In 2010, Damian Harty was enjoying an especially rewarding time in his career as technical specialist in dynamics at Prodrive, the renowned UK engineering consultancy and motorsport preparation outfit. Having previously been involved in the development of the all-conquering Subaru Imprezas in the World Rally Championship, he had turned his attention to the new (and disappointingly short-lived) Mini Countryman WRC initiative. At that time, Harty wrote an article for Vehicle Dynamics International, ATTI’s former sister title, about the Mini’s development, in which he memorably noted, “There will always be a bigger rock. However much suspension travel there is, it will all get used up. Whatever loads are designed for, they will be exceeded.”

That there will always be a “bigger rock” neatly summarizes much of the difficulty of automotive testing, no matter which part of the vehicle is under consideration. Sixteen years later, during a chat with Harty, ATTI began by asking whether it is now easier than it was before to know where the limit of testing should lie. “I don’t think so, because the challenge is not so much about the vehicle itself, it’s about what the vehicle will encounter,” he replies. “And for as long as you have human drivers and, let’s say, imperfectly calibrated software drivers, it’s still difficult to anticipate the corner cases with which the vehicle will be presented.

“That was what I meant by ‘There will always be a bigger rock.’ So, the requirement to understand where we draw a line in the sand, and then what happens when we inevitably accidentally overshoot that line in the sand, still exists, I think.”

Harty notes that Sir Alec Issigonis, the designer of the original Mini, initially believed that the car’s combination of small size, light weight, front-wheel drive and hydrolastic suspension provided drivers with greater safety margins – but later realized that drivers would fully use up whatever margins you gave them.

“Someone will always go the other side of that line in the sand, so we still need to understand what happens there,” he continues. “We then try to make a value judgment about where we draw the line, such that, if you’re just below it then things emerge undamaged, or if you’re above it, things are damaged in a way that we can predict.

“A further difficulty is that you’re trying to stay inside the herd. If your line is drawn in more or less the same place as everyone else’s, then you’re probably okay. But if it is drawn a lot higher than everyone else’s, your products cost more than they need to; a lot lower than anyone else’s line and you will be on the receiving end of some pretty unpopular sentiment. I think that finding where to draw the line is no easier or more difficult than it ever was.”

A blend of human experience and previous data remains the key to determining how demanding a test should be, according to Harty. “One of the challenges that I understood very clearly in the powersports industry is that as your products improve, people move the line,” he observes. “The speed that people are willing to carry over a certain surface goes up, for example. As you make products better, people’s expectations increase. It’s not a static thing at all.” In short: the test engineer’s work is never done.

Recipe for success

Looking ahead to this year’s ATTI Awards, which will take place at Automotive Testing Expo Europe, Harty notes that test engineers are continuing to marry new techniques with established tools. For the latter, Isaac Newton’s F=ma remains his go-to for a back-to-basics understanding of what is happening to a vehicle, component or subassembly. He also expresses surprise at how little FEA has evolved in the past 30 years, computing power aside. For new methodologies, he highlights automotive software testing as an area where tools are advancing especially rapidly – but cautions that the industry’s understanding of how the product is being used, and therefore where the focus of testing should lie, is still evolving.

“Testing is about trying to find stuff before your customers do,” he explains. “The two areas where that’s most difficult tend to be durability and anything to do with software. The durability challenge is pretty much the same as it has always been. I think that for metallic components, we’re quite well served [with tools and knowledge]. But as soon as you switch to polymers or composites, for example, we’re grasping in the dark as to what they’ll do under repeated loading. That holds us back from using different materials for critical structural applications.

“Meanwhile, the scope for software is evolving all the time,” he continues. “When you put things in the hands of the public, you have the million-monkeys, million-typewriters problem, where they are generating scenarios that you maybe didn’t test for, so all the energy and effort is on the software side. Personally, I’m not so interested in whether the cellphone connectivity works properly or not, because it’s unlikely to be life threatening if you get that wrong. But there is a lot of functional stuff where many systems are interacting and there’s a whole load of corners to poke into. I feel like there is a lot of unmapped territory there that we’re still finding our way into as an industry.”

Harty believes that help in finding such corner cases will be one area in which AI will benefit the testing industry. “One of the things I like about AI is that it’s like talking to someone who isn’t necessarily all that clever but is hugely widely read. For the corner cases, I think it will be easier to poke more deeply into the corners, find and flag an issue, and specifically test for it.”

No two the same

Knowing what to test for will remain an issue for test engineers more generally, he believes, and will continue to be a moving target as customers exploit the margins to which Issigonis referred. Harty has been reminded of this in his recent work with TVS, India’s largest motorcycle manufacturer, rekindling a working relationship that began in the 1990s.

