Software-defined vehicles are emerging as a major target for cyber attacks, with 83 per cent of automotive software developers surveyed by BlackBerry's (BB-T) QNX saying they expect the threat to grow significantly over the next three years.

“Eighty-three per cent of the developers that we surveyed worldwide believe that SDVs (software-defined vehicles) are likely to be a major target for cyber attacks in the next three years,” John Pelliccio, global product marketing director for Ottawa-based QNX told TechNX in an interview.

The company recently released its second survey report, 2026 Under the Hood: SDV Developer Report. The report is based on responses from 1,100 automotive software developers between July 20 and Aug. 4. It examined the challenges facing developers working on SDVs and the environment they are facing on a daily basis.

“We hear a lot anecdotally but it’s always nice to be able to put some real data and some real numbers to the things that we and our executives hear, when we’re just talking to other people that are in the industry,” Pelliccio said.

“I think the things that we saw in the study are backing up some of the things that we hear just in the conversations that we have all the time with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).”

QNX builds foundational software used in more than 275 million vehicles worldwide.

Rising cyber threats challenge automakers

When it comes to cyber security threats, the survey also showed that 47 per cent pegged those vulnerabilities as the biggest potential challenge facing manufacturers.

Compliance with government mandates presents another challenge, according to the study.

“And with the understanding that cyber security regulations are stepping in to help protect end-users, almost half: 46 per cent of the people we surveyed, identified cyber security regulations as among some of the most challenging regulations to meet,” he said.

The report notes that more than 700 new regulations were issued worldwide in 2025.

For vehicle owners, cyber security protection needs to be built in from the outset and maintained over the long term. “Not only when you purchase the vehicle, but as you continue to evolve that vehicle over time, with over-the-air updates, it’s important to make sure that we need to be able to protect these vehicles not only on year one but on year 10, year 12, year 15 of their existence.”

“That whole issue of making sure that the foundational software is going to be highly capable; is going to be safe, is going to be reliable, is still super important,” he said.

Developers take a more practical view of AI

While cyber security threats are influencing how developers and automakers approach vehicle production, artificial intelligence (AI) is also playing an increasingly important role, although developers appear less convinced of its transformative potential than they once were.

“So in 2025, 36 per cent of the people we surveyed said that AI’s future role in automotive was transformational. That’s at 25 per cent now, so there’s been a statistically significant decrease in that number. But at the same time, 62 per cent of the people we talked to believe that AI is going to play a significant role integrated into their development workflow,” Pelliccio said.

“I think what we learned from this report is that the industry’s view of AI is becoming a little less aspirational and a little more practical.”

The industry also faces significant challenges stemming from the lack of a common foundational operating system.

“What tends to happen is you start to realize that you have, for example, a real problem with having all of your software developers focusing on foundational plumbing software and not end-user differentiable software. What everybody wants to be doing in the SDV space — whether it’s digital cockpits or sound systems or what have you — is they want to be creating features and experiences that are going to allow them to differentiate their vehicles.”

As a result, developers are spending considerable time maintaining foundational software rather than working on new features, the study found.

“Fifty-one per cent of them are saying that debugging and testing and integration complexity is the biggest problem that they have, and that comes from a root of there not being a common reusable software foundation, and that was overwhelming. In the U.S., 81 per cent of developers said that a lack of a reusable foundation was slowing development,” Pelliccio said.