie’s performance characteristics in the first two seasons of competition,” said Aston Martin’s head of endurance motorsport, Adam Carter. “We’ve repeatedly said that we’ve entered an arena with a high level of formidable adversaries that are also several years further down the development track than us.

“So, we are now beginning to explore new areas of performance that we may gain through developing the base car, now that we understand its characteristics that much better after 18 months of racing it. We’re right at the beginning of that journey, and this was a useful and informative start to that development process.”

The test also gave Aston Martin Thor experience of the Michelin tires and Silverstone circuit characteristics ahead of the WEC’s return to the venue in 2027. The event will be the championship’s first British round since 2019.

“We very much welcome Silverstone back to the calendar,” said Carter. “It is not only the home of Aston Martin and British motorsport but also the perfect opportunity for some of the best fans in the world to experience the raw and visceral joy that is the Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar. They have waited a long time to see Valkyrie competing at the highest level on British soil, and they deserve to be thoroughly entertained. We will do our best to contribute to that experience.”

Developed from the Valkyrie production car by Aston Martin and Thor, the current competition version blends a race-optimized carbon-fiber chassis with a modified 6.5-liter V12 powerplant that revs to 11,000rpm and produces over 1,000bhp in standard form, but adheres to a strict 500kW (680bhp) power limit as per hypercar regulations.

In related news, Peugeot begins next phase of 9X8 development

With an officially measured average speed of 406.320mph (653.909km/h), the JCB Hydromax surpassed the previous record and established a new benchmark for hydrogen-based propulsion technologies. The record-breaking vehicle is powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines delivering a combined output of 1,600 hp.

The drivetrain incorporates components from Poppe + Potthoff’s modular Topaq hydrogen supply system. As part of its close collaboration with JCB, P+P supported the vehicle development process from the initial testing phase through to the final integration of the components. The integrated system components included the high-pressure regulation unit (HPRU), parallel charging units (distribution rails), lines and adapters. Within the system architecture, these components ensure an efficient and demand-oriented supply of hydrogen to the internal combustion engines.

Optimized integration and interface design helped reduce system complexity while maintaining stability and safety. Testing during development and validation confirmed performance before the system was deployed in the JCB Hydromax, where it was subsequently demonstrated under the demanding conditions of a world-record attempt.

“JCB Hydromax demonstrates the capabilities of hydrogen-based propulsion technology in a truly unique way,” said Poppe + Potthoff CEO Markus Kerkhoff. “We are proud that our Topaq system components contributed to this extraordinary achievement. This record proves that hydrogen-powered drivetrains can deliver both reliability and outstanding performance, even under extreme operating conditions.”

In related news, Phinia gains certification for hydrogen ICE retrofit technology

Be sure to read the September issue of Automotive Testing Technology International, which will feature an in-depth look at JCB and its land speed record

Backed by UK government funding through the CAM Pathfinder program, this new technology combines Gaussian scene reconstruction and generative AI techniques to create highly realistic digital representations of real-world environments. The company has been creating and using simulation software for automotive manufacturers since 2015.

Gaussian scene reconstruction converts images captured from the real world into photorealistic 3D environments that can be rendered efficiently in a simulation. It allows developers to recreate roads, junctions and other driving environments with a level of realism that is otherwise difficult to achieve at scale.

The project will also apply diffusion-based AI models to modify and enrich these digital environments. This enables the rapid generation of variations in lighting, weather and other scene conditions, allowing autonomous vehicle systems to be tested across a much wider range of scenarios than could be collected manually.

Many cars on the road today use Level 2 driver assistance, where the car can control the steering and speed but the driver must remain alert at all times. Level 3 is also available in some cars. This new technology will be used to develop technology for cars that will use Level 2++ and Level 3 automation. Five’s simulation tool will work with others within Bosch Mobility to create a comprehensive platform. In addition to Gaussian scene reconstruction and diffusion, it will use state-of-the-art artificial intelligence to reconstruct photorealistic digital twins of the world. It will be possible to create scenarios and evaluate how the car handles them. Ultimately, the simulation will be able to train and validate L4 autonomous vehicle systems.

Dave Buffey, head of Bosch Mobility UK, said, “This testing software will be an important cutting-edge innovation that will be developed by Five AI’s team. Our strategy is to work closely with Five to solve the complex challenges that our car manufacturer partners are tackling as they incorporate the latest autonomous driving tech into their vehicles. This is one of the biggest challenges in today’s automotive industry.”