“For me, the biggest misconception about testing is the illusion that we really know what people are going to do with our products,” he confirms. “I think people underestimate how much of an honest best guess is used in all sorts of testing. There’s an erroneous belief in precision that’s misplaced when it comes to putting products out in the wild and understanding what people are going to do with them.

“When I began working with TVS in the 1990s, the engineers talked about how one product, a 50cc moped, was used as a load carrier. I did not understand what they meant: after all, it has a 50cc, two-stroke engine that makes just over one horsepower and can barely do 30mph [50km/h]! But when I came to India, I saw endless examples of multiple sheets of 8 x 4ft [2.4 x 1.2m] plywood, bags of concrete and more, all piled up in incredibly imaginative ways on mopeds with someone walking beside them, using the engine to just walk the load to where they wanted to go. I had no conception that the product could be used like that, but these engineers understood their market. The load case for the pedals was not a human, it was as many sheets of 8×4 ply as you could balance on it – a very different number of kilograms.

“That is an example of the sort of thinking that is quite difficult, especially if you’re coming up with a novel product,” he concludes. “It’s hard to imagine how people might conceive of using your product. That, I think, will continue to keep us interested and amused going forward.

“There is a glorious quote from Douglas Adams in Mostly Harmless: ‘A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.’ He’s saying that whatever you think, there’s no guarantee that’s how everyone else will think. It’s a fascinating idea.”

This article was first published in the June 2026 edition of Automotive Testing Technology International

The results of this year’s Automotive Testing Technology International Awards will be announced at Automotive Testing Expo Europe next week – secure your ticket now!

Signal Plot is a free, downloadable extension for CanKing 7.4.0 or later that allows engineers to track multiple signals simultaneously, zoom into events, compare values using cursors and switch between live and pause modes. The extension provides engineering-unit graphing directly within the CanKing workspace, making it particularly useful for HIL bench bring-up and on-site debugging.

“Our goal with Kvaser CanKing has always been to give engineers the clarity they need with as little friction as possible. Signal Plot does exactly this; turning raw CAN and LIN data into clear, meaningful visuals in real time. It’s a simple yet powerful upgrade that delivers an immediate boost in understanding and efficiency,” said Martin Sventén, CEO of Kvaser.

The update is designed to provide engineers with faster, more intuitive insights into system behavior, making real-time monitoring and debugging of automotive networks simpler and more efficient.

The extension is the first built on Kvaser’s CanKing Extensions SDK, which was launched last year, to enable users to create web-based GUI extensions such as dashboards, gauges and custom interpreters without modifying the core application. The SDK leverages React and is compatible with both Windows and Linux systems.

CanKing 7.4.0 also adds support for LIN message logging and replay using MDF4.x files. Improved MDF4.x compatibility ensures that LIN data frames are correctly recognised, enabling the Message Logger and Message Replay nodes to function seamlessly across both CAN and LIN traffic.

CanKing 7.4.0 was unveiled at at Embedded World 2026 in Nuremberg, Germany.

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The lab’s high-current capability is designed to test large automotive cells and other high-power, high-capacity battery technologies, including those used in eVTOLs, data centers and stationary battery energy storage systems (BESS). Its extensive channel count is useful to companies with high-volume testing requirements, enabling hundreds of cells to be tested simultaneously under varying conditions. High-precision cyclers and advanced EIS tests also enable accurate long-term analysis and performance characterization, including cell ageing and end-of-life simulation, with modeling and calibration expertise provided by CamMotive’s specialist engineers.

The facility offers additional technical capability and services, including dynamic climatic chambers to replicate varying temperature conditions, and process thermostats for real-world thermal management testing. For high-power module and pack testing, the lab provides capability up to 1MW.

The primary purpose of the new laboratory is to support automotive OEMs and accelerate development timelines by gathering data for modeling, compliance and improved understanding, leading to enhanced performance, longer useful life and faster charging strategies.

In addition to the main facility, the laboratory also houses several lower current cyclers for testing of smaller capacity cells. In this way, the company aims to support innovation in battery technology, including startups working on the latest chemistries and organizations exploring battery options for new applications.

Bruce Campbell, director at CamMotive, said, “The launch of our new test facility marks the latest phase of CamMotive’s commitment to advancing battery technology and its applications. We provide solutions across the entire battery ecosystem, from early concept to end-of-line validation.

