Synopsys Bold Prediction: New Cars Will Contain 600 Million Lines of Code by 2027

The 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado was the first car with a microprocessor (Source: GM Heritage Archive)

Delivering on the promise of software-defined vehicles (SDVs) that continuously evolve isn’t as simple as adding more code. It requires a fundamental rethinking of how cars are designed, engineered, and validated.

Hundreds of millions of lines of code must push data seamlessly across a variety of electronic components and systems. And those systems — responsible for sensing, safety, communication, and other functions — must work in concert with millisecond precision.

For years, vehicle architectures relied on dozens of discrete ECUs, each dedicated to a specific function. But as software complexity grows, automakers are shifting toward fewer, more powerful centralized compute platforms that can handle much larger workloads. This means more code is running on less hardware, with more functionality consolidated onto a handful of high-performance processors. As a result, the development challenge is shifting from traditional ECU integration — where each supplier delivered a boxed solution — to true software integration across a unified compute platform.

As such, hardware and software development practices can no longer be separate tracks that converge late in the process. They must be designed together and tailored for one another — well before any physical platform exists.

This is where electronics digital twins (eDTs) are becoming indispensable. By creating functionally accurate virtual models of vehicle electronics and systems, design teams can shift from late-stage integration to a model where software and hardware are co-developed from day one.

eDTs and virtual prototypes do more than enable earlier software development at the component level — they allow engineers to simulate, validate, and optimize the entire vehicle electronics. This means teams can see how data flows across subsystems, how critical components interact under real-world scenarios, and how emerging features might impact overall safety and performance. With eDTs, automakers can test billions — even trillions — of operating conditions and edge cases, many of which would be too costly, too time consuming, or otherwise infeasible with physical prototypes.

By embracing eDTs, the industry is not just keeping pace with escalating complexity — it is re-engineering longstanding engineering processes, accelerating innovation, and improving the quality and safety of tomorrow’s vehicles. 

Our prediction of cars containing 600 million lines of code by 2027 isn’t just a number. It signals a turning point for an industry that has operated in largely the same manner for more than a century.

Many automakers are reimagining their identity.

No longer just manufacturers, they’re becoming technology companies with business models that resemble those of cloud providers and app developers. They’re adopting agile, iterative practices, where updates roll out continuously rather than in multi-year product refreshes. And they’re learning how to design, develop, test, and evolve their products as a unified system — from chassis and engine to silicon and software — rather than a collection of pieces that are assembled on a production line.

Unlike the 1977 Oldsmobile Toronado, the car you buy in 2027 won’t be the same car you drive in 2030 — and that’s by design.