Synopsys Brings Together Global Automotive Leaders to Shape the Future of AI-Powered, Software-Defined Vehicles
Synopsys recently convened a series of high-profile events with leaders from across the global automotive ecosystem to explore the technologies, engineering trends, and collaborative strategies essential for building the next generation of AI-powered, software-defined vehicles (SDVs). Held throughout September and October in major automotive regions worldwide, these events brought together more than 900 executives, engineers, and technical experts from OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and technology partners. Their shared goal: to examine how digital engineering can dramatically accelerate vehicle development, reduce costs, improve safety, and enable earlier and more reliable start of production (SOP).
Participants included representatives from industry giants such as Arm, AUMOVIO, BMW, Daimler Truck, Hyundai, IPG, Rivian, Volkswagen Group Technologies, Stellantis, and Volvo, among many others. Together, these leaders exchanged insights into hardware-software co-design, best practices for collaborative system integration, and methods to streamline software development—all critical elements as the automotive industry undergoes its most significant transformation in over a century.
R&D Efficiency: A New Benchmark for Automotive Profitability
The rapid shift toward software-defined vehicles has fundamentally changed how automotive companies measure their success. Traditional metrics—such as design-to-cost or hours-per-vehicle—no longer capture the complexity or speed of modern development cycles driven by AI, electrification, autonomous systems, and connected experiences.
Today, research and development efficiency has emerged as a leading driver of financial performance for OEMs and suppliers. Companies must balance cost optimization, innovation, and differentiation while also reducing integration risks and accelerating release cycles. The stakes are enormous. Large automotive OEMs commonly spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on test vehicles alone, with more than half of this investment tied directly to software, electronics, and integration testing.
This shifting landscape has amplified the value of digital engineering, especially virtualization technologies that replace or supplement physical testing. By virtualizing automotive electronics for design, integration, and validation, manufacturers can reduce testing costs by 20–60%. Even more importantly, virtualization helps avoid SOP delays—delays that can cost OEMs up to $1 billion for a single six-month slip. As SDVs introduce more complex hardware-software interactions, the ability to identify and solve issues earlier in the development cycle is no longer optional; it is an industry imperative.
A Global Series of Strategic Forums
Synopsys organized several major gatherings across key automotive hubs to bring these issues into sharper focus. Each forum featured industry leaders discussing pressing challenges, emerging technologies, and best practices to accelerate the transition toward fully software-defined vehicle platforms.
Below is a deeper look at the standout events and the insights shared:
Ansys Transportation Summit – Munich
Held at the iconic BMW Welt, the Ansys Transportation Summit showcased a mix of visionary keynotes, technical sessions, and hands-on workshops. Leaders from Hyundai, Stellantis, and Porsche Motorsport joined Synopsys technology partners to share perspectives on topics that are central to the future of mobility:
- Electrification and thermal management
- Autonomous and ADAS systems
- Digital twins and advanced simulation
- Crash analysis and human body modeling
- Battery development and lifecycle optimization
- NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) and simulation-driven refinements
The event emphasized how advanced simulation and digital twin technology are transforming engineering workflows. Attendees saw demonstrations showing how simulation-first development accelerates vehicle validation while improving accuracy and reliability.
Synopsys and AWS Automotive Innovation Day – Silicon Valley
This event gathered automotive executives in the heart of Silicon Valley at the AWS Prototyping & Innovation Lab. The spotlight was on how cloud infrastructure and electronics digital twins are reshaping the development of SDVs.
Key highlights included:
- Demonstrations of AI-accelerated electronics digital twins used to model vehicle control functions, ADAS, infotainment (IVI) systems, and multi-ECU architectures.
- Showcases of how AWS cloud capabilities enable extensive parallel testing without relying on expensive physical test benches.
- A presentation by engineering leaders from Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies detailing their shift-left strategies—a development approach that uncovers embedded software issues earlier by using virtual platforms.
These real-world examples demonstrated how cloud computing and virtualization are enabling faster iteration, greater automation, and radically improved testing efficiency.
Synopsys China Automotive Technology Day – Shanghai
The Shanghai event brought together major OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers from across China to explore emerging ecosystems in automotive silicon and software development. Attendees discussed the accelerating need for deeper electronics integration within SDV architectures, as well as the growing importance of virtual system integration to meet aggressive development timelines.
Key sessions addressed:
- How semiconductor and software advancements are reshaping vehicle architecture
- The importance of silicon-accurate virtual prototypes for early SOC (system-on-chip) evaluation
- Methods to reduce development and testing costs through virtualization
- Collaborative approaches to managing increasingly complex supply chains
These discussions highlighted China’s crucial role in semiconductor innovation and automotive electrification—and how digital engineering is enabling faster, higher-quality development in these areas.
Synopsys Automotive Virtual Prototyping Day – Munich
In a separate Munich-based event, executives and engineers participated in deep-dive discussions on virtual prototyping and its impact on modern vehicle development. Speakers from Arm, AGSOTEC with BMW, Daimler Truck, IPG, and Volvo shared practical insights into shifting verification and validation earlier in the development process.
Topics included:
- Improving test automation through virtualized platforms
- Applying software-in-the-loop (SIL) and virtual hardware-in-the-loop (vHIL) techniques
- Using electronics digital twins to reduce reliance on physical prototypes
- De-risking complex software integration tasks that often cause SOP delays
Participants saw firsthand how leading OEMs are using digital twins to scale testing and enhance system reliability, helping them deliver software-defined architectures faster.
Ansys Simulation World – Detroit & Japan
The global Ansys Simulation World series made key stops in Detroit and Japan, where automotive companies shared their experiences using advanced simulation tools to shorten development cycles.
Highlights included:
- AI-accelerated simulation runs achieving up to 10× improvement in speed
- Virtual validation workflows for automotive electronics
- Demonstrations of advanced modeling for electrified powertrains and ADAS systems
- Presentations from suppliers and OEMs emphasizing how digital engineering is becoming a critical competitive differentiator
These events underscored how simulation has become foundational to the development of modern vehicles, particularly as electrification and autonomy introduce increasing complexity.
Driving the Industry Toward a Software-Defined Future
Across all Synopsys-hosted events, one theme remained constant: the automotive industry is rapidly evolving into a software-centric ecosystem. Vehicles are becoming sophisticated computing platforms that integrate AI, high-performance silicon, advanced sensors, and over-the-air (OTA) software. Success in this new era demands that companies adopt digital-first engineering strategies and embrace collaboration across hardware, software, and cloud domains.
Synopsys’ forums offered a preview of this future—one where automotive development is faster, more automated, more reliable, and significantly more cost-effective. By empowering OEMs and suppliers with advanced simulation technologies, electronics digital twins, and cloud-enabled development workflows, Synopsys is helping the industry transform how vehicles are designed, validated, and brought to market.
As SDVs continue to rise, the insights shared in these global gatherings will play a central role in shaping the next generation of mobility—one that is safer, more intelligent, more efficient, and powered by software at its core.
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