“Working with UK cell developers and digital modelers, manufacturers and integrators, we combine world-class testing infrastructure with decades of powertrain expertise to help our partners deliver sustainable solutions for road, air, sea transportation and stationary applications.”

Related news, BeyondMath raises US$18.5m to scale foundational physics AI model

By using the web-based engineering platform Aqira, CETIM has sped up its e-mobility R&D, addressing the challenges of managing, analyzing and sharing large volumes of prototype electric equipment data.

“To catch the real-life duty cycles CETIM has to realize multiphysics testing campaigns on a wide range of equipment and machinery under diverse operating conditions, enabling comprehensive coverage of all product lifecycle scenarios. We needed a software platform capable of synthesising large volumes of data to optimize mechanical system design and validation,” said reliability engineer Denis Chojnacki, who is heading the mission profile project.

CETIM selected Aqira for its advanced features, nCode analytics capabilities and user-friendly web interface. The platform has been applied to numerous projects, including key mission profiles for electrifying mobile equipment such as mini-excavators and telehandlers.

Related news, Kistler launches RV-5 wheel vector sensor

Founded in 2022 by AI industry veterans Alan Patterson and Darren Garvey, BeyondMath has developed the world’s largest foundational physics model, which is capable of simulating complex physical phenomena, from aerodynamics to thermal management.

In automotive engineering specifically – where BeyondMath works with an F1 team – the platform supports real-time testing of thousands of design combinations to identify optimisations in aerodynamics and thermal management.

The funding will be used to scale up the commercial deployment of BeyondMath’s generative physics technology and increase its research capacity.

Alan Patterson, CEO of BeyondMath, said, “Engineering teams require ever-faster, more flexible simulation, but do not have the technology to deliver on these demands. Generative physics introduces a fundamentally new approach to engineering, unlocking innovation across fields ranging from aerospace and automotive to data-center design. We now have the capital and investor support to accelerate our research roadmap and scale commercial adoption. This could be the ChatGPT moment for physics.”

Edward Inns, principal at Cambridge Innovation Capital, added, “BeyondMath is tackling one of the hardest and most valuable problems in engineering. By combining first-principles physics with modern AI, the team has built a platform that can redefine how complex systems are designed across multiple industries. We look forward to supporting Alan, Darren and the team as they continue to scale.”

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The first quarter of 2025 saw a key milestone in the program as the team, together with Mahle Powertrain, fired up Mjølner – the world’s most powerful production V12 engine – for the first time. Since then, technical partnerships with Ricardo and Castrol have been confirmed. The progress across the drivetrain system has seen the integration of the hybrid powertrain, which will eventually deliver up to 1,850hp.

The first validation prototype entered service as summer approached, and global events bookended the biggest brand activations for Zenvo Automotive to-date. The VP0 prototype ran up the hill at Goodwood Festival of Speed. From there, it has been used across the powertrain, electronics, suspension and dynamics testing phases.

The test program has continued at the Præstø factory and at facilities across Europe, with successful crash, dynamics and performance testing completed, both as simulations and real world tests. Further prototypes have also come online as the testing phases spread through different teams and departments, accelerating toward the plans for 2026.

Jens Sverdrup, chairman and CCO of Zenvo Automotive said, “We come to the end of 2025 with the technical and development phases of the Aurora program driving forward with real momentum. It has been a very proud year of firsts, one of real progress, and one which has firmly put Zenvo on the map, with our biggest activations and achievements over Goodwood and Monterey.

“It hasn’t been all plain sailing, by any means – which is expected from a program of this magnitude and when working with the latest advances in technologies and systems that have never been seen or used before. We always set out for Aurora to be something more than had gone before, and we now have the team in place to deliver what we set out to achieve. 2026 will be another year of firsts and of relentless pursuit of improvement as we keep building towards production.”

CTO Jon Gunner said, “It has been a big challenge for every member of the team over this year, working through a long list of firsts. The team is now at its strongest, and Aurora is delivering or overachieving at each phase. We are determined and dedicated to getting the results, and we have put the pieces in place with our team and partners to ensure that Aurora is everything that we have set out for it to be. There is still a job list to be completed, but it is an exciting journey to be on.”

Meet the team behind the Mjølner powertrain in this behind-the-scenes video

This milestone comes in anticipation of evolving global regulatory standards, including the EU’s CEN EN 17240:2024 and China’s GB 45672-2025, which will mandate standardized speech quality testing for in-vehicle emergency call systems by 2027 as defined by ITU-T P.1140 and GB/T 45314, respectively.

