CarMaker from IPG Automotive is a vehicle simulation platform designed specifically for the development and virtual testing of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
Unlike broad multiphysics CAE platforms, CarMaker starts with the vehicle and the road.
It allows engineering teams to create a virtual vehicle, place it into realistic traffic and road scenarios, expose it to different environmental conditions, and test how complete systems behave before relying entirely on physical prototypes.
CarMaker supports development across:
- vehicle dynamics
- powertrain and electrification
- ADAS
- autonomous driving
- controls
- sensor simulation
- virtual validation
- MIL
- SIL
- HIL
- vehicle-in-the-loop testing
And importantly for EngineeringSoftwareTrials.com readers, IPG Automotive currently offers companies and universities a six-week CarMaker test license.
CarMaker Automotive Evaluation at a Glance
Software: CarMaker
Developer: IPG Automotive
Software type: Vehicle simulation and virtual test driving
Primary uses: Vehicle dynamics, ADAS, autonomous driving, powertrain, electrification, controls and virtual vehicle validation
Trial availability: Yes
Trial duration: 6 weeks
Who can request it: Companies and universities
Formula Student option: Formula CarMaker license available for registered university teams
Development stages: MIL, SIL, HIL and VIL
Best suited for: Automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, vehicle dynamics teams, EV developers, ADAS teams, controls engineers and virtual-validation groups
What Is CarMaker?
CarMaker is IPG Automotive’s simulation platform for virtual test driving.
IPG describes it as an end-to-end simulation solution for developing passenger cars and light commercial vehicles across Model-in-the-Loop, Software-in-the-Loop, Hardware-in-the-Loop and Vehicle-in-the-Loop development stages.
That means CarMaker is not simply a mathematical vehicle model.
It combines:
- a virtual vehicle
- roads
- traffic
- drivers
- sensors
- environmental conditions
- vehicle-control systems
- test automation
into a repeatable simulation environment.
An engineering team can effectively create a digital vehicle and then ask:
What happens if we drive it here, under these conditions, with this software, this suspension, these tires and this sensor configuration?
Then run the test again after changing the design.
Why Virtual Test Driving Matters
Physical testing remains essential in automotive development.
But physical testing has limitations.
It takes time.
It consumes prototypes.
Weather may not cooperate.
Traffic conditions cannot always be reproduced.
Dangerous scenarios may be difficult or irresponsible to create deliberately.
And every design or software change may require tests to be repeated.
Virtual test driving allows many of those evaluations to begin earlier and to be repeated much more consistently.
IPG Automotive specifically positions CarMaker as a way to reduce physical testing effort while expanding test coverage through virtual tests and scalable parallel simulation.
The goal is not necessarily to eliminate the test track.
It is to arrive at the test track with far fewer unanswered questions.
CarMaker and Vehicle Dynamics
Vehicle dynamics is one of CarMaker’s core applications.
Engineers can investigate:
- steering behavior
- handling
- braking
- suspension
- chassis systems
- stability
- tires
- road interaction
- ride behavior
- driver response
The vehicle can then be tested through representative maneuvers.
That can be more useful than studying one component in isolation because the engineer sees how changes affect the complete vehicle.
A damper change, for example, may affect:
- ride
- handling
- tire contact
- body motion
- stability-control behavior
CarMaker allows those interactions to be explored within a common virtual test environment.
Build a Virtual Vehicle
CarMaker provides detailed vehicle models that can be parameterized for the vehicle being developed.
IPG’s own tutorials walk users through choosing and configuring vehicle models as part of the virtual test-drive workflow.
An evaluation team should create a vehicle that resembles its real development program as closely as practical.
Important parameters may include:
- mass
- center of gravity
- dimensions
- suspension
- steering
- brakes
- tires
- powertrain
- aerodynamic characteristics
- control systems
The closer the virtual vehicle reflects the real one, the more meaningful the evaluation becomes.
The Virtual Driver
One of CarMaker’s more interesting features is IPGDriver.
