Connected and Cooperative Automated Driving at the ITS European Congress 2026 – Part 1 – SIS 31

11 May 2026

Software-defined vehicles: The foundation for Connected and Automated Mobility

At the ITS European Congress in Istanbul on 28 April 2026, Session SIS 31, Software-defined Vehicles: The foundation for Connected and Automated Mobility, brought together industry and policy perspectives on one of Europe’s most important mobility transitions. Moderated by Stéphane Dreher of ERTICO, the session framed Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) not as an isolated automotive trend, but as a strategic enabler for Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility across Europe.

Stéphane Dreher guided the discussion with a clear focus on alignment: between vehicle technology and infrastructure, between public authorities and OEMs, and between innovation and deployment. That emphasis reflected a central message throughout the session: Europe’s competitiveness will depend not only on technical progress, but on the ability to connect vehicles, digital systems, regulation and operational actors into a coherent mobility ecosystem.

This wider context was set out by Carolin Zachäus, who underlined that the shift is moving the sector from products to platforms and from isolated vehicles to connected mobility systems. As presented, the European Automotive Action Plan places SDV and CCAM among Europe’s strategic priorities for competitiveness and sovereignty. She stressed that innovation itself is not the main bottleneck; rather, the challenge lies in alignment across technologies, system layers and deployment realities. The role of initiatives linking CHIPS JU and CCAM, as well as the work of the European Connected and Automated Vehicle Alliance, illustrates how Europe is beginning to organise this transition more systematically.

From the industrial perspective, Peter Priller  highlighted why cybersecurity, safety and privacy are now central to customer acceptance and brand trust. The figures are significant. Software in vehicles is expected to grow from around 100 million lines of code in 2020 to around 600 million by 2027. At the same time, modern vehicles are becoming more connected and therefore more exposed to cyber threats. His presentation noted the impact of new regulatory frameworks, including ISO/SAE 21434 and UNECE R155/R156, and pointed to the constant growth in vulnerabilities, with the NIST database indicating roughly 11 new vulnerabilities per day. In this context, shared and secure open-source approaches can help reduce fragmentation, strengthen expertise and lower duplication of effort across the sector.

Mehmet Ali Gözüküçük added the business case for SDV transformation from the OEM side. He described three major pressures: reducing time-to-market from five to six years to one to two years, managing rising software complexity in vehicles with more than 100 controllers, and containing development costs as ADAS, electrification and software capabilities converge. He also pointed to the scale of engineering already underway into fuel cells, e-drives and engines. The message was clear: software-centric architectures are no longer optional if Europe is to remain competitive.

Bringing the public-sector dimension into the discussion, Darren Capes addressed the implications for road authorities. His intervention reinforced a practical point highlighted by Stéphane Dreher’s moderation: the business case must work for the full ecosystem. In particular, the cost of data provision cannot rest solely with road authorities. Instead, value needs to be shared more effectively across actors, with authorities and OEMs working in unison so that vehicle data, infrastructure data and services support safer and more efficient mobility outcomes. This is especially relevant as road safety ambitions remain high, including the UK objective to reduce those killed or seriously injured.

The session showed that SDVs are becoming a foundation for safer, more updateable and more connected mobility. Just as importantly, it demonstrated ERTICO’s role as a trusted enabler for bringing together industry, public authorities and innovation actors to align technology with deployment. That collaborative approach will be essential if Europe is to turn technical capability into practical, scalable mobility services.

Moderator

  • Stephane Dreher

Speakers

  • Peter PRILLER, Austria
  • Darren CAPES, United Kingdom
  • Carolin ZACHÄUS, Germany
  • Mehmet Ali Gözüküçük, Turkiye