In related news, Arnold NextG aligns Safety-by-Wire with UNECE ADS rules

The system combines high-performance x-ray technology with a specially designed battery test chamber and advanced sensor systems that simultaneously capture temperature, pressure, voltage and gas flow. Recording up to 1,000 images per second, it reveals processes such as gas formation, material displacement and crack propagation inside the cell at extremely high resolution, events that until now have remained hidden from view.

“Our in-situ method allows us to see what happens inside a cell in fractions of a second – in real time and at the highest resolution,” said Dr Sebastian Schopferer, head of battery safety at Fraunhofer EMI. “This fundamentally changes how we understand battery design and safety.”

A key engineering milestone was the development of a protective chamber that reliably shields sensitive x-ray components from the extreme conditions generated during lithium-ion cell thermal runaway.

Proven in practice and already in use

Fraunhofer EMI has already used the system for several German car manufacturers, including VW and Audi, to characterize material ejection during thermal runaway and propagation behavior in multicell configurations. The resulting data enables engineers to assess cell designs based on directly observed processes and refine simulation models with greater precision, delivering direct added value for product development and certification processes.

Transfer to industry by 2028

In the next phase, Fraunhofer EMI and PowerCo will transfer the technology into industrial use.

Initial results from the collaboration are already feeding into the development of optimized production cells at PowerCo, accelerating the path from research to industrial implementation. The system is scheduled for installation at PowerCo’s Salzgitter site in Germany in 2028.

Designed as a modular platform, the system can be scaled to different cell formats and new cell chemistries.

“With in-situ high-speed x-ray imaging, we are taking battery research to a new level,” said H W Vassen, CTO of PowerCo. “For the first time, we can make the dynamic processes inside cells visible in real time and in slow motion. This unprecedented depth of insight allows us to optimize battery cell safety and design in a highly targeted way and bring innovations into industrial use much faster. Together with Fraunhofer EMI, we are advancing high technology made in Europe and are strengthening Europe’s role in the battery industry.”

In related news, V Engineering develops new hybrid battery for McLaren P1

Hyperpilot has announced a new integration that allows engineering teams to generate tests directly from requirements and run them across the entire development lifecycle, using the dSPACE Test Automation SDK.

A modern car contains up to 150 electronic control units running, and between them are thousands of individual software units, each needing its own tests. For a single control unit, the test suite alone can run to tens of thousands of cases, and across the industry, verification and validation consume between 30% and 50% of all software development effort. Written manually, test suites move at the pace of engineering teams: authored line by line, updated in batches weeks apart and reworked every time a requirement changes.

Hyperpilot Studio can generate tests directly from requirements, with the resulting test suites exported as native dSPACE Test Automation SDK executables. The tests can run across software-, hardware- and vehicle-in-the-loop (SIL/HIL/VIL) setups without modification, providing a common workflow that keeps requirements, software and test cases aligned throughout development.

“In safety-critical systems, tests are the specification,” said Elie Talj, co-founder and CEO of Hyperpilot. “Software design can already scale, thanks to Hyperpilot’s Algorithm Discovery Engine. The next challenge is making sure validation scales with it. By combining Hyperpilot with dSPACE’s Test Automation SDK, teams can autogenerate thousands of high-quality tests in minutes, straight from requirements, and run them in any setup they choose.”

Hyperpilot Studio generates hundreds of tests per minute for individual software units, with parallel processing allowing the output to scale to thousands of tests per minute. The company says it can generate a complete, traceable test suite for a control unit within minutes, and for a full vehicle program within days. Tests can also be regenerated when requirements change, helping to keep validation aligned with software development.

Engineers can focus on reviewing test coverage, assessing edge cases and signing off results, while Hyperpilot Studio automates test generation. The approach could also allow teams that currently outsource test development to bring more of this work in-house. Hyperpilot removes a key barrier to test-driven development in embedded systems by automating test generation as requirements change.

dSPACE has expanded its portfolio with a test automation SDK designed to simplify automated test execution in Python across software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) environments. Development and validation teams can create and run test cases in Python across both setups, supporting automated end-to-end test workflows. Further development of the SDK will be open source, allowing users and partners to contribute to its development.

The solution uses code-based test automation, with tests written as Python scripts and reused across different test environments. An abstraction layer allows the same test logic to run on SIL platforms such as dSPACE Veos and HIL systems such as dSPACE Scalexio, with changes between environments handled through configuration rather than rewriting the tests.

