Though most developers of driver-assist systems have been able to use these virtual testing processes to stay productive the past few months, they have still faced some adjustments.
Pre-COVID, the real world provided ample opportunities to collect data, Continental’s Jones said. COVID- induced shutdowns made the use of virtual scenarios more necessary, as traffic, pedestrians and other scenarios were harder to come by for data collection.
“Those use cases, thankfully, could be simulated,” Jones said.
Others did not yet have in place the necessary bandwidth and digital infrastructure for virtual testing. As employees worked to develop crucial technology from home, COVID proved to be a learning opportunity, Gioutsos said.
He said that, as employees work remotely, auto companies are realizing they need more cloud computing, which is accessible from anywhere, than high-performance clusters, which are best accessed from the workplace.
“The simulation today I would characterize as reasonably mature, but there’s still some work to do,” Iagnemma said. “There’s still no substitute, ultimately, for getting your software on the road and seeing what happens in the real world.”
