[eschneider]

You can probably do (most) of that remotely. If you're writing embedded systems that can't be 95% tested off the hardware, you're living in unnecessary pain.

I work on devices bigger than a car and sure, occasionally I have to visit the 'office', but almost everything can be debugged and tested remotely.

[fest]

Yes, remote access to test units (if practical, I.e. more than one instance of system exists) or the real one, simulated h/w for higher level software (i.e. a GUI that connects to simulated device instead of real one).

Obviously there will always be some physical component to embedded development, but in many cases it is possible to do a lot remotely.