The Stellantis automotive group has announced the launch of the world’s first virtual cockpit platform, which enables the provision of infotainment technologies to customers 100 times faster than in previous processes.
The new platform, which is available for demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, uses BlackBerry’s QNX Hypervisor software through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud to replicate the car’s commands and infotainment system for evaluation purposes.
This way, Stellantis designers and engineers can create realistic virtual versions of a specific vehicle’s cockpit, making them behave as if they were in a real vehicle, without needing to modify the main software that runs them, which allows, according to the company, to “reduce, in some cases, processes that used to take months to launch to as little as 24 hours”.
With the new tool, virtual representations of graphics, audio, and touch/mouse/keyboard inputs behave with little or no difference compared to a real car.
Stellantis expects that with this new virtual cockpit, customer feedback can be accelerated and, with minimal effort, replicate the cockpit experience of a particular brand and vehicle, as well as make real-time changes to optimize the driver’s experience.
“With our virtual cockpit, we are revolutionizing not only our approach but also that of our suppliers and industry partners. Essentially, we are able to get even closer to our customers’ needs through this technology, with more agile development cycles, faster feedback, and immediate technology deliveries,” said Yves Bonnefont, Chief Software Officer of Stellantis.