Instead of requiring every simulation to use a fixed steering and accelerator input, CarMaker can model a virtual driver.
IPGDriver can follow roads, execute maneuvers and react to the simulated vehicle and environment.
IPG even describes the model as incorporating characteristics such as reaction times and driver judgment.
This matters because the driver is part of the vehicle system.
A control strategy or chassis setup may behave differently depending on how the driver responds.
A virtual driver also makes automated test series much easier.
The engineer does not need a human operator to repeat the same maneuver hundreds of times.
Roads, Traffic and Scenarios
CarMaker includes tools for building virtual road environments.
Its Scenario Editor can create:
- road networks
- terrain
- traffic signs
- buildings
- vegetation
- other road users
IPG provides tutorial workflows specifically for creating custom driving scenarios.
This becomes particularly important for ADAS and automated-driving development.
The question is no longer merely:
How does the vehicle behave?
It becomes:
How does the vehicle behave when something happens around it?
CarMaker for ADAS Development
Advanced driver-assistance systems have to respond to an enormous number of possible road situations.
Examples include:
- vehicles braking suddenly
- pedestrians entering the road
- cyclists
- lane changes
- merging traffic
- poor visibility
- unusual road geometry
- obstacles
- faded markings
Physical testing cannot efficiently reproduce all of these situations.
CarMaker supports virtual ADAS validation using detailed traffic environments and sensor models. IPG specifically highlights sensor simulation, photorealistic environments and realistic road users, including pedestrians, as part of its ADAS and autonomous-driving workflows.
That makes CarMaker particularly useful for scenario-based testing.
Simulating Cameras, Radar and Lidar
Modern ADAS functions depend heavily on sensors.
CarMaker supports models for different sensor technologies so engineers can evaluate how perception systems respond to the virtual environment.
IPG describes its portfolio as including idealized, phenomenological and physical sensor models for ADAS and autonomous-driving validation.
The simulated environment can also include weather effects.
That allows teams to investigate not just whether an ADAS algorithm works in ideal conditions, but whether it still behaves properly when the virtual world becomes less cooperative.
Autonomous Vehicle Development
Autonomous vehicle systems require even broader scenario coverage.
The software may need to react correctly to combinations of:
- road geometry
- moving vehicles
- pedestrians
- traffic rules
- sensor conditions
- weather
- driver behavior
CarMaker allows these environments to be created and repeated.
That repeatability is crucial.
If an autonomous-driving algorithm changes, the same difficult scenario can be rerun against the new software.
Engineers can then determine whether the change solved one problem without creating another.
This becomes a form of automotive regression testing.
Regression Testing for Software-Defined Vehicles
Software-defined vehicles are dramatically increasing the need for automated regression testing.
Vehicle software may change frequently.
Every update creates the possibility that an existing function stops working correctly.
IPG Automotive explicitly highlights CarMaker use for regression testing and CI/CT/CD workflows, including cloud simulation and automated test execution.
That means CarMaker can move from being an engineer’s interactive simulation tool into part of a broader software-development pipeline.
Tests can run repeatedly whenever software changes.
That is a significant shift from traditional automotive testing, where verification might happen primarily at major development milestones.
CarMaker Across MIL, SIL, HIL and VIL
One of CarMaker’s most important strengths is that the same virtual vehicle environment can be used across several stages of development.
Model-in-the-Loop — MIL
Control logic is tested as a model against the virtual vehicle.
Software-in-the-Loop — SIL
Actual or production-oriented software is tested within the simulation.
Hardware-in-the-Loop — HIL
Real ECU hardware interacts with the virtual vehicle in real time.
Vehicle-in-the-Loop — VIL
A real vehicle becomes part of a partially simulated environment.
IPG explicitly positions CarMaker for all four stages.
That continuity can be particularly valuable.
Rather than rebuilding the test environment each time development moves from one stage to another, teams can reuse vehicles, roads, scenarios and test cases.
Vehicle-in-the-Loop
Vehicle-in-the-Loop may be one of the more fascinating CarMaker applications.
