A Profit-Maximizing Method for the Partitioning of Embedded Software Features in Motor Vehicles

As the system design of in-car embedded systems becomes more and more modular and motor vehicles get increasingly connected to enterprise systems based on Car-2-X technology, the integration of additional embedded software features becomes technically feasible throughout the product lifecycle. For car manufacturers, this opens up the opportunity to sell additional embedded software features to their customers at a later time, thus generating subsequent revenue in addition to the initial sale. However, due to the competitive environment and customer preferences, it is impossible to apply this concept to the complete feature set. In order to support the decision, which features should be included in a shipped product and which features should be retained to generate subsequent revenue, we propose a profit-maximizing method that identifies two complementary feature bundles. To illustrate our approach, we present a numerical example, which illustrates the partitioning
of embedded software features in motor vehicles