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In a recent interview with Adam Konopa, Technology Director at Intellias, he shared insights into how the company is driving innovation in the automotive and transportation sectors. Intellias, a leading software engineering company, specializes in delivering high-quality software solutions that meet the evolving needs of these industries. With over two decades of experience, Intellias has partnered with automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers such as HERE Technologies, TomTom, and JOYNEXT to co-create innovative solutions that digitally transform businesses. Leveraging its expertise in connectivity, infotainment systems, autonomous driving, eMobility, and intelligent transportation, Intellias helps its clients stay at the forefront of automotive technology while maintaining safety, compliance, and operational efficiency.
Tell us about Intellias and its software engineering proficiencies.
Intellias is a leading software development company that specializes in providing full lifecycle high-quality services for transportation and automotive industries.
With over 22 years of experience, Intellias has been helping clients worldwide to transform their businesses by delivering innovative software solutions and world-class customer service. Leading automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, transportation and mobility service providers, including HERE Technologies, Elmos, JOYNEXT, TomTom, DKV, and Rand McNally, rely on Intellias to co-create custom solutions and digitally transform their businesses.
Intellias answers mobility challenges with deep expertise in connectivity, infotainment systems, autonomous driving, eMobility, and intelligent transportation proven by the highest industry certifications (ASPICE and TISAX) and global partnerships (Vector, Blackberry, Renesas, Rightware, AUTOSAR, COVESA, NDS and Linux Foundation).
Intellias software engineering services are tailored to meet the demands of the rapidly evolving automotive landscape, offering solutions that enhance vehicle intelligence, user experience, and operational efficiency.
How does Intellias serve the U.S. market?
Intellias serves the USA automotive market by providing advanced software engineering services and digital solutions tailored for OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and tech companies. Our expertise drives innovation in digital cockpit development, HMI (Human-Machine Interface), IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) systems, and AUTOSAR Adaptive solutions.
Intellias has extensive experience in developing digital cockpits and infotainment systems for the U.S. market, offering personalized, connected experiences with voice assistants, gesture control, and smart device integration. Our focus on safety ensures minimal driver distraction while delivering premium user experiences.

In HMI, we prioritize user-centric design, crafting interfaces that enhance user experience while maintaining safety through minimal driver distraction. Our solutions ensure that drivers can interact effortlessly with their vehicles, combining visual, touch, and voice-controlled elements in intuitive ways.
For IVI systems, Intellias leads the way in delivering connected, immersive infotainment solutions that integrate seamlessly with cloud-based services, over-the-air (OTA) updates, and connected vehicle ecosystems. We enable advanced features like real-time navigation, media streaming, and personalized in-car experiences to meet the growing demand for connectivity in the U.S. market.
With our expertise in AUTOSAR Adaptive, Intellias helps automakers implement flexible, scalable software architectures designed for future mobility needs. We ensure seamless integration of high-performance vehicle subsystems, particularly for ADAS, autonomous driving, and connected vehicle functions. Our focus on safety and interoperability ensures that our solutions meet stringent automotive standards and deliver optimal performance. We also develop embedded software for ECUs, focusing on safety-critical systems and AUTOSAR-compliant software, ensuring seamless integration and high performance across vehicle subsystems.
Intellias enables U.S. automotive companies to stay at the forefront of innovation, enhance vehicle performance, and shape the future of mobility.
How does Intellias address autonomous driving?
Autonomous driving is a complex topic, so we take an all-around approach to address it. We can break it down into main directions: technology, safety, collaboration and standardization.
At Intellias, we invest significantly in the research and development of critical technologies required for autonomous driving (AD). This includes pioneering HD mapping, developing AI/ML algorithms, integrating cutting-edge hardware platforms, optimizing algorithms for efficient data processing and sensor fusion. These efforts enable us to deliver reliable services and scalable solutions for our clients, Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs from around the globe.
We cover the integration of ADAS-enabling functions, including real-time perception algorithms, FuSa-compliant machine learning algorithms, embedded navigation, and high-performance embedded services with OS Linux, RTOS, and QNX. We work with operation systems on multiple levels, from creating sensors firmware and developing Linux device drivers, to integrating AI/ML middleware and frameworks with Board Support Packages (BSPs), developing comprehensive ADAS/AD testing solutions, and customizing SDKs for ADAS/AD.
Safety is the top priority in every aspect of autonomous driving development. We adhere strictly to functional safety standards and implement robust safety mechanisms to ensure the reliability and security of AD systems that we develop together with our clients and in scope of our joint projects with partners within industry associations. By prioritizing safety, we aim to instill confidence in AD technology and provide peace of mind to automakers and drivers.
