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Regulatory pressures, development bottlenecks stall UK SDV progress | Computer Weekly

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Regulatory pressures, development bottlenecks stall UK SDV progress | Computer Weekly


As electrification in the automotive industry becomes standard and the roll-out of software-defined vehicles (SDVs) gains extra mileage, technology complexity is becoming a key issue for the industry, with compliance complexity, long development cycles and artificial intelligence (AI) hype emerging as key barriers to progress, according to a study of UK automotive software developers.

The Under the hood: The SDV developer report from the QNX division of BlackBerry comes as automakers are having to navigate change, accelerate innovation, and deliver safer and smarter vehicles as SDVs become more complex.

The study comes on the back of the UK government’s £2.5bn Drive35 programme, launched in July 2025 to accelerate zero-emission vehicle production, R&D, and supply chain transformation.

The topline findings of the report reveal that UK automotive software developers are grappling with complex regulatory demands, adapting to AI-driven transformation and seeking new ways to bridge the gap between consumer expectations and delivery timelines. In addition, the research highlighted the strain of long development cycles and integration complexity, while pointing to opportunities for original equipment manufacturers to rethink software strategies.

In particular, the UK’s regulatory landscape was flagged as being increasingly complex for UK automotive software developers. It noted that in 2024, over 500 new regulations and legislative proposals were introduced globally affecting in-car technology, and that it was “unsurprising” that 43% of respondents cited regulatory compliance as the biggest challenge in the software development process.

QNX believes that such complexity has left UK automotive software developers divided on the impact of new laws, with 39% saying regulations have accelerated timelines and an equal 39% reporting delays. Of those regulations, UK respondents ranked cyber security regulations, such as the Cyber Resilience Act, UNECE WP.29 and ISO/SAE 21434 (47%), software update and OTA compliance (44%), and data privacy regulations such as General Data Protection Regulation (37%), as the most challenging for their teams.

Further compounding the impact of regulation on timelines and development processes were recent software recalls, and failures that were creating bottlenecks and forcing change.

The survey found that over half (57%) of UK automotive software developers said their teams’ approaches to software development had changed as a result of recalls, with 40% reporting “major” changes. Those delays are further complicated by development bottlenecks with respondents citing long cycles (41%), debugging and testing (39%), and integration complexity (39%) as significant pain points.

Cyber security was poised to have increasing influence on the UK automotive sector and the roll-out of SDVs. More than two-thirds (68%) of the firms surveyed picked cyber security capability as the most critical skill for automotive software developers in the near term. The date also pointed to high demand for skills in functional safety (50%), AI/ML integration (50%) and real-time systems (47%).

Strengthening these skills will be critical to overcoming the main barriers to SDV success, QNX stressed, with UK respondents pointing to cyber security vulnerabilities (55%), regulatory uncertainty (45%) and consumer trust (38%) as the issues most likely to derail roll-out efforts.

The survey also highlighted a number of overhyped features and unrealistic expectations currently at work in the SDV market. It said that while a “sizeable chunk” of UK respondents believes full vehicle autonomy (49%) and AI-driven personalisation (48%) will shape SDVs by the end of the decade, they also view these features as receiving more attention than is warranted at this stage. UK automotive software developers also observed that such unrealistic expectations (51%) were creating a disconnect between consumers and software delivery timelines.

QNX said the findings suggest that industry priorities may be skewed towards advanced features at the expense of addressing fundamental development challenges. Notably, 82% of UK developers believe a deliberately minimalist, lower-tech vehicle could achieve commercial success – highlighting demand for differentiated offerings that value simplicity. Despite the perception that AI features are currently overhyped, the research also revealed that developers are optimistic about the role of AI in automotive software, with 93% expecting it to play a transformational or significant role in the next three to five years.

“These findings confirm the challenges that UK automakers face, with regulatory pressures, cyber security skills shortages and rising consumer expectations all combining to stall progress,” said Thomas Cardon, QNX director of EMEA automotive sales.

“AI will be part of the solution, but it’s no quick fix,” he said. “The manufacturers leading the way in the UK are the ones using automation to ease bottlenecks, embedding compliance into their processes, and focusing engineering talent on innovation that delivers safer, more secure and more reliable vehicles.”



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A Plan to Rebuild Gaza Lists Nearly 30 Companies. Many Say They’re Not Involved

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A Plan to Rebuild Gaza Lists Nearly 30 Companies. Many Say They’re Not Involved


The GHF was created in early 2025, having emerged from conversations between individuals such as Eisenberg, Tancman, and consultant Yotam HaCohen—who, like Tancman, is a part of COGAT. They were reportedly concerned that Hamas was stealing aid meant for civilians, however, an analysis by a USAID agency found no evidence of this.

Through conversations with Israeli officials, GHF began to receive on-ground support from two American companies: Safe Reach Solutions, run by former CIA officer Philip Reilly, and UG Solutions, run by former Green Beret Jameson Govoni. Neither responded to requests for comment.

