Stellantis and dSPACE announced at CES 2025 that they have signed an MOU aimed at accelerating the cloud-based development of Stellantis vehicles.  The collaboration will integrate dSPACE’s VEOS platform for software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing into the Stellantis Virtual Engineering Workbench (VEW), enabling faster, scalable development of customer-focused features.

“The integration of dSPACE tools into our Virtual Engineering Workbench will allow us to deliver innovative features faster, meeting customer expectations and enhancing their driving experience,” said Yves Bonnefont, Stellantis Chief Software Officer. “This collaboration is pivotal in realizing our vision for intelligent, connected vehicles and providing customers with continuous improvements via over-the-air updates.”

The VEW empowers Stellantis engineers to refine software early in development, leveraging virtual environments to develop, integrate, test, and optimize up to a year before hardware becomes available. On its new technology platforms, 80-85% of testing is done on SIL platforms using continuous integration and testing methodologies, enabling the delivery of new vehicle software in under two years, significantly reducing time-to-market and enhancing product quality.

“The use of our products on the new Stellantis technology platforms enables us to gather direct customer input and feedback,” said Carsten Hoff, CEO at dSPACE. “This close collaboration will help us advance our software products and provide the most sophisticated and efficient tool chain for the validation of software-defined vehicles, enabling early integration and seamless combination of SIL and HIL test methods.”

The Stellantis software strategy is built on three AI-powered technology platforms—STLA Brain, STLA SmartCockpit, and STLA AutoDrive—that will debut on some vehicles in 2025. These platforms, developed on the VEW, ensure agile feature delivery across Stellantis’ 14 brands.

The Stellantis VEW features a first-of-its-kind Virtual Cockpit that helps accelerate development cycles by up to 100 times compared to traditional methods and it has over 3800 active unique daily users. The collaboration with dSPACE enhances the OEM’s simulation capabilities, providing a more robust and scalable solution for automotive development.

In the VEW, the dSPACE VEOS and ControlSpace products help integrate multiple virtual control units to simulate bus communication nodes and behavior models that emulate physical components. The setup enables the integration of software- and hardware-in-the-loop systems, allowing Stellantis to mix and match virtual and real ECUs.