Here, an actual vehicle participates in a controlled test while part of the driving environment remains simulated.
For example, an ADAS system in the physical vehicle may react to virtual road objects or sensor stimuli.
That allows engineers to test the complete vehicle without placing real pedestrians or other vehicles into hazardous scenarios.
IPG highlights VIL specifically for validating driver-assistance systems against regulatory requirements.
This creates an intermediate step between laboratory simulation and uncontrolled public-road testing.
CarMaker and Tires
Tires are an excellent example of why vehicle-level simulation gets complicated quickly.
A tire determines how forces are transmitted between the vehicle and road.
That affects:
- acceleration
- braking
- cornering
- stability
- steering
- ride
Simple tire models may be adequate for some control-system tests.
But difficult situations can require much more realistic behavior.
IPG highlights real-time-capable physical tire models for HIL testing, including scenarios such as ABS braking on uneven surfaces and sudden pressure loss.
Automotive teams focused on vehicle dynamics should therefore pay careful attention to tire modeling during an evaluation.
CarMaker for EV Development
CarMaker can model conventional, hybrid and electric vehicles.
IPG specifically supports real-time-capable virtual prototypes for all three powertrain types.
For an EV program, engineers can evaluate system behavior involving:
- battery
- electric motors
- power electronics
- regenerative braking
- vehicle mass
- road loads
- driver behavior
- energy consumption
This can make CarMaker useful for vehicle-level questions that sit above detailed component simulation.
A battery specialist may use another tool to understand electrochemistry.
CarMaker helps answer:
What does this battery and powertrain configuration mean for the complete vehicle during an actual drive?
Virtual Range Testing
EV development creates a particularly interesting virtual-testing problem.
Range depends on much more than nominal battery capacity.
It can be affected by:
- speed
- acceleration
- terrain
- vehicle mass
- aerodynamic drag
- traffic
- temperature
- regenerative braking
- driver behavior
A virtual vehicle can be driven repeatedly through standardized or custom scenarios while engineers change those parameters.
That makes vehicle-level simulation useful for architecture and controls decisions before every configuration exists physically.
CarMaker and MATLAB/Simulink
CarMaker integrates with MATLAB and Simulink.
IPG provides a dedicated CarMaker for Simulink interface for co-simulation and also supports Simulink plug-ins.
This is important because many automotive control algorithms are already developed in Simulink.
A team can combine:
Simulink control model + CarMaker virtual vehicle + virtual road and driver
and evaluate how the complete system responds.
For companies already using MathWorks tools, this integration should absolutely be tested during a CarMaker evaluation.
FMI and Tool Integration
CarMaker is designed as an open integration platform.
IPG provides interfaces for external engineering tools and supports FMI/FMU integration.
That means models developed in other compatible tools can be inserted into the virtual vehicle environment.
For evaluation teams, interoperability is important because few automotive organizations develop everything inside one software ecosystem.
Ask:
- Can our existing models be reused?
- Can CarMaker exchange data with our controls environment?
- Can supplier models be incorporated?
- Can tests connect to our CI infrastructure?
- Can simulation results feed our existing analysis tools?
Automated Test Series
CarMaker includes test automation capabilities through its Test Manager.
IPG describes Test Manager as allowing users to create complete test series, vary parameters, execute large numbers of tests and generate reports.
This is one of the most important features to evaluate.
The real power of virtual testing is not running one virtual test drive.
It is running:
hundreds or thousands of slightly different virtual test drives.
Change speed.
Change friction.
Change weather.
Change vehicle mass.
Change software version.
Change sensor position.
Then identify which combinations create failures.
Parallel Simulation and Cloud Testing
IPG positions CarMaker for scalable and parallel testing, including cloud-based workflows.
That becomes crucial when test coverage expands.
One workstation might run a handful of simulations.
A large automated-driving or software-validation program may need vastly more.