GHF is currently run by Johnnie Moore Jr., a former Trump official, and evangelical Christian. It was originally headed by Jake Wood, a former Marine who founded Team Rubicon, an organization that deploys veterans to disaster zones. Wood resigned after about three months, claiming that he couldn’t oversee aid distribution at GHF while “adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”

Alternative Paths

The GREAT Trust presentation is not the only business-minded plan for redeveloping Gaza.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has been linked to the development of an alternative plan that was leaked to the Guardian and Haaretz. Among other things, the plan proposes creating a Gaza Investment Promotion and Economic Development Authority, which would be a “commercially driven authority, led by business professionals and tasked with generating investable projects,” according to various reports of the plan, but it does not mention any specific companies.

Another group called “Palestine Emerging”—made up of an international collective of business executives and consultants—also created a post-war Gaza blueprint. It does not get into detail about investments from businesses abroad, but argues that there will have to be a “phased development strategy” in the short, medium, and long-term in order to rebuild Gaza’s housing and economy. The blueprint also mentions that there were “about 56,000 businesses in Gaza” before October 7, 2023, which were subject to “historical constraints” that limited their success.



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Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Spewing Water Like a Cosmic Fire Hydrant

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Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Spewing Water Like a Cosmic Fire Hydrant


Comet 3I/Atlas continues to be full of surprises. As well as being only the third interstellar object ever detected, new analysis shows it is producing hydroxyl (OH) emissions, with these compounds betraying the presence of water on its surface. This discovery was made by a team of researchers at Auburn University in Alabama using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and was described in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Hydroxyl compounds are detectable via the ultraviolet signature they produce. But on Earth, a lot of UV wavelengths are blocked by the atmosphere, which is why the researchers had to use the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory—a space telescope free from interference experienced by observatories on Earth.

Water is present in virtually every comet seen in the solar system, so much so that the chemical and physical reactions of water are used to measure, catalog, and track these celestial objects and how they react to the heat of the sun. Finding it on 3I/ATLAS means being able to study its characteristics using the same scale used for regular comets, and this information could in future be useful data for studying the processes of comets that originate in other star systems as well.

“When we detect water—or even its faint ultraviolet echo, OH—from an interstellar comet, we’re reading a note from another planetary system,” said Dennis Bodewits, an Auburn University physicist who collaborated on the research, in a press statement. “It tells us that the ingredients for life’s chemistry are not unique to our own.”

Comets are frozen hunks of rock, gases, and dust that usually orbit stars (the exceptions being the three interstellar objects found so far). When they’re far away from a star, they’re completely frozen, but as they get closer, solar radiation causes their frozen elements to heat up and sublimate—turn from solid into gas—with some of this material emitted from the comet’s nucleus thanks to the star’s energy, forming a “tail.”

But with 3I/ATLAS, data collected revealed an unexpected detail: OH production by the comet was already happening far away from the sun—when the comet was more than three times farther from the sun than the Earth—in a region of the solar system where temperatures normally aren’t sufficient to easily produce the sublimation of ice. Already at that distance, however, 3I/ATLAS was leaking water at the rate of about 40 kilograms per second, a flow comparable—the study authors explain—to that of a “hydrant at maximum power.”

This detail would seem to indicate a more complex structure than what is usually observed in comets in the solar system. It could, for example, be explained by the presence of small fragments of ice detaching from the comet’s nucleus, and which are then vaporized by the heat of sunlight, going on to feed a gaseous cloud that surrounds the celestial body. This is something that has so far been observed only in a small number of extremely distant comets, and which could provide valuable information about the processes from which 3I/ATLAS originated.

“Every interstellar comet so far has been a surprise,” said Zexi Xing, an Auburn University researcher and coauthor of the discovery, in a press statement. “‘Oumuamua was dry, Borisov was rich in carbon monoxide, and now ATLAS is giving up water at a distance where we didn’t expect it. Each one is rewriting what we thought we knew about how planets and comets form around stars.”

This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.



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You Can Get 4 Apple Airtags for $65 Right Now

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You Can Get 4 Apple Airtags for  Right Now


Picked up some fun new toys in the last few weeks that you need to keep track of? Amazon currently has Apple AirTags in a four pack marked down to just $65, an excellent price for these easy-to-use location tracking devices.

Courtesy of Apple

While there are plenty of similar tracking tags on the market, the Apple AirTags have some unique features that set them apart from the crowd. Probably the most relevant is that they leverage Apple’s entire network of devices for tracking, rather than just your phone, or other users who happen to have the company’s app installed. That means they’re more likely to show up as they get further away from you, and you can set them as lost in the system to notify you when they come within range of an iPhone or iPad.

They’re also extremely easy to set up and pair to your phone, thanks to the close pairing of Apple’s hardware and iOS software. Just tap the AirTag to your phone to connect it to your account, and you’re ready to go. They’re compact enough that they can squeeze into basically anywhere, including on a keychain or tucked into a small purse. You can also share them with up to five family members, in case you need to help your significant other track down their keys.

Apple has put a ton of work into making the AirTag super useful while also keeping an eye on safety and security concerns. Both Apple and Android phones will warn you if an AirTag not linked to your account is following you around, and they’ll even beep occasionally when they aren’t within range of any Apple devices on the Find My network.

The biggest downside to the Apple AirTag is that it doesn’t work with Android devices at all, except for the safety warning. If you aren’t an iPhone owner, make sure to check out our other favorite tracking devices to keep your belongings safe. For everyone else, the AirTag is an excellent option, and for just over $15 a piece, can give you a lot of peace of mind when it comes to your most valued gadgets.



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