Abstract
Electronic innovations, which are slowly but surely changing the very nature of driving need to be extensively tested, which is the purpose of this paper. To meet this need, the Fraunhofer Institute of Industrial Engineering IAO has developed a highly flexible system for virtual prototyping and testing. Functional virtual prototypes of various in-vehicle-systems, such as driver assistance, driver information, and multimedia systems can now be generated, integrated and tested in a driving simulator directly. The system has already been tried and tested in recent R&D projects.