It has been a three-decade-long successful journey for Elektrobit – a global supplier of embedded and connected software products and services in the automotive industry. Sarada Vishnubhatla gathers from Maria Anhalt, CEO, Elektrobit, insights into the company’s six-year-old journey in India and what it means to cater to the Indian market, their global performance and their absolute commitment to offer the latest technology with security as the topmost priority.
Elektrobit, a pioneer in automated driving technology, has been making waves in providing seamless connected user experience to global customers. As one of the most successful companies in this domain, Elektrobit works in tandem with the current developments and disruptions in the automotive industry. The company is sitting smack dab in the center of offering software that plays an instrumental role in mobility concepts for the future autonomous vehicles, in-car experience and also keeping data security as the top most priority. Elektrobit is present across Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific with more than 3500 employees. The 30-year-old company set foot in India six years ago.
From Chip To Cloud
Elektrobit primarily caters to the European market, followed by those in the Americas with Asia Pacific as their smallest market. The company is investing considerably in the Americas and is keeping a keen eye on the fast-emerging Asia Pacific market, going by the record doubling of their growth in the region within a year.
Maria Anhalt, CEO, Elektrobit, says: “We are a pure play software and systems company offering solutions from the chip to the cloud to the industry. Globally, the top passenger car OEMs work with Elektrobit, but we also work with start-ups and technology companies. In the last three decades, we have proven our solutions to be reliable, scalable, and we also offer end-to-end security with built-in flexibility. Our operating system is agnostic to the OEMs platforms, and we develop software to facilitate the implementation. We have products as well as services that are built around this.”
India – A Market of Interest
India is different. It is a cost-conscious market. It poses a challenge that is unique in the world. Yet, it holds a temptation for companies since it is more than an emerging market in the world. And Elektrobit is aware of it.
Maria, with her 20-odd years of experience in the high-tech industry is aware of the talent pool in India in the software industry. Elektrobit has recently opened a new site in India, but the talent pool is only one of the many reasons for it.
She shares more: “Our team here is strong and they are extremely well-educated, especially in software, and IT. They are experienced in managing large scale projects, they work well in managing global teams and global roles in not only implementing the services, but also in architectural product management. They are good in business development roles. Elektrobit is highly appreciative of their talent and their experience. As per a statistics survey conducted in India, one of five cars sold in India come from two leading Indian OEMs, which means there is a local market that is expanding significantly. The same is the case with the two-wheeler segment, which is also a big market. For us, besides the talent pool, it is the market and also the expansion which matter.”
For Elektrobit, what also matters is the ecosystem, the presence of domestic major OEMs, and also the start-ups which are in the reckoning when it comes to offering their services, solutions and products for software-defined vehicles. The company is all about addressing specific problems – be they of the traditional OEMs or the new crop of them, including in the fast-emerging EV segment.
Giving Start-ups An Edge
The difference between working with a start-up and established carmakers is that the latter have a history in terms of customers, and established product lines, which must be taken into account while developing projects. And it is one thing which the start-ups are not bogged down by. They can easily start from scratch and have the leeway to experiment and explore out-of-the-box ideas. If the traditional OEMs are evolutionary, Maria calls the start-ups revolutionary.
Maria shares the details of a successful case study: “Start-ups have limited opportunities and a limited capital and hence they need to capitalize on what they do best. They are open to working with proven software and solution providers who have the experience and the track record. We have had the pleasure of working with a consumer electronics giant who wished to enter the automotive space. We helped them provide superlative in-car experience. In about six months, they were able to bring out a prototype at a major trade show in the US. And within 12 months, we developed their first prototype for on-road testing and in the next couple of years, they had the credentials to enter the automotive domain. This is possible with start-ups anywhere.”
Start-ups have the advantage of disrupting the established trends.
She continues explaining the nuances: “Start-ups have the advantage of spending on their ideas for a considerably longer time to see how their ideas pan out. But traditional companies have strategic initiatives and to evolve them further, hence as software vendors, we have to integrate with the systems that already exist with them. Also, they prioritize their issues differently.”
