BMW's Aida project on song with DS's V6 PLM system

BMW has selected Dassault Systèmes' V6 product lifecycle management (PLM) software for its cars' future electrical, electronics, and embedded software (E/E) architecture for the next 10 years.

BMW will use V6 to create a single reference address to link customer requirements to implementable functions in the car. This will also define the logical architecture of the systems and realise its physical expression as hardware and software.

BMW said it chose V6, which will be used by thousands of engineers, because of its flexible PLM backbone, and its out-of-the-box, specialised functions for systems engineering.

The automaker is building a seamless, collaborative process called "architecture, integration and design for automotive" (Aida) to connect the various parts and people in the E/E process. V6 will be a cornerstone of Aida.

BMW will use V6 to manage the future complexity of embedded systems in its cars. V6 will hold a master architecture for all car derivations, enabling a constant modernisation of car functions over time from a single source.

The re-use of functions and the separation of hardware and software components in the development process will help it gain significant cost savings in the E/E domain, BMW said.

BMW will also connect the V6 system to the current BMW enterprise environment as the next step in a 10-year partnership between the two firms.