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# Code to Road in < 12 hours

How do you coordinate 1,500 developers building autonomous vehicle software? The answer is a unified monorepo. Discover how Bazel slashed build times to just 10 minutes.

- **Speakers:** [Lukas Sucher](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@lukas-sucher), [Sebastian Roßner](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@sebastian-rossner)
- **Event:** World Congress 2024
- **Published:** August 20, 2024
- **Duration:** 30:13
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1082-code-to-road-in-12-hours

## Summary

The Automated Driving Alliance (CARIAD and Bosch) is accelerating autonomous vehicle software development, aiming to reduce release cycles from a traditional 50 months down to continuous monthly updates. Building a comprehensive software stack for Level 2+ to Level 4 automation requires overcoming massive integration bottlenecks. By transitioning a complex 200-repository architecture into a unified monorepo environment, the engineering team streamlined their embedded development loop while retaining tight control over continuous integration and deployment pipelines.

A critical technical shift involved migrating from CMake to the Bazel build system, which optimized code caching and drastically cut build times from 45 minutes to just 10 minutes. This architecture successfully supports over 1,500 developers merging code simultaneously, enabling up to 100 integrations per day. Their data-driven strategy relies on three continuous developmental cycles: a swarm data collection loop using the fleet, a deep learning loop for video perception and environmental modeling, and a rapid embedded functional loop for algorithm refinement.

To maintain strict automotive safety standards and lower the change failure rate before code reaches physical cars, the team deployed a massive scalable testing infrastructure. Engineers process roughly 15,000 driving scenarios daily through software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulations on cloud x86 hardware. Bridging the gap between cloud environments and real-world deployment, they combine this with processor-in-the-loop (PIL) testing on target system-on-a-chip (SoC) architectures, ensuring rapid performance validation prior to final hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) integration.

**Keywords:** automated driving alliance, autonomous driving stack, monorepo architecture, bazel build system, continuous integration, embedded software development, software-in-the-loop, processor-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, deep learning perception, sensor data fusion, swarm fleet data, cmake caching mechanisms, system-on-a-chip validation, cloud simulation testing

## Chapters

1. **Strategic goals for the Cariad automated driving division** (00:04) — How the Volkswagen Group leverages the software powerhouse Cariad to build scalable automotive tech platforms.
1. **Defining the scope of the Automated Driving Alliance** (02:27) — The collaborative effort between Cariad and Bosch to develop a complete end-to-end autonomous driving stack.
1. **Differences between levels of automated driving responsibilities** (04:49) — The shift in liability and system capabilities from driver-assistance constraints to level three autonomy.
1. **System architecture for autonomous driving assistance features** (07:27) — How data flows from hardware sensors through perception systems into a centralized environmental behavior map.
1. **Managing data and deep learning with cloud loops** (11:04) — Establishing a neutral cloud playground to continuously process fleet data and train predictive neural networks.
1. **Migrating to a monorepo for faster software integration** (14:50) — Transitioning from a fragmented repository architecture to a build system that drastically reduces compile times.
1. **Overcoming testing bottlenecks on embedded target hardware** (19:26) — Integrating physical device testing directly into the development process to safely catch edge cases before road deployments.
1. **Scaling validation using software and hardware loop simulations** (22:25) — Accelerating monthly releases by shifting tests across sequential software, processor, and targeted hardware environments.
1. **Open source contributions within the automated driving ecosystem** (29:10) — The alliance's approach to adopting community simulation standards and contributing upstream framework enhancements.

## Related Moments

- [Unified tech stack and hardware for Volkswagen](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/519-finding-the-unknown-unknowns-intelligent-data-collection-for-autonomous-driving-development) (from "Finding the unknown unknowns: intelligent data collection for autonomous driving development")
- [Accelerating research and development for autonomous systems](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/22-how-to-develop-an-autonomous-car-end-to-end-robotic-drive-and-the-mobility-revolution) (from "How to develop an autonomous car end-to-end: Robotic Drive and the mobility revolution")
- [Advancing autonomous driving capabilities with specialized software talent](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1360-inside-mercedes-benz-how-cio-katrin-lehmann-is-empowering-5-000-developers-and-driving-digital-change) (from "Inside Mercedes-Benz: How CIO Katrin Lehmann is Empowering 5,000 Developers and Driving Digital Change")
- [Introduction to the speakers and topic](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/22-how-to-develop-an-autonomous-car-end-to-end-robotic-drive-and-the-mobility-revolution) (from "How to develop an autonomous car end-to-end: Robotic Drive and the mobility revolution")
- [Tackling functional complexity with localized vehicle electronic architectures](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/258-on-developing-smartphones-on-wheels) (from "On developing smartphones on wheels")
- [Driving developer productivity with AI in automotive tech](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/916-beyond-the-hype-real-world-ai-strategies-panel) (from "Beyond the Hype: Real-World AI Strategies Panel")

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