Survey of 650 automotive development professionals finds quality and compliance are key to developing safe and secure autonomous vehicles with AI-driven design.

Minneapolis, March 11, 2025 – Perforce Software, the DevOps company for global teams requiring speed, quality, security, and governance at scale along the development lifecycle, announces the release of the 2025 State of Automotive Software Development Report. This year's findings highlighted an uptick in the use of AI, continued challenges around code complexity, and a larger emphasis on safety than security.

Safety was the top concern in AI vehicle development for 49% of respondents, so teams who are guided by functional safety standards need to employ additional considerations when using AI, as the algorithms tend to be non-deterministic.

"Automotive software development is becoming more dependent on AI systems, but the software must still be developed, deployed, and maintained with safety in mind," said Perforce Director of Compliance Jill Britton. "AI systems bring additional challenges to achieving functional safety and to provide guidance, new and updated standards are emerging for their use in safety-critical applications."

AI is driving autonomous vehicle design for 42% of automotive professionals (up 9% from last year) and is affecting at least some components in connected vehicles (41%). Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) were the leading components with AI/ML applications, alongside In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) components.

In the previous report, security rose as a concern over safety, but with the rapid introduction of AI/ML in connected and autonomous vehicle development and design, safety is once again of higher concern in 2025.

Automotive software professionals are increasingly aware that maintaining high-quality code contributes to both the safety and security of the software system. But the complexity of the code base can make producing quality code challenging, especially for engineers with less than three years of experience: 57% of respondents with less than one year and 45% with one to three years expressed code complexity as their top concern; as opposed to those with more than five years (37%) who cited testing resources as their top quality concern.

While wider market conditions and challenges like the global economy and remaining competitive are driving most organizations, a consistent trend throughout the report showed an emphasis on maximizing existing resources (49%) and educating existing talent (42%).

Developers are turning to static analysis tools to manage complex code bases, ensuring compliance with industry standards like MISRA and ISO 21434. The report found that 30% of teams prioritize software quality improvements through static analysis, version control, and continuous testing tools.

Other notable findings include:

·86% are using at least one coding standard, which is important for code quality.

·53% use static analysis/SAST tools, with 30% citing the primary reason as improving software quality.

·89% are required to track code quality metrics to reduce errors — an increase of 12%.

·EV software development is stabilizing, with 47% working extensively on EV systems.

·AI-driven development is growing, with 71% adopting ISO/DPAS 8800 for AI functional safety assurance.

As regulations evolve, proving compliance with functional safety and security standards is more critical than ever. The anticipated release of MISRA C:2025 will impact 53% of automotive developers, highlighting the need for robust software quality and compliance tools.

The annual study, conducted in collaboration with Automotive IQ and the Eclipse Foundation, delivers exclusive research on the current challenges of developing safe and secure automotive software in increasingly connected and autonomous vehicle systems.

Interested parties can download the full 2024 State of Automotive Software Development Report by visiting: https://www.perforce.com/resources/sca/2025-state-automotive-software-development-report