QNX’s Under the Hood: SDV Developer Report highlights key hurdles slowing the UK’s software-defined vehicle (SDV) progress. Regulatory pressures, including the Cyber Resilience Act and GDPR, delay development, with 43% of developers citing compliance as a major barrier and 57% revising approaches after software recalls. Long development cycles and integration challenges add further complexity. Yet optimism remains around the potential of artificial intelligence to streamline SDV projects. ATTI speaks with Niko Boeker, QNX’s director of business development, about how artificial intelligence (AI) could help developers overcome these bottlenecks and accelerate progress toward autonomous SDVs
How can UK regulators strike the right balance between ensuring safety and security standards while avoiding development delays for SDV projects?
Keeping pace with the rapid development of software-defined vehicle (SDV) innovations certainly represents significant challenges for UK regulators. While regulations are often a lagging force, the automotive sector is an exception, particularly in Europe where compliance is mandatory to bring new vehicles to market. The key to striking the right balance and avoiding SDV project delays ultimately involves enabling early-stage compliance through pre-certified software foundations or modular software frameworks. This ensures developers can focus on innovation while embedding safety and security from the start, aligning with regulatory expectations without introducing delays. Consistent regulatory interpretation across jurisdictions, coupled with clarity and predictability around regulations, is also critical to simply reduce time wasted on developers having to reinvent the plumbing.
ADAS are a core part of SDV development but they’re also heavily regulated and complex to integrate. How are UK developers managing the dual challenge of meeting stringent ADAS safety standards while keeping development cycles efficient and innovation moving forward?
The dual challenge that UK and European original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) face is characterized by navigating stringent safety regulations while working around legacy system constraints. Unlike China, where many auto makers build from scratch, European developers must integrate advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) into existing, complex architectures. European teams are embracing mixed-criticality designs and virtualization, and pre-certified real-time operating system (RTOS) foundations and hypervisors. This allows safety-critical and non-critical functions to run independently on shared hardware, enabling faster iterations without compromising compliance. Critically, this enables smart partitioning capabilities to get ADAS out the door without getting stuck in the compliance weeds.
Nearly half of UK developers believe full vehicle autonomy will shape SDVs by the end of the decade, yet many also say these features are overhyped. How realistic is the UK’s current trajectory toward AV deployment, and what are the biggest technical or regulatory hurdles that still need to be overcome?
Expectations for full vehicle autonomy are still high, but some realism is setting in. More than half of respondents to our recent study say the hype is ahead of what’s deliverable. Full autonomous vehicle (AV) deployment is a long-haul effort, especially in Europe, where legacy integration, fragmented regulation and complex safety validation slow progress. While China moves faster with fewer constraints, Europe brings deep engineering rigor and high safety standards that will prove critical over time. For now, the smart money is on laying down scalable SDV architectures and maturing the software stack. Autonomy will roll out quickly once those solid foundations have been set.
Long development cycles and integration complexity are clearly slowing progress. What concrete steps are OEMs and suppliers taking to build compliance into their processes earlier and reduce these bottlenecks?
In this context, shift-left isn’t a buzzword but a key strategy for OEMs under pressure to deliver faster. Developers are moving compliance and validation tasks earlier in the cycle, using cloud-based environments to collaborate long before hardware is locked. Virtualized testing and safety-certified RTOS and hypervisors help reduce rework, ease audits and support shorter certification timelines. This approach also aligns with the shift toward continuous software refresh cycles every six to 12 months. Cross-industry collaboration is critical, too. 93% of automotive software developers say that collaboration is essential to keeping SDV programs on track.
Is the current industry focus on AI-driven personalization and advanced features distracting from solving more fundamental software challenges like testing, integration and safety?
The level of buzz that AI is generating is understandable; there’s huge potential with it, but most OEMs are focused on a whole host of, some would say, more urgent priorities. Scalable SDV architecture, security-first design and stabilizing the software stack are non-negotiables. Without secure, certifiable foundations in place, wide-scale AI deployment remains out of reach. The flashier features can wait. For automotive software developers and OEMs, getting the core systems right is what matters now.
Given that cybersecurity vulnerabilities are seen as the biggest near-term risk, how is the industry addressing the current cybersecurity skills shortage among UK automotive software developers?
As the automotive tech stack becomes a little bit of hardware and a lot of software, cybersecurity risk and the potential attack surface are growing fast. And that challenge is exacerbated when considering that 68% of UK developers say the talent just isn’t there to meet it. The industry is responding by plugging that skills gap through a mix of workforce investment, certified platforms that reduce internal burden, and deeper partnerships with academia and government. These types of initiatives help provide hands-on tools and free training, ensuring that the next generation can get up to speed on embedded real-time systems and cybersecurity. It will take time, but it’s important to invest in these skills to ensure future vehicles stay secure from day one.
How do these results compare with the global report?
UK and European developers share many of the same global SDV challenges. They experience long development cycles, integration bottlenecks and mounting cybersecurity risk, but ultimately they feel the regulatory pressure more acutely. UK respondents are more likely to cite compliance (43%) and cybersecurity (68%) as top-tier concerns, compared with global averages. And only a minority rate their current software tools as fit for purpose. While 33% globally say regulation has delayed timelines and 58% admit software recalls have reshaped their development approach, the UK picture is one of ambition constrained by infrastructure. Unlike China, where clean-sheet software architectures enable rapid progress, Europe is navigating legacy systems and complex supplier ecosystems. Still, Europe’s engineering depth and safety-first culture remain strategic strengths. The vision for AI-driven SDVs is strong, but in the UK foundational investment is still the critical enabler for SDV progress.