[edwinbalani]

Crash testing will be part of a wider testing plan. The logic there is that you have shown all the tests to pass using that particular hardware+software configuration. Only that configuration (and any future ones you put through testing, verification and validation) is what you're allowed to ship to customers.

(I work in a regulated environment, but not automotive, and we run into the same barriers, often for even minor changes. We work agile, but changes will get released in planned batches every few months, rather than shipping instantly. For automotive, I'm guessing their update cadence would be every model year.)