Continuous Compliance in the Automotive Industry

Although the need to comply with standards has been identified, the concept of continuous compliance has never been defined and characterized. We provide a precise definition of continuous compliance and discuss how compliance with standards can be ensured.

Automotive companies are becoming software companies. New business and technology drivers, like electrification, autonomy, connectivity, and over-the-air (OTA) updates, increasingly require sophisticated software. Also, modern cars can collect over 25 GB of data every hour,1 and thus, it becomes increasingly important to properly protect owners’ privacy, digital security, and safety. OTA updates are required to provide customers with additional functionalities that can better satisfy customers’ needs. OTA updates are also required for safety purposes. It can be vital to have the possibility to update critical software of vehicles as soon as possible to fix bugs and/or improve functionalities from a safety point of view. In this sense, performing updates as fast as possible will have also an ethical angle.