As the automotive industry moves toward 5G-enabled emergency call systems, manufacturers need to ensure reliable, high-quality communication across different network technologies. The successful interoperability between Keysight’s test platform and Head Acoustics’ acoustic test setup helps meet this need, enabling OEMs and system suppliers to confidently validate speech quality, network connectivity and compliance with emerging NG eCall standards.

According to Keysight, the test, conducted at the company’s facility in Germany, verified seamless integration between its one-box RF test solution and Head Acoustics’ measurement environment with Acqua and LabCore. Together, the systems enable comprehensive validation of NG eCall functionality across 4G and 5G networks. Fallback solutions via 2G and 3G networks were also successfully analyzed. Key achievements from the interoperability test include verified 4G/5G IMS-SIP server connection and end-to-end audio with NG eCall, successful legacy eCall audio verification over 2G/3G networks, and calibration of delay and audio levels for compliance testing.

Thomas Goetzl, VP of automotive and energy solutions, Keysight Technologies, said, “This milestone underscores Keysight’s commitment to enabling the automotive industry’s transition to next-generation emergency call systems. By combining our comprehensive RF test capabilities with Head Acoustics’ expertise in acoustic validation, we are delivering a futureproof solution that meets global regulatory demands and supports safer mobility.”

The managing director of Head Acoustics, Dr Matthias Wegerhoff, commented, “Customer satisfaction drives everything we do. That’s why we’re committed to offering a broad, flexible range of NG eCall solutions. The interoperability with Keysight technology brings valuable technical expertise to this mission, enabling us to jointly develop future-ready tools for next-generation voice and audio quality testing.”

In related news, Keysight has launched an optical automotive ethernet transmitter test solution

Among the disruptive forces that are reshaping the automotive industry, electrification is entrenched and unrelenting. Market demands as well as safety and environmental legislation are calling for all cars – from entry-level to premium models – to become smarter, more assistive, more connected and sustainability conscious. To deliver these values, car makers are adding more sensors, computing power and communication capabilities, and electrifying more subsystems, from water pumps and power steering to the entire drivetrain.

It’s a trend that presents opportunities for electronic component manufacturers and assembly builders in the automotive supply chain. Among the challenges, the industry’s high-quality expectations and unit-volume demands call for test capabilities that are fast and extremely accurate, and able to correctly identify good units and any that have defects. This needs to be accomplished with minimal errors or time-consuming rechecking to rectify false NG results.

Improving tests of advanced electronics  

Contact test solutions for advanced equipment using probes could prevent suppliers from meeting their objectives, as test contact points are becoming smaller, more closely spaced and more difficult to reach with conventional sprung test probes (Figure 1).

Furthermore, connecting with the DUT at a single point creates an unreliable solution. All types of electronic devices are affected, from semiconductor wafers to ECU modules, as component geometries are being reduced and PCB assemblies are more densely populated. Also, intricately designed vibration-proof connectors used within the automotive industry present difficulties for probes to achieve contact when placed on the test fixture (Figure 2).

Problems with sprung test probes or pogo pins are already common. The pins often fail to make proper contact with the test point. Based on actual research, only 80% of occasions when tests are performed using standard pogo pins result in the DUT being correctly classified. Such errors result in high false NG rates that require investigation and re-testing. In addition, the typical lifetime of a pogo pin can be about 100,000 cycles. At automotive mass-production volumes, this can demand frequent stoppages for replacement. Inaccurate results and frequent stoppages both impair productivity and cause delivery delays.

Also, the contact resistance due to conventional pogo pin structure can be inconsistent and is not usually less than 70mΩ, which can prevent testing of assemblies where contact resistance needs to be low. A generally accepted practicable minimum diameter for conventional sprung pins is about 0.35mm. Reducing the size can prevent reliable contact with test points as the probes can become fragile, leading to more frequent malfunctions and breakages. And yet, smaller test pins are required to meet future demands. An alternative is needed to ensure efficient, fast and accurate contact testing.

Pin limitations

Conventional pogo pins are carefully designed to possess compliance that allows tolerance for a small amount of positioning error, as well as spring force to press against the DUT test point and ensure a robust electrical connection with low ohmic resistance. However, the mechanism adds complexity to the design and seizing or other malfunctions are possible as the DUT is placed on the test fixture. The pin can break or the spring may fail if positioning error or force is excessive. Further reducing the mechanism size to permit closer positioning needed to test densely populated boards results in the pin being more fragile and more easily broken.

Creating an alternative that overcomes these limitations while also supporting the drive toward smaller geometries is not easy or trivial. A suitable pin must provide adequate compliance to let the pin find its place against the test point as well as ensuring adequate and consistent contact force. At the same time, durability needs to be improved to minimize stoppages to replace broken pins and prevent false NG results that can result from poor electrical contact and inconsistent contact resistance.

