Towards hierarchical information architectures in automotive systems

New connected infotainment features and advanced driver assistance systems pose considerable challenges for the software architectures of future vehicles. As a result of the growing complexity, there are emerging needs from both suppliers and integrators for improved reuse and reconfiguration at design time. Furthermore, there is also increasing pressure from customers for an improved driving experience focusing on connected mobility and cloud technologies. This subsequently results in new challenges regarding security and adaptability, as well as reconfiguration at run time. These trends require a careful review of current automotive architectures and development methodologies. Hierarchical architectures are a widely-used and proven concept in software engineering to enable improved reuse and flexibility. In order to deal with the present issues, we argue for a novel hierarchical information architecture, which seamlessly integrates inter-car and cloud aspects at its core. In this paper, we elaborate on the research challenges and open issues of hierarchical architectures in an automotive context. We present key concepts and discuss major research topics with respect to automotive applications, but also cyber-physical systems in general.