Mercedes-Benz vs. F-35
A while ago I attended a discussion about vehicle software development and maintenance. The presenters discussed the increased complexity in automotive software, especially in in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and the advantages of remote over the air firmware update (FOTA).
To demonstrate the magnitude of the problem, one of the speakers used oft-cited statistics contrasting the number of lines of code (LOC) in the software in a modern car and of a military aircraft. The statistics (attributed to IEEE) were:
- Current generation aircraft 1.7 Million LOCs
- Next generation aircraft (F-35) 5.7 Million LOCs
- Modern passenger car 100 Million LOCs
Do these figures mean that the software in a passenger car packs more functionality than an F-35? As complexity increases exponentially with the number of lines of code, do the numbers indicate some 500-fold increase in the complexity of vehicle software? Read More