In related news, dSPACE introduces MCP-enabled AI engineering workflows

The report demonstrates how the company is embedding sustainability into its strategy and decision-making, while delivering innovative products and solutions that are designed to help customers enhance efficiency, reduce emissions and navigate an increasingly diverse mobility landscape.

Lower-carbon and zero-carbon innovation

Phinia has dedicated approximately 85% of R&D investment to technologies that enhance fuel efficiency and support alternative fuels. The company also achieved TÜV Süd certification in Germany for hydrogen internal combustion engine (H2 ICE) retrofit technology, creating a pathway for commercial deployment.

Circular economy and remanufacturing effectiveness

The company has expanded lifecycle assessment training and capabilities through its Design for Environment program to support product-level sustainability improvements and greater consideration of end-of-life impacts during development. At its largest remanufacturing facility, 63% of manufactured material is now reused, up from 52% in 2024; a further 93% of the remaining material is recycled.

Operational efficiencies and emissions reductions

Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions intensity has fallen by 35% compared with 2024, driven by lower energy consumption, reduced natural gas use and increased procurement of green energy.

Reporting and risk assessment enhancements

The company completed the first enterprise-wide double materiality assessment, alongside climate, nature and legal and compliance risk assessments, to support sustainability reporting and strategic decision-making.

Responsible supply chain collaboration

Sustainability factors have been integrated into supplier risk management, sourcing decisions and risk mapping. More than 50 suppliers were recognized through the Phinia Partnership Program (3P) for performance, collaboration and sustainability alignment.

“Our 2025 Sustainability Report demonstrates how sustainability is embedded in the way Phinia innovates, operates and creates long-term value for our stakeholders,” said Brady Ericson, president and chief executive officer at Phinia. “From advancing lower-carbon and zero-carbon alternative-fuel technologies to expanding circular economy principles, we are delivering practical solutions that help our customers improve efficiency, expand fuel choice and reduce emissions today. We also made great progress across our people and operations by reducing our environmental footprint, investing in our employees, and strengthening responsible business practices. With disciplined execution and sound governance, we are building a more resilient Phinia while driving a more sustainable future.”

In related news, how modular testing is supporting the shift to hydrogen, methanol and ammonia

What’s one thing happening in the industry right now that people can’t afford to ignore?
One important development that the industry cannot afford to ignore is the growing regulatory and consumer-safety focus on how drivers interact with the cockpit. Euro NCAP’s 2026 protocol places greater emphasis on providing easily accessible controls for important functions such as indicators, hazard lights, the horn, windshield wipers and headlights. China is moving even further, with proposed requirements covering functions such as ADAS activation, defrosting and power-window operation.

However, I believe the bigger signal is not simply the return of physical controls. The bigger signal is that the HMI is becoming a safety-relevant engineering artifact that must be objectively validated. The layout, information hierarchy, control placement, visibility and interaction behavior can no longer be treated only as matters of design preference. They must be evaluated against measurable safety and usability requirements. The challenge is that many organizations still do not have the tools needed to measure these characteristics continuously and at scale.

What’s the biggest misconception in your field?
The biggest misconception is that automotive HMI testing is essentially mobile-app testing on larger screens. An automotive cockpit operates under very different conditions. A mobile application typically runs on one device and one operating system. An automotive HMI may operate across a center display, instrument cluster, head-up display, passenger display and rear-seat displays. These surfaces can have different sizes, configurations and responsibilities, and they may run on different operating systems. They must also respond correctly to vehicle signals, driving states, regional restrictions and multiple forms of input, including touch, voice, steering-wheel controls and physical switches. Traditional manual quality assurance and mobile-style automation alone cannot scale to the complexity and release frequency of modern software-defined vehicles. Automotive HMI validation must examine not only whether a function works, but also whether the correct information appears on the correct display, in the correct state, at the correct time.

Many OEMs are accelerating their software-defined vehicle strategies. Where do you see the biggest validation gaps emerging today?
I see four major validation gaps. The first is the design-validation gap. Designers may create an approved design, but teams still need to determine whether that design works across all vehicle variants and whether it satisfies applicable automotive safety and usability requirements.

The second is the cross-display and cross-OS verification gap. Individual applications may work correctly, but teams must also verify that data and visual states remain synchronized across the center display, cluster, head-up display and other surfaces.

The third is the OTA regression gap. A relatively small software update can affect components and screen states far beyond the area being modified. Without effective impact analysis and automated regression testing, it is difficult to know how much of the cockpit must be revalidated.

