-
2026 State of Automotive Software Development Report
- Chapter 1 - What Are the Top Market Challenges Impacting Automotive Software Development?
- Chapter 2 - The Leading Concerns in Automotive Software and Technology Development
- Chapter 3 - Areas of Automotive Software Development
- Chapter 4 - Adoption & Implementation of Shift-Left
- Chapter 5 - Recalls and Software Vulnerabilities
- Chapter 6 - Automotive Software Security
- Chapter 7 - How Are Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) Affecting Developers?
- Chapter 8 - Leading Trends in Automotive AI
- Chapter 9 - Why Standards Compliance Remains Vital for Automotive Development
- Chapter 10 - Key Coding Standards for Automotive Software Development
- Chapter 11 - How Development Teams Manage Their Work
- Chapter 12 - Which Software Tools Development Teams Are Using
- Chapter 13 - Open-Source Automotive Software
- Chapter 14 - Why Perforce Software Solutions Remain Essential for Automotive Software Development
- About the Survey — Appendix
Report > 2026 State of Automotive Software Development Report
Chapter 6 - Automotive Software Security
As more software is added to vehicles, enforcing software security is more important than ever before.
The Leading Automotive Software Security Challenges
Like last year, “meeting regulations requiring cybersecurity approval” was the leading software security challenge (38%) and “enforcing secure coding practices” was the second-most cited security challenge (26%). This is not surprising, as security for automotive software is a newer requirement compared to safety. Static analysis tools are essential for meeting today’s security requirements.
The “Other” category increased by 4%, and many of the respondents’ answers mentioned a lack of security awareness, knowledge of automotive security, and developer education. This is interesting, considering that in earlier security-related questions, developer training decreased in importance compared to previous years.
Additional “Other” responses included some OEMs not taking a proactive approach to cybersecurity, leaving it for the suppliers to figure out; while still other answers included security challenges around tracking and scaling vehicle software as well as scaling security processes across complex and fragmented supply chains.
Meeting software security requirements and enforcing secure coding practices are the leading challenges for automotive software security.
A Culture of Software Security Is Growing
Most organizations who responded to this year’s survey said they are investing in a DevSecOps culture, which increased by 4% since 2025. However, as shown below, those who provide tools and security training for developers decreased by 9%. These numbers could mean that as training has become more established, teams are more confident in applying best practices for DevSecOps and interested in expanding their efforts in other areas. Since those who were impacted several times by software vulnerabilities rose by 3% this year, organizations are recognizing the need for a more robust security culture.