From Software for Testing Autonomous Driving to Systems that Recognize Driver Fatigue – Croatian Software Developers Enter the Automotive Industry

Although Croatia does not have serial automobile production, nor has it managed to attract investors for electric vehicle battery production facilities, for which many European countries are currently competing and rolling out the red carpet by offering a “smorgasbord” of incentives and subsidies, Croatia has quietly transformed into a country with a well-developed IT industry that works for the automotive sector. In other words, we have inadvertently positioned ourselves globally as a country where new mobility technology is being developed, especially when it comes to software solutions.

Software for Audi

– Croatian IT companies have already been recognized in the global automotive industry as excellent companies. For example, the software in which TTTech Auto has been actively involved in development and verification since 2018 is being integrated into top models of Audi vehicles, and we also operate as a testing center for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) systems. Until our teams give the software the green light, it cannot be integrated into cars of the most renowned global brands – emphasized Zvonimir Kaprocki, CEO of the Osijek-based company TTTech Auto, which was formed from a collaboration between the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology Osijek and the RT-RK Research and Development Institute Novi Sad. Based on university and practical collaboration, a joint company, RT-RK Osijek Institute, was established in 2015, which changed its name to TTTech Auto in 2021, a company specializing in software for the automotive industry.

– Our teams develop software for ADAS and AD, and the systems we develop have a high level of autonomy, which means that the software intended for these purposes must be extremely reliable, i.e., error-free. In critical operations such as steering, acceleration, and braking, failures are not allowed as they can directly jeopardize passenger safety – said Kaprocki, highlighting that they are already working for some of the most renowned companies in the industry such as Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, SAIC, Hyundai, Kia, and others.

According to him, the domestic IT industry has already been recognized globally as a support for the automotive industry, as evidenced by many other companies that have already opened their software companies in Croatia, and he believes that there will be even more in the future.

Soon even more software companies

– I expect that more companies for the production and assembly of electronic components for EVs will soon be established here, and I believe that eventually, large global automotive companies will open their electric vehicle assembly plants here – emphasized Kaprocki, citing Osijek as an example because there is also a university program in Automotive Computing and Communications.

Visage Technologies is another, albeit Croatian-Swedish, company for software development for the automotive industry. It was founded twenty years ago by Professor Igor Pandžić from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with colleagues from Sweden, specifically Jörgen Ahlberg, and has grown into a respectable company for software development for recognition, tracking, and analysis of faces. Its headquarters are in Sweden, and it has a company of the same name in Zagreb established in 2013.

– Since we deal with computer vision, it was easier for us to attract experts from Croatia than from Sweden, where there was already strong competition among high-tech companies, which is why we opened offices here as well. In the eight years since opening our office in Croatia, we have grown to 170 members and have been listed for several consecutive years among the fastest-growing companies in Europe and the EMEA region – emphasized Gordan Kreković, CEO of Visage Technologies.

The company has two divisions: Automotive and Face Technology. The first was created for exclusive collaboration with a large American technology company for which it develops computer vision algorithms intended for application in cars, which detect and track everything in front of the vehicle.

Software for Monitoring Driver Fatigue

– The technology monitors other road participants, elements of traffic infrastructure, traffic signals, various objects, etc. Previous versions of the technology we develop are found in many models that have long been on the roads, such as the Mercedes A-Class, electric Volvo XC40, Polestar 2, and Mercedes S-Class, which we are particularly proud of as it is the first car certified for level three driving automation in Europe. The Face Technology division develops its own product for human face analysis that clients use in various solutions, for example, for monitoring driver fatigue in cars. We have around three hundred clients from all over the world, from Lufthansa to Škoda – said Kreković.

So it is no wonder that Porsche chose Croatia for the development of some of its digital software. Ivan Bello, CEO of Porsche Digital Croatia, confirms that our country has become a good buzzword in the global automotive industry. However, he notes that although we are very close to appearing on the global automotive map, we are not yet fully on it. There are advances in software development and nut production, but we are still leading in software.

Increasing Knowledge Concentration

– We have an excellent and strong software development scene that has great potential to expand its best practices and expertise into the automotive industry. Today’s automotive industry is specific because it combines two worlds, engineering and software development, thus creating a special dynamic and approach to creating end solutions. For this, we need much more experience in the Croatian labor market. Most of our colleagues had no contact with the automotive industry before coming to us, which is why we invest a lot in education and demystification of production processes. As more companies in Croatia engage in this, the concentration of knowledge and experience will increase, allowing for the creation of more interesting products – concluded Bello from the company that develops not only mobile applications for managing Porsche vehicles but also other digital platforms for that brand.