Migrating from dsPIC to 32-bit PICs
I am fearing the possibility of not being able to keep up with future vehicles.


Two options / risks:

1) if your current dspic isn't fast enough, see if there is a faster dspic. this route has the minimum amount of risk.

2) move to a faster chip. lots of them out there. and if the existing code is well laid out, porting to a new chip isn't going to be too difficult. this route has the maximum amount of flexibility, as well as risk.

if I were you, I would stay in the current dspic family as long as you can, especially if you use lots of dspic-specific processing.

if you have to move, pick one that has the peripherals, and then the processing power. profile your code and get a sense as to how much of processing it does. that will get you what the target chip looks like at a minimum.

you should also look into other aspects of the chip, like its ability to work in a rough environment. older chips like pic tend to be pretty good in that department. I would go to an automotive vendor first, like renesas, freescale, and infineon. stay away from the non-automotive guys as long as you can.