The fourth is the contextual-safety gap. A platform may expose the current vehicle state or applicable UX restrictions, but that does not automatically prove that the rendered interface follows those restrictions. We must verify the actual behavior and the pixels presented to the driver. Closing these gaps requires a combination of virtualized testing, signal-aware automation, visual validation and targeted physical testing. No single tool can solve the entire problem.

AI is increasingly being applied across vehicle development and validation. What opportunities does it create, and what limitations should engineers be aware of?
AI creates several opportunities across automotive HMI development and validation. First, a generative system can use a verified automotive UI database together with contextual inputs to propose an interface appropriate for a particular situation. For example, it could simplify the screen during a demanding driving situation and prioritize navigation, warnings or frequently used controls. The proposed layout can then be checked by a separate deterministic safety gate. The AI generates the design, but the deterministic gate decides whether the design satisfies the mandatory rules.

Second, vision-language models can inspect an interface in a way that is closer to human visual review. They can compare a rendered screen with an approved design and reason about text, alignment, element states, visual hierarchy and behavior under different contextual inputs.

Third, AI can help generate and prioritize test cases using UX specifications, system requirements, vehicle context and recent software changes. It can also help provide dynamic inputs to the system under test and identify combinations that may otherwise be overlooked.

At the same time, engineers must recognize that AI models are probabilistic. They can report defects that do not exist, miss subtle icon or color-state changes, and sometimes produce different conclusions for the same inputs. For that reason, safety critical requirements such as mandatory control presence, vehicle-state restrictions, minimum target sizes and alert priorities should be enforced through deterministic and auditable code. Low-confidence AI conclusions should be routed to a human reviewer rather than automatically treated as a pass or failure.

What should engineers working on software-defined cockpits be focusing on over the next few years?
Building cockpit architecture that’s observable, testable and fails safely. Make your design specification machine readable. If your spec carries roles for UI elements, target sizes, priorities and the contextual conditions each applies to, it stops being a picture and becomes ground truth a machine can check against. That one change unlocks most of the automation downstream.

Turn the distraction rules into executable constraints. ISO 15008 and the NHTSA guidelines currently live in documents that designers cite. They should be code running in your validation pipeline, returning pass or fail. Rules you can execute, not rules you can quote.

Move validation into software-in-the-loop and virtual environments, so you can exercise large configuration matrices before hardware exists. HIL still matters but it should be spending its time on timing, integration and physical behavior, not repeating basic UI checks that could have run in simulation.

And use AI aggressively wherever the output is checkable, but treat everything it produces as unverified until it’s been through the same static analysis, review and traceability you’d apply to human work. The goal isn’t maximum autonomy. It’s maximum useful automation with a clearly defined failure mode, and a human in the loop where the model is unsure.

You will be speaking on this subject at the Automotive Design & In-Cabin Conference at Vehicle Tech Week North America in October. What will attendees learn from your presentation that they won’t get anywhere else?
This session connects two parts of the problem that are usually discussed separately. The first is preventing an unsafe or distracting interface from being designed in the first place. This is addressed through context-aware generation combined with a deterministic safety gate. The second is proving that an approved design was implemented correctly in the actual vehicle software. This is addressed through vision-language-based design-to-build validation.

These are two different failure modes. A design itself can be unsafe, or a safe design can be implemented incorrectly. Solving only one of these problems still leaves the cockpit exposed. Attendees will see how the two approaches can form a closed validation loop – from context and design intent, through implementation, to the final pixels rendered inside the vehicle. They will also leave with a practical understanding of where AI adds value, where deterministic validation is required and where human judgment must remain part of the process.

What are you hoping to learn, explore or discover at Automotive Design & In-Cabin Expo North America?
I want to understand how other organizations are validating the complete cabin experience rather than individual components. Specifically, how teams are handling cross-display synchronization, driver monitoring, adaptive interfaces, accessibility, display performance, and the integration of physical and digital controls. And I’m looking for practical examples of AI that have actually crossed from demonstration into production engineering workflows not pilots – production. Most of all, I want to find out where OEMs, suppliers, designers and test-tool providers draw the boundary between virtual validation and physical cabin testing.

Don’t miss Kumar’s presentation, titled ‘Bridging the SDV validation gap: An AI-driven framework for verification and validation in the multiple display and multi-OS cockpits,’ at Vehicle Tech Week North America, October 27-29, 2026. Read more about this presentation in the September 2026 issue of ATTI, and find full details on Automotive Testing Expo North America 2026 here