Meet our Engineers

2023 / 02 / 17

This week, we are delighted to introduce Paco, a software engineer with extensive experience in the automotive industry. Before joining us at DeepDrive, Paco was a Software Engineer at Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH (an AUDI subsidiary) which later became part of Argo AI.
There, he developed software for Vehicle Dynamics Control, Simulation and State Estimation. During his studies, Paco also participated in the Formula Student team TUfast for 5 years, where he worked mainly on Torque Vectoring and Traction Control algorithms, as well as an Optimal Control Laptime Simulation. Over the years, Paco has established himself as an expert in his field.

At DeepDrive, we are taking a novel approach to revolutionize the automotive industry. With Paco bringing his expertise from software companies like Argo AI and AID, we aim to challenge traditional methods used by larger corporations and bring a modern software development framework to the table. Instead of the classical V-model approach for Software Development, we implement an agile process, taking many ideas from the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
For example, we have introduced Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to incrementally develop and deliver the software for our drive units. As we progress, new features, like an integrated Traction Control, can be deployed by our customers into our drive units using Software Over the Air (SOTA) updates.

Of course, we have to adhere to ISO 26262 and ASPICE, which are standards that define guidelines for the software development of safety-critical systems in the automotive industry. We adapt our software development and release processes to meet these norms, ensuring that we work efficiently while maintaining high safety standards, especially because many components of our drive units fall under the stringent safety level, ASIL D.

Instead of only relying on old-fashioned Windows-based tools, as many other players in the automotive industry do, at DeepDrive we try to make use of newer tools from the tech industry. Therefore, our software development is done in a Linux environment, and we use Bazel, a software tool open-sourced by Google, to build and test our software.
Software tests are executed automatically in the cloud and, since we develop embedded software for microcontrollers, we also run automated tests on Hardware. Much of our code is written in modern C++, but we also develop in Matlab/Simulink and Python where it makes sense, and we use state-of-the-art tools for static code analysis to make sure our code is correct and safe.

Paco’s skills will most probably also come into play in an extension of our offering, as we often receive requests for a central Vehicle Control Unit. At DeepDrive, we believe in offering innovative solutions tailored to the needs of our customers.
Our drive units are designed to be integrated into the wheels of an electric vehicle, and when two or more units are required, the need for a central control unit becomes evident. A central control unit acts as the brain of the drive system, coordinating the drive units to distribute the torque and improve the handling of the vehicle.

Do you want to join the DeepDrive Ride? We are hiring Embedded Software Engineers in Paco’s team.
So, if you want to help shape the real-time software of our drive units, come join us!