Recognizing the complexity of autonomous driving, we actively engage in industry partnerships and standardization initiatives. We collaborate with automotive leaders and participate in the standardization of AD technologies running joint projects with Khronos Group within AUTOSAR community, working on diverse topics with Linux Foundation, Renesas, BlackBerry, Vector, and many other industry-wide alliances, contributing into developing unified guidelines and implementing best practices. This collaborative approach not only accelerates innovation but also promotes the adoption of safe and efficient AD systems globally.
What are the biggest challenges that autonomous vehicles present to Intellias?
When working with our clients on autonomous driving solutions, we face several common challenges. First of all, it’s crucial to ensure compliance with strict functional safety standards while maintaining high performance and reliability of AD systems.
When discussing autonomous driving, which heavily relies on AI technology, we must be prepared for new certifications and regulations that are likely to emerge in the near future. For instance, even in our current prototyping of AD systems, we are already considering the future certifications that will regulate the industry. We closely monitor the development of both recent and upcoming certifications to ensure that we are well-prepared for their eventual implementation.

Maintaining the complex integration of multi-sensor data and diverse hardware and software components is another technical challenge. We need to address the high computational demands of ADAS and AD systems, especially for hardware-accelerated functions. Finally, navigating the evolving regulatory landscape for autonomous vehicles remains an ongoing challenge for the industry.
How does your company address those challenges?
Intellias addresses these challenges by implementing a robust approach across several areas. We establish company-wide enablers for functional safety compliance, including processes, toolsets, and libraries. We follow the ISO 26262 framework to ensure the safety of vehicle electrical and electronic systems, reduce software failures, build testing models, create software for ECU modules, and align processes with industry standards. Our embedded engineers are experienced in a range of ASIL levels compliance for ECU software development and in-vehicle bus simulation using tools from leading suppliers like Vector and dSPACE.
We work on compliance with standards and extensive testing of AI algorithms to guarantee their safety and adherence to industry regulations. To manage the complexity of AD systems, we apply a modular architecture that facilitates easier integration and maintenance.
We have a deep understanding of full-cycle development, integration, and validation of AUTOSAR-based ECU components and ADAS/AD (autonomous driving) safety functions to ensure industry compliance and alignment with requirements. Our engineering teams perform functional, integration, and qualification testing, validating and verifying software against ISO/SAE 21434 criteria, and implementing ADAS/AD simulation for testing purposes using modern techniques and proprietary frameworks.
We also optimize efficient hardware utilization through techniques like algorithm optimization and hardware acceleration to meet the high computational demands of AD systems. Additionally, our deep engagement with industry alliances like AUTOSAR that work in the standardization area, allows us to ensure compliance on different levels. We plan future growth of partnerships network within AD ecosystem to be further involved in establishing industry standards.
Your recent presentation at the SDV Conference in Ann Arbor focused on the importance of harnessing modern hardware accelerators safely and efficiently to further SDV development. How can this be most effectively implemented? What is the process? And What are the challenges?
Effective implementation of hardware acceleration in Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) requires several key strategies. Firstly, diverse industry players have to work jointly to establish open and standardized APIs and frameworks. This approach fosters interoperability and scalability across different SDV platforms, reinforcing the benefits of AUTOSAR-based systems that simplify decoupling software from hardware while maintaining safety. When we are talking about SDV and their full computational potential, we need to emphasize how to make software to be hardware agnostic, in other words, decoupling software from hardware to overcome obvious limitations.
Secondly, we should focus on adopting a code-first approach that prioritizes the development of efficient and maintainable software, facilitating rapid prototyping and iteration cycles. Lastly, functional safety integration ensures that hardware acceleration solutions are seamlessly integrated into the vehicle’s overall safety architecture, maintaining reliability and compliance with stringent safety standards in AD systems. These strategies collectively support the advancement and deployment of hardware acceleration technologies in SDVs, balancing innovation with safety and reliability.
The process for implementing hardware acceleration involves several critical steps. First, collaborative standardization is essential, requiring close cooperation with industry partners to define standardized APIs and frameworks. This ensures interoperability and simplifies the development and replacement of modules within the AD system, contributing to updatability and the ability to deploy easy updates for autonomous driving solutions. Next, a code-first development approach focuses on writing efficient and modular code, allowing adaptability across different hardware platforms. While this approach alone does not solve all challenges, it emphasizes the need for standardized APIs to streamline integration and development. Lastly, safety verification is a key part of the process, involving rigorous testing and validation to ensure that hardware-accelerated functions meet stringent safety requirements, maintaining the overall reliability of the AD system.
