In today’s automotive industry, delivering secure ECUs is a must – but it often comes at a high price. Traditional security testing methods such as Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) and penetration testing are reliable, but expensive and resource-heavy. HydraVision changes the equation by offering cost-efficient cybersecurity without compromising on testing depth or effectiveness.
HydraVision vs. HIL & Penetration Testing: A Price Snapshot
HIL testing can easily cost up to 1 million euros per project, factoring in specialized hardware setups, long development cycles, and dedicated personnel. Even traditional penetration testing hovers in the mid five-figure range, especially when repeated across multiple ECUs or conducted by external teams. These methods, while effective, often strain budgets and limit scalability.
HydraVision, by comparison, starts at a fraction of those costs – around 10,000 euros per project – while offering scalable, project-wide benefits such as automated test case execution, reusable libraries, and seamless integration into existing development environments. But what lies behind this cost difference?
Let’s dive into the key mechanisms that make HydraVision a cost-efficiency game-changer.
1. Faster Onboarding with Prebuilt Test Templates
HydraVision includes over 100 ready-to-use test case templates, allowing teams to launch testing efforts quickly. These templates act as security testing boilerplates, customizable to project-specific requirements. This dramatically reduces the manual work needed to build tests from scratch and accelerates cybersecurity implementation across testing teams.
2. Cross-Product Scaling = Budget Shift & Long-Term Savings
One of HydraVision’s most powerful features is its ability to scale. A test case written for a single ECU can be reused across an entire product portfolio. This enables development projects to fund vulnerability analysis, relieving budget-strapped post-launch support teams. In turn, companies can maintain strong cybersecurity coverage without additional costs.
3. Streamlined Coordination, Lower Management Overhead
Coordinating external pentesters and internal teams often drains resources and time. HydraVision consolidates testing, reporting, and project oversight into one platform, enabling efficient management of cybersecurity testing. Managers gain real-time visibility, a comprehensive security overview, and fewer communication loops.
4. Asynchronous Testing = Time is Money
Old-school testing requires manual interactions with physical ECUs, leading to significant downtime. With HydraVision, engineers send test cases to a remote probe, which executes them autonomously. Results are returned for analysis while the engineer works on other tasks. This is cost-efficient cybersecurity in action: reducing tester workload while increasing test coverage.
5. Earlier Detection = Lower Risk, Lower Cost
In secure product development, timing is everything. The cost of fixing a vulnerability increases exponentially the later it is discovered in the development lifecycle. A flaw found during the design phase might cost a few hundred euros to resolve – but the same issue, if detected post-production, could result in recalls, compliance risks, or system-wide reengineering. That’s why it’s critical to implement security features early – and test them early too. HydraVision enables exactly that: by validating implementation throughout the development cycle, it helps catch vulnerabilities before they become expensive problems.
6. Developer-Tester Collaboration Redefined
HydraVision empowers developers to view vulnerabilities, access corresponding test cases, deploy firmware fixes, and re-run tests—all without waiting on a tester. This direct feedback loop reduces delays, improves agility, and supports a faster, more collaborative cybersecurity process.
Final Verdict: Up to 70% Cost Reduction
When you take a step back and add up all the benefits – asynchronous testing, test case reuse across products, minimal coordination overhead, and early-stage vulnerability detection – it becomes clear: HydraVision doesn’t just make testing easier, it fundamentally transforms it into a cost-efficient cybersecurity process.
| Feature | w/ HydraVision | Regular Pentest | HIL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup Cost | Low | Mid – High | Very High |
| Scalability Across ECUs | High | Low | Very Limited |
| Developer Autonomy | High | Low | Low |
| Turnaround Time | Fast | Medium | Slow |
| Reusability of Test Cases | Yes | Limited | Low |
| Early Lifecycle Integ. | Native | Medium | Difficult |
HydraVision consolidates the strengths of both traditional models – robustness and depth – while eliminating their biggest drawbacks: cost, coordination, and inefficiency. All these efficiency gains translate to a potential cost reduction of up to 70% per project—but that’s just the beginning. The real ROI compounds over time as test libraries grow, workflows become leaner, and developer/tester collaboration tightens.
In short, HydraVision is not just a testing platform – it’s a strategic enabler for cost-efficient cybersecurity at scale.
Do you have questions or need support?
We’re here to help! Contact us with any questions about our HydraVision Security Test Environment or our penetration testing services for ECUs, vehicle networks, and embedded systems.
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