How is manual testing done in the automotive industry, and what tools are commonly used for automotive testing software?

In my case, manual testing wasn’t just “click and check”, we had to set up test benches, flash firmware to ECUs, inject faults (like disconnecting sensors), and log CAN traffic. Over time, we automated many of these tests with Python or CAPL.

Levels of testing you’ll hear a lot about:

  • Unit Testing (often handled by developers)

  • Integration Testing (validating interaction across modules)

  • System Testing (end-to-end checks on full vehicle networks)

  • HIL Testing (real ECU + simulated car environment)

If you’re on the bench now, it’s a great time to explore CAPL, Python scripting for test automation, or even how to read DBC files used in CAN message decoding.