Challenges in implementing hardware acceleration include several key areas. Functional safety is a top concern, as it is crucial to ensure that hardware acceleration does not compromise the overall safety and reliability of the system. Additionally, managing the complexity of integrating hardware acceleration into existing software architectures requires careful planning to avoid introducing new layers of complexity. This can be minimized through collaborative efforts and the adoption of standardized approaches. Another challenge is fragmentation, where the diversity of hardware, technologies, and standards can hinder seamless integration. To address this, we need to leverage open-source development and modular architecture for AD solutions.
In that presentation, you also discuss the implications resulting from the absence of a unified, safe solution. Can you elaborate on these two solutions that you have identified?
In the presentation, I focused on two key solutions that address the challenges of a unified and safe approach in software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The first is decoupling software from hardware, which involves separating software components from hardware-specific implementations to improve flexibility, maintainability, and scalability. This separation allows developers to adapt to hardware changes with minimal impact on software, which is crucial for complex SDV systems. Developers will be able to focus on software without thinking too much about hardware limitations.
The second solution is Safe Hardware Acceleration (SHWA), which is a concept jointly developed within the AUTOSAR community. This AUTOSAR project is led by Intellias team, and it focuses on utilization of hardware accelerators in AD systems, while maintaining the highest safety standards. This initiative aims to create an abstraction layer that allows software to fully leverage the computational power of modern SoCs while ensuring safety compliance. In this project, Intellias supports AUTOSAR in defining and integrating SHWA concept into AUTOSAR standards with all required documents and specifications.
SHWA offers numerous benefits, including:
Improved safety: Enables the use of hardware accelerators for safety-critical functions without compromising security.
Increased flexibility: Allows leveraging the power of hardware accelerators while maintaining the adaptability of software-defined systems.
Enhanced performance: Accelerates computationally intensive tasks, such as image processing and machine learning, significantly boosting system performance.
SHWA ensures smooth integration of hardware acceleration in a way that adheres to Functional Safety (FuSa) standards at various levels, including system, software, and hardware. By incorporating multi-level compliance and integrating with AUTOSAR tools, SHWA ensures that all components—from the conceptual level to the hardware layer—follow safety-compliant standards for a safer, more reliable SDV ecosystem.
What other factors will be essential to the growth and wider acceptance of Software-Defined Vehicles in the years ahead?
To ensure the growth and wider acceptance of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) in the coming years, several key factors will be essential. One critical area is the adoption of reusable and scalable software platforms that simplify the creation and deployment of autonomous driving systems. These platforms will make it easier for manufacturers to adopt SDVs by providing flexible and adaptable solutions that reduce the complexity of integrating new features and functionalities into vehicles.
The adoption of modern software development life cycles (SDLCs), such as modeling, virtualization, and cloud-native development, will also play a crucial role in advancing SDV technology. These methodologies will streamline the development process, enabling faster innovation and increased flexibility in responding to market demands. Additionally, standardization in areas like APIs, software components, and testing methodologies will be vital for ensuring interoperability between systems, making it easier for different components and platforms to work together seamlessly.
A code-first approach that emphasizes the development of efficient, maintainable code will be essential for accelerating the pace of SDV development. By focusing on the creation of high-quality, sustainable code, developers can improve system performance and ensure that SDV software remains adaptable and easier to maintain over time.
Collaboration between industries and organizations will be one of the most influential factors in the continued development of SDVs. The SDV Alliance, formed by key organizations like AUTOSAR, COVESA, SOAFEE, and Eclipse SDV, is a prime example of how cooperation can drive innovation in the field. Beyond this alliance, other organizations, such as the Khronos Group and the UXL Foundation, are also making significant contributions to SDV advancements. The Khronos Group, known for its work on open standards for 3D graphics, AI, and parallel computing, has partnered with AUTOSAR on the SYCL standard for safety-critical systems, which is being implemented in industries like automotive, avionics, medical, and industrial. Our recommendation is to use their SYCL API in implementation of SHWA API. The UXL Foundation, focused on open standards for heterogeneous computing, is helping to accelerate the evolution of programming for these complex systems.
These collaborations aim to provide developers with the tools needed to build cutting-edge applications that leverage high-performance computing and AI acceleration platforms. By fostering cooperation across industries, SDVs can evolve into reliable, scalable solutions capable of meeting the future challenges of the automotive industry.
Looking ahead, the introduction of Safe Hardware Acceleration (SHWA) offers a significant shift in how computational power is utilized within SDVs, allowing for greater independence from hardware while safely enhancing AI-based systems, autonomous driving features, and infotainment.
Al in all, collaboration is the key to developing efficient and resilient SDV, and I encourage industry professionals and organizations to join forces and contribute to the advancement of SDV technologies. Together, we can drive innovation and ensure that SDVs meet the highest standards for safety, flexibility, and performance in the years to come.
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