The software that Elektrobit offers is at the ‘core of the architecture’ of the operating system they work with. Maria adds: “We are working with other large vendors providing the back-end functionality that sits in the middleware, like an operating system, which every carmaker needs to enable to make the vehicle safe, scalable, secure, where all the applications sit on top of this extremely critical piece of software in the car. So, to be able to facilitate solutions of such sensitivity, we have to be innovative, fast, and experienced, and be able to integrate the processes with the customer’s needs.”
Accelerating Automotive OS In India
Elektrobit’s innovative nature allows them to develop both products and services – products for multiple users with license and maintenance fees, while service enables specific functions for the customer. And today’s cars are mobile computers with software enabling mobility and more. For a car OEM, what goes on the motherboard is non-differentiating but for companies like Elektrobit, it makes a world of difference.
Maria says: “There are economies of scale to be achieved when it comes to the software when catering to multiple OEMs. It is this which defines the user experience. If an OEM wants economies of scale, they have the option of using the advanced technology already available in the market, and typically more cost-conscious markets are open to this approach. In the next decade or so, utilizing a common software platform will become more of a norm.”
India, as per Maria, is ready to adopt AUTOSAR which is a standard for middleware when it comes to the ECUs. And Elektrobit is well positioned in this space to serve the market in India and accelerate the ‘automotive operating system story’ with the local customers. And one of the company’s USPs is their adaptability.
She agrees: “If the Indian market is open to building on the available elements, we can integrate the functions and build the entire system. On the services side, this can be optimized for the local market and keep it economical. We are flexible. And the reception in the Indian market has been absolutely fantastic in the last six years we have been here.”
Globally, the automotive industry indicates shared, connected, autonomous, and electric trends. Every market – sooner or later – will try to capture this.
Maria elaborates: “The trends show that the world is moving towards software-defined vehicles, and today we see hardware-independent software. The trend is that the car architecture is evolving from having hundreds of ECUs in the car towards an architecture with a few flexible state-of-the-art high-performance computers. And, while this is true for anywhere in the world, the implementations differ and we believe that in India, this will be highly prevalent with how the automated vehicles will scale through the high-performance computers at an acceptable price level.”
‘Cybersecuring’ Automotive Industry
Today, data rules life, and digitalization is the norm, what with every aspect of life being commanded by technology. And that necessitates talking about the crucial aspect of cybersecurity in a connected world – to protect the customers and the vehicles from being hacked. And, it is a major point of focus for Elektrobit to provide built-in security.
Maria explains: “The built-in security starts from the architecture and extends to the cloud. There are two elements that need to be talked about – one, we have out-of-the-box products at our Elektrobit Center. With our EB cadian Sync, we offer secure software updates over the air during the entire lifecycle. Two, Argus, our independent subsidiary from Tel Aviv, Israel with their pool of highly-talented cybersecurity experts develop top-of-the-line intrusion detection technology, and the latest security capabilities for our customers.”
In June 2020, the UNECE World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) had adopted the new vehicle regulations for automated driving systems. Of these, cybersecurity is one of the most important aspects in the framework document. WP.29 applies to 54 countries around the world, excluding India. And Elektrobit adheres to these regulations strictly in all their consulting services whether the country is party to the regulations or not.
Maria feels: “India is placed uniquely for us because there could be intrusions in the Indian market that are specific to this country and not seen elsewhere in the world. We like to explore the local ecosystem and see what solutions are needed.”
But the challenge is that there is a higher demand for software developers than the supply. Elektrobit is steadily investing in their R&D center in India to ensure that they attract the ideal talent possessing apt skills. And in Maria’s own words, ‘Indian talent pool is experienced in high-tech in software that is needed to manage global roles’.
Influencing Future Trends
Elektrobit considers the automotive operating system in the context of the high-performance computers as their ‘North Star’.
Maria reiterates: “We believe that we are one of the major vendors and most experienced companies that can help all the stakeholders in the automotive domain – be they carmakers, the suppliers, or the chip makers – to help this vision materialize. As a products and services organization, we cater to the differentiating as well as the non-differentiating software needs of the customer. We are fittingly equipped in offering the end user experience.”
Elektrobit’s expertise and innovative ideas are helping the company converge in on offering reusable software components, economies of scale and help address challenges on behalf of their customers. And, that is exactly where the sweet spot lies for Elektrobit!