Automotive Programming Course

Lesson 1 • Automotive Software Domains

Maps software responsibilities across powertrain, chassis, body, and ADAS domains, detailing control algorithms, communication tasks, and safety functions. Learners categorise ECU functions, linking requirements to hardware allocation and integration challenges.

Lesson 2 • Development Toolchain Introduction

Surveys compilers, debuggers, and flash programmers used in automotive projects. Learners set up a working embedded development environment.

Lesson 3 • Vehicle Electrical Architecture Overview

Covers power distribution, ground networks, and signal types in modern vehicles. Connects hardware fundamentals to software control dependencies.

Lesson 4 • Electronic Control Units Explained

Examines ECU hardware components—microcontrollers, processors, peripheral interfaces—and memory types (flash, RAM, EEPROM) and their roles. Shows where automotive software runs, supporting real‑time control loops, diagnostics, and safety‑critical operations.

Lesson 1 • LIN Bus for Low-Speed Networks

Explains LIN single‑wire architecture, master‑slave scheduling, header/response frame formats, and wake‑up signalling, plus diagnostic extensions in LIN 2.x. Shows how low‑cost networks manage lighting, seat‑adjustment, and comfort functions.

Lesson 2 • Automotive Ethernet and DoIP

Covers 100BASE-T1 physical layer, TCP/IP stack adaptation, and DoIP routing. Prepares learners for high-bandwidth ADAS and OTA applications.

Lesson 3 • CAN Bus Architecture and Framing

Details CAN physical layer specs—differential signalling, termination, voltage levels—and frame structure (identifiers, DLC, CRC). Explains arbitration for message priority. Provides foundation for understanding timing, error handling, and controller interaction.

Lesson 4 • Network Management and Gateway Design

Teaches bus wake‑up/sleep coordination, NM messages, node power‑state transitions, and gateway routing across CAN, LIN, FlexRay. Learners create a multi‑bus routing table, handling address translation, latency, and security for cross‑network communication.

Lesson 1 • Software Component Design and Ports

Covers SWC types (atomic, composed) and port interfaces (sender‑receiver, client‑server, service), plus data elements and calibration. Learners model a sensor‑actuator SWC with sender‑receiver ports, defining interfaces, data types, and communication paths.

Lesson 2 • OS and Scheduling in AUTOSAR

Explains OSEK/AUTOSAR OS concepts: task types, alarms, counters, and scheduling policies (fixed‑priority pre‑emptive and cooperative). Learners assign runnables, set timing budgets, and configure alarms for real‑time automotive functions.

Lesson 3 • BSW Module Configuration

Configures COM, PDU Router, and NvM BSW modules via ARXML, specifying signal mappings, routing, and memory attributes. Links protocol knowledge to AUTOSAR stack, showing CAN/LIN/FlexRay messages in BSW.

Lesson 4 • AUTOSAR Layered Architecture Overview

Introduces AUTOSAR’s four layers—Application, RTE, BSW, MCAL—detailing responsibilities, interfaces, and interactions. Provides a model for mapping functional requirements onto layered components and ensuring traceability.

Lesson 1 • Calibration with XCP Protocol

Introduces XCP over CAN/Ethernet for online calibration, measurement, and data acquisition, covering master‑slave communication, A2L files, and DAQ configuration. Enables real‑time ECU parameter tuning.

Lesson 2 • UDS Service Implementation

Implements core UDS services: DiagnosticSessionControl, SecurityAccess (seed‑key), ReadDataByIdentifier, WriteDataByIdentifier. Learners develop C request‑response handlers, manage session state, and ensure error handling and security.

Lesson 3 • OBD and Diagnostic Architecture

Surveys OBD‑II, WWH‑OBD extensions, and UDS layered structure, showing how physical, data link, session, and service layers interact. Provides diagnostic context before detailed protocol operations.

Lesson 4 • DTC Management and Fault Memory

Covers DTC status byte, snapshot (freeze‑frame) data, and extended data records, showing context for fault diagnosis. Links to AUTOSAR DEM configuration, mapping DTCs to software events.

Lesson 1 • Safety Goals and Functional Safety Concepts

Derives safety goals, safe states, and functional safety requirements from HARA. Connects risk analysis output to software design constraints.

Lesson 2 • Verification and Validation for Safety

Covers verification and validation methods: unit and integration testing, plus safety analyses like FMEA and FTA. Learners produce a safety verification report with test results, coverage metrics, and risk assessments.

Lesson 3 • Safety Mechanisms in Embedded Software

Implements watchdog timer, MPU region configuration, and end‑to‑end (E2E) communication protection, covering setup, validation, and failure handling. Applies these mechanisms to AUTOSAR BSW components for robust fault detection.

Lesson 4 • Software Safety Requirements and Architecture

Translates functional safety requirements into software safety requirements and architecture. Learners design a safety-partitioned software module.

Lesson 1 • SOME/IP Protocol Deep Dive

Details SOME/IP message format—header, payload, transport considerations—and Service Discovery (SD) for announcing/finding services. Covers serialisation and alignment rules. Shows how ara::com maps to SOME/IP messages.

Lesson 2 • Adaptive Platform Architecture

Contrasts Adaptive vs Classic AUTOSAR and introduces Functional Clusters. Establishes the architectural model for service-oriented vehicle software.

Lesson 3 • Execution and State Management

Configures application manifests, process startup, and state machine transitions. Learners implement a multi-state adaptive application lifecycle.

Lesson 4 • Adaptive Platform Security Basics

Introduces IAM policies, TLS handshake, and SecOC within Adaptive AUTOSAR, covering certificate handling, encryption, and message authenticity. Prepares learners to design secure service communication for safety‑critical applications.

Lesson 1 • Intrusion Detection and SecOC

Implements SecOC message authentication with cryptographic MACs and adds IDPS monitoring on CAN/Ethernet. Learners apply SecOC to a CAN signal from Chapter 2, configure freshness counters, and log suspicious activity.

Lesson 2 • Automotive Threat Modelling

Applies TARA to identify attack surfaces, threat agents, and vulnerable assets, deriving cybersecurity goals and mitigations. Links directly to HARA from Chapter 5, aligning safety and security.

Lesson 3 • Vulnerability Management and Patching

Covers vulnerability management: tracking CVEs, generating SBOMs for traceability, and deploying patches via OTA updates. Completes the security lifecycle from threat modelling to remediation.

Lesson 4 • OTA Update Architecture

Covers campaign management, update agent design, and rollback strategies. Connects flash programming from Chapter 4 to cloud-driven update flows.

Lesson 1 • Sensor Technologies and Interfaces

Surveys camera, radar, LiDAR, and ultrasonic sensors with their data interfaces. Establishes sensor input foundation for all subsequent ADAS topics.

Lesson 2 • ADAS Safety and Validation

Applies SOTIF analysis, scenario-based testing, and simulation validation for ADAS. Extends ISO 26262 safety skills from Chapter 5 to perception systems.

Lesson 3 • Path Planning and Decision Making

Implements trajectory generation, behaviour planning, and scene prediction algorithms. Connects fused object list to vehicle motion commands.

Lesson 4 • Perception and Object Detection

Implements image processing pipelines and neural network inference for object detection. Connects sensor data from previous section to scene understanding.