Florian Rohde
iprocess LLC (United States)
Inside Tesla: The birth of the SDV, and why the traditional carmakers are struggling to keep up
Cars are becoming iPads on wheels. That is a common statement these days, but this is true only to a small extend. Car makers have large challenges living up to the expectation set by IoT and telecommunication devices users are so familiar with. On one hand the car industry is over 100 years old, and that includes their structures and processes, a legacy that is hard to change. On the other hand there is the safety and security aspect that limits what can be done and at what pace. This talk is looking at the automotive industry and what their challenges are, it uses Tesla as a case study of new edge players who use a different approach, from Agile to CI to OTA, and it highlights why traditional players are facing an uphill battle.
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Florian comes with deep knowledge of the automotive industry helping clients to facilitate traditional and modern approaches when creating their development and validation strategies. Florian worked for several years in the “classic” automotive world at Siemens and Continental managing the validation of the first generation electric power steering systems. During this time he was responsible for the system validation of the first generation electric power steering systems, some of the first ASIL-D projects worldwide. As a member of the software and SDV core team he implemented a continuous validation concept at Tesla in his role as senior manager of the vehicle firmware validation between 2012 and 2018. The solutions put in place are powerful enough to allow Tesla to launch vehicle software packages within 24 hours from code change to over the air customer deployment. The test coverage includes all static vehicle functionality, UI/UX, chassis and powertrain as well as autopilot, and runs in an end to end automation environment. After Tesla, Florian served as director of system integration and validation at NIO wherein he, in close collaboration with the team in Shanghai, built up technology that allows, similar to Tesla technology, integration and validation to be fully automated and continuous during the development of new products and features. Florian joined iProcess as a Consultant in 2019, with a main focus on helping to integrate complex and safety relevant mechatronic systems, as well as evolving software over time into cutting edge products. In an additional role, Florian got appointed to the board of directors at Tvisi Motors Ltd. in 2024 responsible for Operations and Market Insights for Commercial Transportation in the North American region.
