Open House Germany 2025 – Virtual in Process, Real in Progress
Open House Germany on March 25, 2025, was a huge success. Over 300 industry experts, scientists, and executives from across the world took part in the event presenting insightful impulses and solution approaches under the motto “Virtual in Process, Real in Progress - Shift Left to Save Costs and Time” to shape more efficient and increasingly virtual development processes and master industry challenges.
Moreover, the 20th anniversary of the event was an important milestone in the history of Open House Germany.
President & CEO Steffen Schmidt and Dr. Raphael Pfeffer, Head of Strategy & Corporate Development, jointly opened the event. Steffen Schmidt presented the company’s vision and strengths that will lead corporate action in the years to come. Dr. Raphael Pfeffer explained the current and future effects of the megatrend software-defined vehicles on developments in the automotive industry. He pointed out how IPG Automotive can accompany the ongoing transformation leveraging its strong partner network, and why the shift-left approach, virtual validation, and agile development processes are a key strategy for this.
Keynote speech
Electronics Digital Twins: The Future of Efficient Software-Defined Vehicle Validation
Tom de Shutter, Senior Vice President Product Management at Synopsys, illustrated how electronics digital twins revolutionize the validation of software-defined vehicles (SDVs). He highlighted the performance capability of virtual ECUs (vECUs) at different levels of abstraction, in which production code is executed in a simulated environment, hence allowing to perform a variety of tests at an earlier point in development. Operating electronics digital twins in a virtual vehicle inside a virtual environment helps to develop automotive software faster and in a more reliable and highly automated way. In the end, this leads to shorter development times while, at the same time, achieving the highest standards regarding safety and quality.
Session 1
Reduce Warranty Costs with Rapid Software Validation
The transition toward software-defined vehicles pushes structural changes in vehicle development to overcome complexity of modern vehicle architectures as well as increasing warranty claims caused by software recalls. In their session “Reduce Warranty Costs with Rapid Software Validation”, David Howarth, Dr. Michael Kochem, and Martin Hermann explained how the complexity in vehicle development can be mastered with frequent and early iterations, how to increase result quality, and shorten cycle times. For this, they presented solutions ranging from the use of virtual ECUs in the cloud to application-specific HIL farms to the use of the Vehicle-in-the-Loop test system, enabling a continuous and consistent development process.
Session 2
IPG Automotive as a Comprehensive Solution Provider
In the second session, Alexander Frings put a special emphasis on the seamlessness of the product portfolio as well as the cross-domain usability that characterizes IPG Automotive as a comprehensive solution provider. Oliver Windau presented innovations from the release 14.0 of the CarMaker product family in the fields of ADAS/AD, powertrain and vehicle dynamics, using an extensive scenario as an example. In addition to highly detailed weather models for camera tests, optimized pedestrian models, and extensions for the Driver model, complex trailer combinations were hitched and unhitched in simulation.
Florian Weindel showcased new developments from IPG Automotive’s hardware portfolio: He presented a hybrid version of the Xpack4, combining the advantages of precises IO interfaces with a powerful real-time PC. In addition to new SensInject features, Florian and Alexander demonstrated a setup that can be used for scenario-based as well as data-based testing. Direct switching between the two testing modes allows users to benefit from the advantages of both test variants.
Session 3
VIRTO: Scaling the Simulation Workflow Through Accessibility
Jan Stehle and Jega Sriskantha outlined the latest developments for VIRTO in the third session “VIRTO: Scaling the Simulation Workflow Through Accessibility”. They highlighted the improved traceability to manage simulation data as well as scenarios and demonstrated how AI-generated scenarios from IAV Mela can be integrated, referenced, and used in VIRTO. Furthermore, they explained how test efforts can be distributed to multiple simulation environments to reduce complexity and master the high computational needs. Another live demonstration in this session exemplified parameter variations that are part of the latest VIRTO release. VIRTO can thus automatically generate hundreds of test variations, simulate them in parallel, and therefore guarantees a high test coverage.
Besides the fascinating presentations, visitors had the opportunity to experience the latest product innovations live and talk to experts in the accompanying trade exhibition. From the exciting new features of the CarMaker product family release 14.0 to rapid HIL solutions to parallelization of test efforts to pioneering technologies presented at the innovation hub – the trade exhibition focused on the board spectrum of solutions provided by IPG Automotive. The numerous partners that demonstrated their solutions in combination with IPG Automotive’s product portfolio complemented the exhibition perfectly.
