Models for model's sake

In automotive software and system design, explicit system and especially software models have found their way into the development process. This paper try to give an overview for what such models have so-far been used and which advantages they brought to vehicle manufacturers and suppliers. Another focus of this paper is the comparison to functional models which are already used in the automotive industry to define control algorithms and function implementation. In many cases too strong analogies have been seen between the existing functional control algorithm models and the new system models - leading to suboptimal development processes and tools. This paper therefore try to outline differences between these model types. Finally, a synthesis between functional, system, and software models was sketched.