During an evaluation, teams should therefore investigate:
- parallel execution
- server operation
- cloud deployment
- licensing
- automation interfaces
- test orchestration
- results management
The ability to create scenarios is only useful if the organization can execute enough of them.
Python and Automation
CarMaker also provides automation and programming interfaces, including Python support in its current tutorial set.
This can be important for teams building custom test pipelines.
Rather than interacting only through the graphical interface, engineers can integrate CarMaker into automated development environments.
That becomes especially valuable for software-defined vehicles and continuous testing.
Can You Get a CarMaker Trial?
Yes.
IPG Automotive currently offers a six-week test license for companies and universities that want to evaluate its software.
That is a substantial evaluation period.
Rather than a quick demonstration, six weeks gives a team time to:
- install the software
- complete tutorials
- create a representative vehicle
- import models
- create test scenarios
- integrate external tools
- automate tests
- compare results with existing data
The license must be requested through IPG Automotive.
What Should You Do Before the Six-Week Trial Starts?
Do not start the clock without a plan.
Six weeks sounds long.
It disappears very quickly when several engineers are learning a new simulation environment.
Before requesting the license, identify:
One primary engineering objective
Examples:
- evaluate vehicle dynamics
- validate an ADAS function
- test EV energy-management controls
- compare HIL workflows
- build a SIL regression environment
Then identify:
- the vehicle data required
- engineers who will participate
- external software that must be connected
- test scenarios
- known results for comparison
- evaluation criteria
That preparation can make the difference between actually evaluating CarMaker and merely learning how to operate it.
What Should Vehicle Dynamics Teams Test?
Build a representative vehicle model.
Then test maneuvers where your team already understands the real-world behavior.
Examples could include:
- lane change
- slalom
- braking
- cornering
- steering response
- low-friction maneuver
- ride event
Compare:
- vehicle response
- tire behavior
- driver response
- test repeatability
- setup effort
- correlation with measured data
Then modify a component or calibration and determine whether the simulation predicts the expected trend.
What Should ADAS Teams Test?
Choose several scenarios.
Include at least one that is difficult to reproduce physically.
For example:
- pedestrian emergence
- cut-in vehicle
- lane departure
- poor visibility
- unusual traffic behavior
Evaluate:
- scenario creation
- sensor modeling
- environment fidelity
- test automation
- reproducibility
- performance
- results analysis
The key question is not whether CarMaker can render a convincing virtual road.
It is whether the environment can expose meaningful defects in the system being tested.
What Should EV Teams Test?
Create a representative electric vehicle.
Test:
- powertrain response
- regenerative braking
- drive cycles
- energy consumption
- gradients
- vehicle mass changes
- driver behavior
If controls are developed in Simulink, integrate them.
Then determine whether the vehicle-level environment helps the team make better architecture or calibration decisions.
What Should HIL Teams Test?
If HIL is part of the evaluation, determine how well CarMaker fits the existing real-time environment.
Test:
- real-time execution
- ECU integration
- tire models
- network interfaces
- fault scenarios
- scenario reuse
- automated testing
One of the biggest potential advantages is maintaining consistency between earlier virtual development and later hardware testing.
CarMaker vs. dSPACE
CarMaker and dSPACE overlap, particularly around HIL, SIL and virtual validation.
But their traditional centers of gravity differ.
CarMaker is fundamentally built around the virtual vehicle, road, environment and test drive.
dSPACE is especially strong around real-time simulation hardware, ECU validation, rapid control prototyping and HIL infrastructure.
They can therefore be complementary.
A dSPACE HIL system may use CarMaker as part of the real-time vehicle simulation environment.
For an evaluation team, the question may not be:
CarMaker or dSPACE?
It may be:
How well does CarMaker fit into our existing dSPACE or other HIL architecture?
CarMaker vs. Simcenter and Ansys
CarMaker also differs from broad multiphysics platforms such as Simcenter and Ansys.
Those tools can provide extremely detailed analysis of:
- stress
- CFD
- thermal behavior
- electromagnetics
- acoustics
CarMaker’s center of gravity is different.
