Automotive Digital Twins Out of the Box and Real Time with PAVE360

 

Automotive Digital Twins Out of the Box and Real Time with PAVE360

Categories: AI, Automotive, EDA, Siemens EDA

Introduction

Digital twins have long promised to transform automotive development by providing high-fidelity virtual representations of real vehicles. These twins span software, electrical/electronic, and mechanical domains, continuously calibrated with real-world data from production and testing environments. As vehicles become increasingly software-defined, AI-driven, and safety-critical, digital twins are no longer optional—they are essential.

However, until recently, building and operating a true real-time automotive digital twin was slow, complex, and limited to only the largest OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers. Siemens aims to change that with its newly announced PAVE360 Digital Twin Blueprint, unveiled at CES 2026.

Why Automotive Digital Twins Matter

Modern vehicles must be validated across countless scenarios—braking, cornering, varying road surfaces, weather conditions, traffic density, and AI-driven decision-making. Digital twins enable:

  • Faster development and iteration cycles

  • Early detection and debugging of system-level issues

  • Improved quality and safety assurance

  • Closed-loop feedback between real vehicles and virtual models

As ADAS, autonomous driving (AD), and infotainment (IVI) systems grow in complexity, the need for accurate, system-level simulation becomes critical.

From Years of Integration to “Out of the Box”

David Fritz, VP of Hybrid Virtual and Physical AI Systems at Siemens Digital Industries, explained that earlier digital twin implementations required years of effort by large engineering teams to integrate components from multiple vendors. Even for major OEMs, this approach was too slow to keep pace with rapidly evolving markets.

To address this, Siemens introduced the PAVE360 Digital Twin Blueprint—a fully integrated, ready-to-deploy platform designed to dramatically reduce setup time while enabling real-time operation. This blueprint is accessible not only to OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers, but also to a broader ecosystem of automotive innovators.

Real-Time Simulation for Realistic Workloads

One of the most significant breakthroughs with PAVE360 is performance. Previous-generation digital twins often ran orders of magnitude slower than real time, which is unacceptable for validating modern software stacks running millions of lines of code and AI workloads.

By working closely with Arm and AWS, Siemens has leveraged Arm Zena CSS and cloud-native technologies to achieve near real-time performance across the full digital twin. This capability is essential for developing and validating ADAS, autonomous driving, and IVI features in a realistic environment.

A Ready-to-Deploy SDV Platform

The SDV Digital Twin Blueprint includes:

  • Virtual reference hardware and software stacks

  • Built-in AI functionality for ADAS, AD, and IVI

  • Day-one operability with cloud-based collaboration

  • Flexibility to replace reference stacks with custom software

  • Mechanisms to connect virtual models to real vehicle hardware

This approach allows teams to start immediately and evolve the platform as their designs mature.

AI Execution: Cloud and On-Prem Flexibility

AI workloads within PAVE360 can run in the cloud or on-premises. When GPUs are available, the platform takes advantage of them. When they are not, it leverages Arm Zena cores, increasingly common in cloud servers. While Siemens has not disclosed full details, this flexibility ensures scalability across different deployment environments.

Expanding the Automotive Ecosystem

PAVE360 is attracting interest beyond traditional OEM and Tier-1 boundaries. Engineering service providers and joint ventures are using the platform to demonstrate advanced capabilities to OEMs—often targeting vehicle platforms planned for 2030 and beyond.

Examples include:

  • Silicon Auto, a joint venture with Stellantis and Foxconn, using PAVE360 to model ADAS silicon within a full vehicle context

  • SAICEC, part of SAIC Motor, exploring PAVE360 for system development and potentially certification services in the cloud

Siemens’ growing partner ecosystem already includes AWS, AMD, Microsoft, Wipro, and Cognizant, with more collaborations expected.

CES 2026: Real-Time Proof

At CES 2026, Siemens demonstrated the real-time capabilities of PAVE360 using a Volkswagen ID.Buzz connected via Wi-Fi. The vehicle’s “brains” ran in the cloud, controlling navigation and vehicle functions in real time. Commands flowed from user to cloud to vehicle instantly—providing tangible proof that real-time digital twins are now achievable.

Availability and Outlook

The SDV Digital Twin Blueprint will be available in February 2026. With real-time performance, cloud scalability, and out-of-the-box integration, PAVE360 represents a major step forward in making automotive digital twins practical, accessible, and impactful across the entire ecosystem.

As vehicles continue their evolution into software-defined, AI-driven systems, platforms like PAVE360 will play a central role in ensuring safety, quality, and innovation at scale.

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