If you think about car… is it complicated? Chassy, wheels, engine, gearbox, stereo, air condition and you’re good to go. Well, cars are not so simple anymore. Automotive business evolved, and cars are no longer only about driving, it’s about how you spend you’re time during driving and of course – safety.
Embedded Systems in the Automotive Industry are one of the most challenging and complicated things you can do today in the so-called „IT world”. People who work in this business need to create product that is safe, reliable and also has to meet the requirements for modern in-vehicle equipment.
From this article you will know:
Projects in Automotive are very multi-dimensional and complex, the complexity of the projects is a result of the complexity of modern cars itself, which differs from cars from 10-20 years ago. The progress was mainly about increasing safety, but also adding technology and upgrading multimedia. Does that mean that older cars weren’t safe? They were, but this was only passive safety. Passive safety means equipment that works during or after the crash. Modern cars have active safety systems, that should prevent the crash.
You could ask yourself – is that technology complicated? In a word: VERY! In a modern car, you could find almost 3 kilometers of different wires.
The technology used in modern cars is intended, among other things, to protect the driver, passengers and even pedestrians (actively and passively), ensure the highest comfort of travel and provide entertainment, i.e. simply make traveling pleasant and not boring, even if nothing is interesting outside the window.
First of all, I should start by explaining the difference in responsibilities for this role between the IT and automotive industries. If you are not aware of this difference, you will be in for quite a surprise during the job interview.
In IT the duties of a Systems Engineer are:
The tasks above are significantly different from the duties of a Systems Engineer in Automotive. If you would ask us, we would say they are closer to Software Engineer.
So, is there a role in IT for a System Engineer? Yes! The closest role would be Business Analyst.
It’s not that easy to find a clear, simple definition of Systems Engineer responsibilities.
A systems engineer is a bit of an “all-rounder” – for everything and for everyone. Often, due to the project’s characteristics, two Systems Engineers with five years of experience may have completely different knowledge and experience.
In Automotive Systems Engineer is mainly responsible for:
One of the key tasks of a System Engineer is to create and maintain a requirements database, i.e. a set of documents with the client’s vision regarding how the product should look and work, but also which norms and standards the product should meet. Documentation may take different forms depending on the client.
Requirements from the customer included in the documentation are reviewed and assigned to a given competence (e.g. mechanical, validation, software, tests, electrical) and then further reviewed by the previously assigned competencies.
Requirements review is a cyclical process, it is a rare or rather impossible scenario when all issues included in the customer’s requirements are clear to engineers. Many questions / open points arise at the stage of requirements review. The task of the Systems Engineer is to fill in the gaps and clarify unclear issues. Then the cycle repeats itself until each requirement is understood, and we know exactly how to implement it and how to test it.
It’s not always as simple as it may seem. It is the responsibility of the system engineer to ensure the periodicity of the requirements review process.
A useful thing for a Systems Engineer is well-developed soft skills, he needs to be able to get along easily with people. It’s useful not only during the requirements review process mentioned above but also during negotiations with the customer. The Systems Engineer is most often the interface connecting the client’s vision with other engineers in the project.
It often happens that during the analysis of customer requirements, it is necessary to get support from other competencies that specialize in a given field (e.g. Software, Mechanical, Electrical, Validation). Then, the review and analysis of the customer’s requirements takes place in a group of engineers, but the Systems Engineer is responsible for the negotiation and clarification of requirements with the customer.
For example:
Sometimes it happens that the customer expects things that are impossible to implement within the budget or equipment set for a given project, but he’s completely unaware of it. In such a situation, well-developed soft skills should come in handy again, because the Systems Engineer, as the first line of contact, should clarify this issue with the client.
Another aspect of the Systems Engineer’s responsibilities is ensuring the quality of a product. Quality in the form of creating project documentation in accordance with the norms and standards applicable in the automotive industry (e.g. ASPICE). Here, support from quality engineers is extremely important, close cooperation with “quality” is crucial to embrace the appropriate strategy and creating documentation to meet the required processes.
Are these all the duties of a Systems Engineer in the automotive industry? Of course not, and often the scale of responsibilities is much greater than what is described above, the rest can be included in the term “cooperation with other engineering competencies” and depends mainly on the characteristics of the project being implemented or even depends on the customer for whom the project is being implemented.
Systems Engineer is often responsible for topics such as:
Of course, these are not all the activities and responsibilities performed by the Systems Engineer role. For example, a project based on a camera to monitor the interior of a vehicle will require a lot of recordings for neural network training and testing. In another project, e.g. Body Computer, the system specialist will only deal with requirements, documentation and process.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, a Systems Engineer has been required to have knowledge of Functional Safety and Cybersecurity, at least at a basic level, despite the fact that domain specialists are employed to cover these issues in the project. It should also be noted that during the AGILE transformation of the automotive industry, it is increasingly often the system specialist who serves as the Product Owner/Function Owner.
Just how wide a spectrum of responsibilities can be covered by a Systems Engineer? Given the current scale of the diversity of projects carried out to build electronics for cars, it is difficult to say, because the number of electronic components in cars is constantly growing and each of them may have a completely different character of the project and, consequently, a completely different scope of responsibilities for the Systems Engineer. Just look at the graphic below to understand the scale of technological advancement of the modern car.
There are many possibilities, some people with experience in the industry decide to change their career and choose the path of a Systems Engineer – most often they are testers or software engineers, but they can also be quality engineers etc.
Several years of experience and a good understanding of the automotive industry make it easier to fit into the role of a Systems Engineer. A good introduction to the role of a system specialist is the position of a Requirements engineer. The main task of a requirements engineer is to write requirements and conduct reviews of existing requirements. Requirements Engineer is a good introduction to the role of Systems Engineer because the tasks performed in this role partially cover the scope of responsibilities of a systems engineer.
There are many different roles in the Automotive industry, System engineering is not the easiest one, it requires knowledge, experience and a good understanding of the business and the principles of the automotive industry. The role of a Systems Engineer is a nice balance between working with documentation and working with people. If you are open to different, often unconventional solutions, can think analytically and like working with people, this is definitely something for you.
Special-purpose vehicles play an important role in many industrial sectors, from construction and agriculture to public transport. They are characterised by specific technical requirements which make the design of special-purpose vehicles a complex engineering challenge. As a leader in the field of industrial design, Endego offers comprehensive services in the development of special vehicles and their components, responding to the needs of customers from various sectors, private and public.
Read moreIn the automotive industry, aerodynamics plays an increasingly important role in designing modern vehicles. For mass-produced cars, key commercial goals include high load capacity, speed and driving comfort, while simultaneously reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Therefore, understanding and effectively applying aerodynamics is a fundamental aspect of the design process. This is especially true with the growing number of electric and autonomous vehicles. Let’s find out which basic terms are worth knowing, why aerodynamics is so important for cars and how computer simulations help engineers optimise the airflow around vehicles.
Read moreReducing noise and vibration is one of the key issues in modern vehicle design. With NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) analyses, engineers create cars that are more comfortable, safer and meet rigorous standards. How do engineering simulations support the vehicle design process in eliminating unwanted vibration and sound?
Read more