A new type of test pin made with a specially developed electroformed (EFC) metal alloy and fabrication process now presents a solution to meet these demands. The custom material provides mechanical properties comparable to 304-grade stainless steel (SUS304/SS304) and meantime electrical properties achieving great conductivity at copper level. The combination of alloy properties and dedicated pin design (Figure 3) enable one-piece pins that eliminate the size restrictions and potential for seizing associated with the conventional spring mechanism.

Optimized electrical parameters 

The pins enable test engineers to create high-reliability test fixtures with a pitch down to 0.175mm. Because the pins have been shown to make proper contact with the test point on over 99.8% of test operations, the risk of false NG results from poor pin contact is greatly reduced. Also, with a lifetime easily reaching 500,000 cycles depending on application and design, their longevity improves efficiency and reduces stoppage time. The one-piece design ensures consistent electrical parameters and extremely low-contact resistance, typically about 30mΩ, which is suitable for testing products like OLED panels. Moreover, flexibility to optimize all aspects of the pin size, shape and tip design mean the pin properties can be adapted for a wide variety of applications.

EFC pins are suited to pin blocks and complete custom sockets for board-level testing and are also used in optimized fixtures for IC and other component testing, or even device test. They have been designed for testing high-end modules with high transmission speeds, as well as high-power electronics at levels much above 2A per pin for unique bundle structure, meantime reaching the highest testing durability.

There is also an off-the-shelf product. The unique test socket for USB Type-C connections combines EFC pins with resin pin tips and a special floating head mechanism that enables 1° of tolerance in X-Y positioning (Figure 4). The floating head ensures fast and faultless insertion to avoid stoppages when used in test equipment while the special internal pin structure extends the endurance of testing sockets compared to existing means.

Conclusion

Pogo pins have a long and distinguished record in the history of electronics testing and can continue delivering high levels of performance in many applications. At the cutting edge, however, the geometries of the latest components and assemblies are becoming too small for conventional pins.

Creating a suitable solution has demanded innovation both in materials science and electroforming production processes. New one-piece EFC pins allow test-point spacing as small as 0.175mm, with lower contact resistance than pogo pins, and enhance positional accuracy, resilience and reliability. Using custom shapes and tip profiles, these pins can reach difficult areas such as inside complex connectors, and can meet demanding applications such as high-frequency or high-current testing. Product manufacturers can experience fewer false NG calls and fixture repairs, raising efficiency, productivity and delivery performance.

Look out for a feature in the November issue of ATTI on how Stellantis ensures the robustness, reliability and compliance of EE components and systems through systematic validation and virtualization. Read the September edition for FREE here

One year after its inception, the Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies (RV Tech) joint venture is pushing forward with the development of a zonal architecture for software-defined vehicles, which will be sold in Western markets. RV Tech is preparing reference vehicles from the Volkswagen, Scout and Audi brands with the SDV architecture for winter testing early next year. The hardware and electronic architecture specifications for these reference vehicles have been defined since spring.

Among the vehicles is the Volkswagen ID.Every1. Since the summer, work with engineering prototypes has been in full swing at RV Tech’s sites in Palo Alto and Irvine in California. The series model is scheduled to launch in 2027 as the first group vehicle featuring a version of the SDV architecture.

With more than 250 solution providers, The Future of Automotive Testing Conference and the Innovation Showcase, it’s the ideal place to discover new solutions, share ideas and build valuable connections.

There will truly be something for everyone, whether you’re an NVH specialist seeking new acoustics testing tools, an EV engineer in need of high-voltage test equipment, an ADAS expert looking for the latest lab systems, or a simulation specialist in need of a tool or a test driver searching for a new vehicle rental partner.

The Innovation Showcase will take place on day one and day three, enabling visitors to learn more about some of the latest technologies on display. Its interactive format is always a big hit. On day two, ATTI will host The Future of Automotive Testing Conference, beginning at 9:55am with an onstage interview featuring ATTI columnist Jon M Quigley, and with a program that features a wealth of influential industry figures.

Serving as the testing sector’s foremost communications platform, ATTI will also report live news throughout the show and gather intelligence for upcoming magazine issues. Don’t hesitate to share your ideas or news with ATTI.

For a comprehensive preview, see the September edition of Automotive Testing Technology International magazine.

Automotive Testing Expo North America will take place at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan, on October 22-23. Visit the expo website to register for your free expo pass.