What is ASPICE in automotive?

ASPICE stands for Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination. ASPICE is a process assessment model based on popular V-Model.

There have been several instances of bad software practices in the automotive industry that have led to accidents and fatalities. For example, in 2013, an Oklahoma court ruled against Toyota in a case of unintended acceleration that led to the death of one of the occupants. Central to the trial was the Engine Control Module’s (ECM) firmware . The firmware was found to be defective and contained bugs, including bugs that could cause unintended acceleration .

In another instance, Tesla received reports from customers in 2021 that their vehicles had falsely identified forward collision threats, which caused the automatic emergency braking (AEB) system to activate and bring the vehicle to a sudden stop .

These incidents highlight the importance of incorporating best practices in software development and testing, such as those outlined in ASPICE, to identify defects earlier in development and ensure that OEM requirements are met . ASPICE provides a framework for defining, implementing, and evaluating the process capability of suppliers, OEMs, and other stakeholders . 

The amount of software included in vehicles has expanded rapidly — from zero lines of code just a few decades ago to more than 200 million in some cases today . This complexity means projects typically have hundreds of engineers working together to meet tens of thousands of requirements. Making sure everyone is on the same page is critical to meet OEM requirements . 

ASPICE leverages the V-model of software development, which splits the process into two parts. The left side of the letter V represents the design and development steps, and the right side represents the testing steps. In this way, every development step is mirrored by a testing step. The letter V also stands for verification and validation. Verification ensures that a piece of software meets the required specifications, while validation ensures that the specifications meet the OEM’s needs .

When a premium OEM compared suppliers that use ASPICE against those that did not, it discovered that the average ASPICE supplier found 90 percent of defects 11 months before the start of production, whereas the average non-ASPICE supplier found 90 percent of defects just two months before the start of production, putting an on-time launch at risk.