This thesis concerns the design of a VCU (Vehicle Control Unit), for prospective applications in prototype vehicles. All the aspect covered during the development process will be discussed, such as: functional specification analysis, component selection, simulations, schematic and PCB (Printed Circuit Board) design. The goal of this project is to build a board divided into two parts: a Core board, which handles the logic of the system and the state machine of the operating modes, and a Carrier board that handles the power management, conditioning circuits, transceivers and drivers for actuating external loads. The preliminary step of the project consists of analyzing the given specifications and extracting a list of system requirements, both for the safety analysis and the actual implementation of them.