Japan’s software-defined vehicle engineers have changed their minds on what keeps them up at night. In a QNX survey of 100 Japanese embedded automotive developers, 60% named cybersecurity vulnerabilities the biggest risk in shipping an SDV, up from 41% a year earlier and the top share among eight countries polled.
Security tops the skills list too
The BlackBerry subsidiary’s second Under the Hood report, drawn from 1,100 developers surveyed by OnePoll between July 20 and August 4, put cybersecurity first among skills needed over the next five years at 64%, ahead of AI and ML integration at 63%. Asked where AI will have the most impact, the same group picked security at 30%, against a 15% global average.
Three years is the window
Nearly nine in ten Japanese developers, 87%, expect SDVs to become a primary attack target within three years. The global figure is 83%. Those numbers land against UN Regulation No. 155, which compels OTA-capable vehicles sold in Japan to carry a certified cyber management system.
The confidence gap is the real finding
About 9% say they are very confident their organisation can meet changing rules, down from 16%, even as 85% believe the rulebook is keeping pace. Cybersecurity is the hardest regulation to satisfy, cited by 56%, with AI and ML rules next at 41%.
Integration eats the calendar
A third of engineering hours, 35%, goes to plumbing below the application layer. Japanese teams point at integration complexity, procurement licensing delays and rigid SoCs, the last two each up 16 points. Debugging, the global top complaint, ranks seventh instead.
What vendors read into it
QNX’s Japan sales director Hideki Matsuoka framed the caution as accumulated strength rather than delay. Procuring and licensing friction rising that fast, though, reads like teams working with parts they lack control over.
