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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 12 - Which Software Tools Development Teams Are Using
Using the right software development tools is essential for ensuring that your software is safe, secure, and reliable. Some of the top tools for those we surveyed included:
Static Analysis/SAST (55%) continued to be the leading tool for software development teams in automotive. Project Management returned to its 2024 position over Dynamic Code Analysis, but there is still strong interest in these two.
Automated/Continuous Testing (+4%) and Application Lifecycle Management (+3%), and Open-Source Tools (+7%) also increased year over year.
Those who do not use any development tools increased by 2% this year. It is recommended to use some kind of development tool, as they significantly increase time to market and help organizations retain a competitive edge.
Leading Benefit of Development Tools
A majority (29%) of those surveyed said that improving software quality was their primary reason for using development tools. As software quality was the leading automotive software and technology development concern in this report overall, respondents seem to be aware that development tools play a big part in improving quality.