More than 500 participants explore integrated workflows for AI deployment, ECU cybersecurity, radar testing, and scalable HIL validation.
More than 500 delegates from automotive and non-automotive OEMs, suppliers and global engineering companies gathered at the dSPACE User Conference India 2026 on 25 September at the Marriott Whitefield, Bengaluru, to examine a critical shift in product development: how to validate software before the hardware exists.
Held under the theme “Software-defined. Test-verified.”, the conference brought this challenge into focus through discussions on simulation, virtual validation and the changing role of testing in engineering.
As Murali Manohar of Ashok Leyland put it, “The best defects are not the ones we solve quickly. The best defects are the ones we don’t allow to reach the vehicle.”
Partner demonstrations showed turnkey, deployable workflows
The technology showcase centred on practical workflows built with dSPACE’s partner ecosystem, not standalone product demos:
- Generation of DO-178C certification artefacts with TargetLink and partner products
- V2X simulation to test vehicle behaviour for future autonomous and assisted-driving functions
- Cybersecurity penetration testing combined with simulation of real-world effects on the vehicle
- Generation of virtual ECUs with complete production software, with minimal downtime
The demos at dSPACE User Conference India 2026 were integrated with the partner showcases, which showed customers that these solutions are deployable rather than conceptual. Together they showed Indian engineering teams combining technologies at pace and scale into turnkey solutions for customer programmes.
A push for locally designed test solutions
India’s mobility industry is large and varied. Indian automakers sold a record 28.3 million vehicles domestically in FY26, up 10.4%, and exported 6.6 million, up 24%, according to SIAM.
Automotive and nonautomotive OEMs alike must simulate many vehicle types, operating conditions and scenarios. Nasscom estimates India’s engineering R&D services revenue at $63 billion in FY26 and projects it will exceed $100 billion by 2030.
That demand drove one of the conference’s clearest themes: a concerted push for test solutions designed and engineered locally for India, shaped by Indian programmes and delivered with local partners.
Customer Perspectives: Validation Challenges Across Industries
- Customers described using dSPACE to manage large numbers of vehicle variants in a virtual environment and accelerate testing.
- Speakers showed how emerging aerospace companies can test flight-control laws safely and precisely before flight tests.
- Multiple speakers raised the testing challenges of software-defined vehicles, including continuous regression and reproducible, scalable end-to-end validation, and how dSPACE addresses them.
Four technologies matched to those requirements
The technologies unveiled for the Indian market address the needs customers described:
- Neural Net Coder converts trained neural networks into deterministic, standards-compliant C code for safety-critical, resource-constrained embedded systems. It includes post-training optimisation, built-in verification and early estimates of runtime and memory use.
- dissecto HydraProbe is an ECU security test tool that adds controlled penetration testing to existing HIL systems, speeding up cybersecurity testing and giving teams results they can rely on as evidence throughout the validation lifecycle.
dissecto HydraProbe - DARTS ARROW is a compact radar target simulator for functional, end-of-line and periodic inspection testing across 76–81 GHz, with ranges up to 500 metres and simulated speeds up to ±700 km/h.
Darts Arrow - SCALEXIO Essential is an entry-level, component-level HIL platform for quick validation of edge ECUs, supporting automotive Ethernet, CAN, LIN and analogue, digital and resistance I/O.
How dSPACE India addresses AI in mobility
AI is moving into embedded mobility systems, and the harder task is no longer building a model but proving how it behaves on an ECU inside a larger physical system.
Neural Net Coder covers the path from trained network to verified embedded code. The wider dSPACE environment, from SIL to HIL, tests that behaviour before deployment.
Leadership Comment
“India’s engineers are building for domestic and global markets at a scale few countries match, and they are being asked to prove software works before there is a vehicle to prove it on. This conference showed Indian teams combining partner technologies into turnkey workflows, and it showed the demand for test solutions designed for Indian programmes. The four technologies we introduced, including Neural Net Coder for AI in the ECU, are our answer to that demand.” — Andreas Gau, CEO, dSPACE India Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
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