Discrete control systems for cars - quality is more than correct function

Abstract Based on the situation and trends in the automotive industry, the paper presents current challenges for the development of automotive electronic control systems, in particular discrete control functions. It is argued that the current situation in the automotive industry should motivate the discrete event and hybrid systems research community to extend their attention from formally defined, single-application focussed control design problems to so-called non-functional view-points or qualitative requirements like, e.g., maintainability or inter-operability of control software components.