What is a Virtual Electronic Control Unit(vECU)

Virtual Electronic Control Unit is a software-based representation of an Automotive ECU, designed to emulates its behavior and facilitate the development, testing and validation of control software without the need of actual physical hardware

Definition and use

A vECU simulates the software representation allowing developers and test engineers to run the same application code along with the base software in a virtualized environment on a standard PC. This enables functional testing, debugging at a earlier development stage and at a lower cost than hardware-based validation. Virtual ECUs are critical for SIL Testing especially when the physical hardware is not yet available

Key Characteristics

1. No dependency on hardware: Software can be validated independently of the physical ECU accelerating the validation process
2. Levels of Fidelity: They are Levels of Virtual ECUs ( Level 0, Level 1, Level 2 , Level 3 ) of Virtual ECUs
3. Implementation : Using softwares like dspace systemdesk we can author the Autosar model which has a scheduler, application layer and base layer and configure the vECU and then finally generate the vECU.

References

1.Micronova (2025) ‘Earlier and more in-depth testing with virtual ECUs (vECU)’, Micronova.

2.Cyient (2023) ‘Virtual ECU Validation: Validating software without hardware prototypes’, Cyient.

3.Synopsys (2021) ‘Virtual Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Prototyping Tools’, Synopsys.

4.PS Engineering (2020) ‘Virtual Electronic Control Units’, PS Engineering.

5.Ubuntu (2024) ‘Virtual ECUs, or the future of automotive development and testing’, Ubuntu.

6.SAE International ‘Abstract Introduction Definition of a Virtual ECU’, SAE International.

7.NI (2025) ‘Adding and Configuring Virtual ECUs’, NI.