Our perspectives on the rapidly changing mobility industry

The automotive industry is on the cusp of a transformation, with Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) emerging as the cornerstone of next-generation mobility.

Across the globe vehicle thefts fell from the 1990s to the mid-2010s but they have started to rise again in recent years.

For our final dispatch from Las Vegas, the SBD Automotive team is covering news from Ford’s top technology leaders, including plans for L3 ADAS and an in-house AI assistant. In addition, we examine China’s automotive presence, what it signals for the industry, and a few key things we didn’t see this year.

Autonomous Momentum Continues to Surge While not formally exhibiting at CES 2026, Mercedes-Benz announced MB.DRIVE ASSIST PRO for U.S. cities. The system helps drivers navigate through city streets, from parking lots to destinations, managing traffic lights, junctions and obstacles without driver input, using advanced SAE Level 2+ assistance. Leveraging 30 sensors, including 10 cameras, 5 radar sensors, and 12 ultrasonic sensors, MB.DRIVE ASSIST PRO has been available in Chin

Our team of 11 experts will be covering the show in Las Vegas next year, come back here in the lead up to the 2026 event as we provide you with our daily insights, announcements and reveals.

The two companies presented the findings during a special CES 2026 event, “Drive for 2,000 Lives: The Next Revolution in Connected Safety,” aimed at raising industry-wide awareness of how enhanced crash data can dramatically improve emergency response and save lives.

Autonomy is once again the dominant headline at CES and in many ways, it feels like the industry coming full circle.

The 2040 Vehicle Technology Guide equips automotive leaders with actionable insights to navigate complexity, seize opportunities, and shape the future of mobility. It is your blueprint for thriving in an era where innovation speed, ecosystem collaboration, and user-centric design will determine market leadership.

One of the key drivers of EV adoption is the quality and seamlessness of the charging experience. When the first modern charging networks were deployed, they were often fragmented, unreliable, and inconvenient. Since then, rapid progress in both charging infrastructure and vehicle technology has reshaped the landscape but users often struggle with long setup or usage processes, reliability issues, opaque information, inconsistent app ecosystems, and physical safety concerns a

The past year has marked a turning point in cybersecurity.

Is AI a holy grail or a cautionary tale? At face value it seems too good to be true, and unfortunately, these things often are.

We are witnessing an explosion with agentic AI,” AWS CEO Matt Garman observed this week during his keynote at the company’s marquee annual conference, AWS re:Invent. “Every single customer experience, every single company, and frankly, every single industry is in the process right now of being reinvented.

The critical question is whether new entrants can truly outcompete OEMs on their home turf

Euro 7 applies to all light and heavy-duty vehicles (M and N), and all powertrains.

According to reports from August 2025, Stellantis has paused its STLA AutoDrive program, an L3 automated driving initiative first announced in February 2025.

Keep calm and carry on - that felt like the spirit of this year’s Japan Mobility Show. On stage, CEOs from Toyota, Honda and Nissan spoke with conviction about reshaping their platforms and cultures for the SDV, EV, AV and AI era. Yet, across the exhibition floor, the transformation still felt early. Concepts were thoughtful rather than flashy, and the excitement came more from intent than from spectacle. Still, the absence of flashy, headline-grabbing prototypes didn’t mean

As 2025 enters its final stretch, the automotive industry continues to transform through the integration of software, electrification, and sustainability. OEMs are refining their software-defined strategies, strengthening their EV ecosystems, and rethinking how users interact with their vehicles. SBD Automotive’s newly released and upcoming reports provide fresh insights into these shifts, offering data-driven forecasts, evaluations, and guides that help industry leaders prep

A complimentary report for SBD Automotive subscribers, the Q3 Quarterly Wrap-up helps you quickly catch-up on the automotive AI, CASES & SDV trends from the past few months, providing insights from our analysts on the impact of major announcements. Q3 Trend Radar The Quarterly Wrap-up looks at the top trends of the quarter, charting the major movers based on their impact over the last three months, a deep-dive into one major topic, and a complete list of every major announcem

Agentic AI is remaking the in-car experience, moving vehicles from passive responders to active agents that can interpret intent and complete tasks on behalf of their users. Traditional voice systems wait for explicit commands, but agentic systems are able to break intent into actions, then coordinate specialist capabilities and follow through, across navigation, digital cabin services and commerce. This shift will change how people will interact with cars, and how manufactur

With Q3 2025 drawing to a close, it is possible to step back and see which developments from the last three months will shape the automotive industry over the year ahead. A busy events calendar, a string of new research releases, increased cross industry collaboration, and targeted analysis all help to separate signal from noise. Events The SBD events team returned from IAA Mobility and ITS World Congress with field reports that capture where OEMs and suppliers are focusing

The SBD Automotive Events Team has returned from IAA Mobility 2025. Held every two years at the Munich Exhibition Center and across several city venues, IAA Mobility gathers vehicle manufacturers, component suppliers, technology and software companies, and a wide range of mobility service providers. The event was split between a business focused exhibition area and a consumer oriented Open Space. At IAA Mobility 2025, BMW unveiled the iX3, the first vehicle built on the BMW N