The amount of software in cars grows exponentially. Driving forces of this development are the availability of cheaper and more powerful hardware, as well as the demand for innovation through new functionality. The rapidly growing significance of software and software-based functionality is at the root of various challenges in the automotive industries. These concern their organization, definition of key competencies, processes, methods, tools, models, product structures, division of labor, logistics, maintenance, and long-term strategies. This paper pinpoints the idiosyncrasies of the domain, characterizes the essentials of automotive software, and discusses the challenges of automotive software engineering