Absfract-In recent years, networking issues have become more and more important in the design of vehicle control systems and driver assistance functions. In this paper, we present a pragmatic approach for validating real-time invehicle applications using IEEE-1394 bus. By validation, we mean the verification of real-time constraints that will be met by the automotive applications. We will describe how the IEEE-1394 standard can respond to hard real-time constraints of critical and non-critical applications. We then present a software architecture based on distributed calculators interconnected by IEEE-1394 bus and well adapted for integrating multi-sensors automotive applications.