A leading global premium car manufacturer accelerates next-generation vehicle architecture with ETAS EHOOKS

As vehicle architectures evolve toward greater centralization, manufacturers face the challenge of combining functions that have traditionally been developed and validated separately. Assessing how software from multiple vehicle domains interacts on a common controller is a critical step in this transition.
The OEM’s forward-thinking strategy required a method to test this "domain fusion" concept without waiting for final production hardware. The team needed a way to validate the complex interactions and dependencies between software from different critical domains running on a single ECU, a crucial step to ensure the viability of their future centralized architectures.

ETAS EHOOKS was the key enabler that allowed the OEM to tackle this challenge head-on, and provided the flexibility needed to rapidly create a high-fidelity prototype environment. By patching compiled software on an existing controller, the customer was able to introduce additional software functionality without modifying original source code or waiting for new hardware platforms.
Together with ETAS INCA, the solution enabled engineers to measure, calibrate, and validate software behaviour directly in the vehicle. This allowed the customer to assess important architectural concepts, gain practical development experience, and evaluate system interactions in real-world conditions at a much earlier stage than would otherwise have been possible.

The implementation of ETAS EHOOKS delivered significant strategic benefits for the manufacturer. The company successfully validated its domain fusion strategy months ahead of schedule, completely removing the dependency on final hardware availability. This radical frontloading of development led to major cost and time savings by avoiding the need for expensive custom prototype hardware. Most importantly, it provided the OEM with invaluable early insights into cross-domain software interactions, accelerating institutional learning and de-risking the future integration of centralized ECUs.