Examining the Small, Medium, and Large of

Preventing Automotive Latent Defects

One known risk to automotive electronics is latent defects; failures that do not show up in testing at the semiconductor fab or in subsequent burn-in testing of a component package. These defects can develop over time leading to failures that can result in safety hazards and expensive recalls.

Today, modern vehicles have:

• 100 thousand lines of digital code, a number predicted to rise six-fold by 2025,
• By 2030, electric and autonomous vehicles are projected to have about half their value in onboard electronics
• Over thirty percent of today’s field failures are attributable to a vehicle’s electronics

Automotive recalls are not only damaging to a company’s reputation but costly to their bottom line making the impact of a corresponding rise in electronic-related recalls unsustainable. As vehicle cost increases, so do the expectations among buyers for “excellence” as drivers and passengers become more reliant on embedded systems to guide and control their travels.