It focuses on:
what happens when the complete virtual vehicle actually drives.
Detailed models developed elsewhere can often contribute to that environment.
A high-fidelity component model may be reduced or integrated into the larger vehicle simulation.
That makes CarMaker complementary to traditional CAE rather than simply competing with it.
CarMaker vs. Adams Car
Adams Car is much closer to CarMaker in vehicle-dynamics applications.
Both can help teams understand vehicle behavior.
Adams has long-standing strengths in multibody dynamics and detailed mechanical system modeling.
CarMaker emphasizes the complete virtual test-drive environment and broad MIL/SIL/HIL/VIL validation workflow.
Vehicle dynamics teams should therefore compare not just model fidelity, but:
- scenario creation
- controls integration
- real-time capability
- test automation
- ADAS requirements
- HIL requirements
The best choice depends on what the team wants the model to do after it has been created.
Formula CarMaker and Student Motorsport
Here is where CarMaker gives us a particularly nice Motorsports bridge.
IPG Automotive offers Formula CarMaker for registered university Formula Student teams.
Eligible teams can receive CarMaker, the Cockpit Package and IPGKinematics for an entire competition season.
That means student race teams can use professional virtual vehicle-development tools to design and test their own cars.
And that is exactly the kind of motorsports engineering story we love.
Students can investigate:
- suspension
- vehicle dynamics
- steering
- controls
- powertrain
- EV behavior
before committing every idea to the physical race car.
It is an unusually direct bridge between engineering education and real automotive development practice.
CarMaker and Motorsports Engineering
The crossover extends beyond students.
Vehicle dynamics is fundamental to motorsports.
Race engineers obsess over:
- tires
- suspension
- steering
- weight transfer
- braking
- power delivery
- driver inputs
These are the same physical systems that CarMaker can model in road vehicles.
The performance priorities may differ, but the engineering principles do not.
And motorsports adds one particularly interesting dimension:
the driver.
The fastest theoretical vehicle setup is not necessarily the fastest setup for an actual driver.
A virtual-driver model therefore opens some fascinating questions about the relationship between vehicle behavior and driver response.
That is an area we may eventually want to explore separately.
Who Should Evaluate CarMaker?
CarMaker is particularly relevant for:
Automotive OEMs developing complete vehicles and vehicle functions.
Tier 1 suppliers validating vehicle systems.
Vehicle dynamics teams evaluating handling, chassis and control behavior.
ADAS developers creating repeatable driving scenarios.
Autonomous-driving teams expanding virtual validation.
EV developers evaluating vehicle-level powertrain and energy behavior.
Control engineers integrating MATLAB/Simulink models.
HIL teams requiring realistic real-time vehicle models.
Software-defined vehicle teams implementing large-scale regression testing.
Engineering consultancies supporting virtual vehicle development.
Formula Student teams developing and testing competition cars.
Is CarMaker Worth Evaluating for Automotive Engineering?
For organizations trying to shift more vehicle development from physical prototypes into virtual testing, CarMaker deserves serious consideration.
Its most interesting capability is not simply vehicle dynamics.
It is the ability to place a virtual vehicle into a repeatable virtual world.
A world with:
- roads
- traffic
- weather
- pedestrians
- sensors
- drivers
- software
- faults
Then change something and run the same test again.
That repeatability becomes increasingly valuable as vehicles become more software intensive.
Software can change constantly.
Physical testing cannot.
Virtual testing helps close that gap.
And IPG Automotive’s current six-week test license is long enough for a serious evaluation rather than a superficial demonstration.
Use those six weeks carefully.
Build a representative vehicle.
Create a test you already understand.
Integrate the tools your engineers actually use.
Automate several scenarios.
Then change the design or software and rerun them.
If CarMaker can help your team answer engineering questions before the physical vehicle is available, that is where its value becomes most obvious.
Try IPG Automotive CarMaker
IPG Automotive currently offers companies and universities a six-week CarMaker test license.