HERE Tech Day - Paris

The HERE Tech Day in Paris brought together OEMs, suppliers and technology companies to discuss the future of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), artificial intelligence, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), digital cockpits and next-generation mapping technologies.

Although the individual presentations covered different topics, several common themes emerged throughout the day: the growing importance of AI, the industrialization of software development, the continued strategic role of maps, and the need for sustainable business models capable of generating value from increasingly software-centric vehicles.

More specifically:

1. The automotive industry is evolving beyond Software-Defined Vehicles towards AI-Defined Vehicles, where AI becomes the central decision-making layer across vehicle functions.

2. Software alone is no longer viewed as a differentiator. Sustainable business models, compelling customer value and rapid execution are increasingly considered the primary success factors.

3. Contrary to some market narratives, maps remain a strategic technology. Rather than disappearing, they are evolving into AI-ready knowledge layers that support both autonomous driving and digital cockpit experiences.

4. Finally, partnerships, simulation and cloud-based development environments are becoming indispensable tools for reducing development costs and accelerating innovation, enabling OEMs to compete in an increasingly software-driven automotive industry.

Strategic Implications for OEMs and Suppliers

The discussions throughout the HERE Tech Day suggest that the automotive industry is entering a new phase in which competitive differentiation will depend less on individual technologies and more on the ability to industrialize software, AI and data-driven services at scale.

AI is becoming the vehicle operating paradigm

The transition from Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) to AI-Defined Vehicles (AIDVs) represents more than a technological evolution. AI is expected to become the decision-making layer across multiple vehicle domains, influencing navigation, ADAS, cockpit functions and user interaction. As a result, OEMs should consider AI as a core architectural capability rather than a collection of isolated features.

Customer value must drive technology investments

Several speakers emphasized that the automotive industry has invested heavily in software and electrification without achieving proportional financial returns. Future investments should therefore be prioritised based on measurable customer value and sustainable business models rather than technological novelty. Organizations will need to become increasingly customer-centric and avoid developing features that provide limited commercial differentiation.

Speed is becoming a competitive advantage

The comparison between Chinese and European OEMs illustrates that development speed is emerging as a strategic differentiator. Shorter development cycles, supported by virtualization, simulation and AI-assisted engineering, will enable manufacturers to respond more rapidly to changing customer expectations while reducing development costs.

Maps remain strategic assets

Contrary to the perception that end-to-end AI systems will eliminate the need for maps, multiple presentations reinforced the view that maps continue to provide essential capabilities for safety, redundancy, predictive driving behaviour and regulatory compliance. Their role is evolving from static geographic information towards continuously updated, AI-ready knowledge layers that enrich vehicle perception and decision-making.

Simulation will increasingly replace physical development

Simulation and virtual validation were consistently presented as critical enablers for reducing development time and improving AI model quality. As AI models require increasingly large and diverse datasets, digital development environments will become fundamental to accelerating software deployment while limiting real-world testing effort.

Ecosystems are replacing vertically integrated development

No single company is likely to possess all the capabilities required to develop competitive SDV or AIDV platforms. Partnerships between OEMs, mapping providers, cloud companies, AI specialists and Tier 1 suppliers are becoming a strategic necessity rather than an option. Collaboration is increasingly viewed as the fastest route to reducing development costs, accelerating innovation and accessing specialised expertise.

Explainability and regulation will shape AI deployment

As AI assumes greater responsibility for vehicle behaviour, explainability and regulatory compliance are expected to become increasingly important, particularly in Europe. Future AI systems will likely need to justify their decisions in a transparent and auditable manner, influencing both system architecture and validation processes.

The competitive landscape is shifting

Chinese OEMs continue to demonstrate significant advantages in development speed, software integration and AI deployment. However, European manufacturers retain strengths in safety engineering, regulatory compliance and systems integration. Long-term competitiveness is therefore likely to depend on combining rapid software innovation with robust engineering processes and trusted customer experiences.

Overall Assessment

The event demonstrated that the industry's focus is shifting from proving that software and AI can be deployed in vehicles to scaling these capabilities profitably. The companies most likely to succeed will be those that combine fast software development, strong ecosystem partnerships, AI-ready data and mapping capabilities, and a clear focus on customer value creation. Technology remains a critical enabler, but execution, business model innovation and organizational agility are emerging as the primary differentiators.

HERE Strategy and Market Perspective

Gino Ferru, SVP and General Manager EMEIA at HERE, opened the event by highlighting the profound transformation the automotive industry has undergone over the past decade. While investments in electrification, software and AI have been unprecedented, financial returns have generally failed to match expectations.

According to HERE, future success depends on three key factors: speed, scale and relevance.

Chinese OEMs have dramatically shortened product development cycles, reducing the time from concept to market to approximately 90 days, whereas traditional European manufacturers often require up to two years to launch comparable features. However, speed alone is not sufficient. Technology must solve genuine customer problems rather than simply demonstrate engineering capability.

HERE identified five major trends that are shaping the industry:

• the increasing use of maps within ADAS Level 2+ systems;

• Software-Defined Vehicles as the foundation for maintaining vehicle value throughout their lifecycle;

• the growing use of AI both as an in-vehicle assistant and in HD map development;

• cloud-based digital cockpit platforms offering continuously evolving navigation experiences; and

• deeper integration between navigation and EV charging systems to improve range prediction and reduce range anxiety.

The company emphasized that partnerships remain a key accelerator, enabling development cost reductions of up to 70% while shortening time-to-market. Several collaborations were highlighted, including Bosch, Scania, Lotus, JLR, Dacia, Lucid and VinFast.

HERE also presented its Frankfurt Innovation Lab as an environment where OEMs can experience the company's "Gap-to-Map" integration approach.

From Software-Defined to AI-Defined Vehicles

Augustin Friedel from MHP Porsche focused on the industry's transition from Software-Defined Vehicles towards AI-Defined Vehicles (AIDVs).

Despite investments exceeding tens of billions of dollars, many OEMs continue to struggle with profitability while simultaneously funding electrification, AI development and the continued evolution of internal combustion platforms.

Friedel described the AI-Defined Vehicle as the next stage of automotive evolution. While every AIDV will be an SDV, not every SDV will become an AIDV. In the future architecture, AI will no longer represent an isolated feature but will become the decision-making layer across virtually every vehicle domain.

Today, no OEM has yet achieved this level of maturity, although several Chinese manufacturers have begun the transition.

One of the strongest messages from the presentation concerned the smart cockpit. AI-defined cabin experiences are expected to become one of the industry's highest priorities from 2026 onwards, with XPeng and Rivian identified as current benchmarks.

However, Friedel argued that technology alone will not determine success. Future ADAS and smart cabin programs must combine compelling customer use cases, sustainable business models and appropriate AI architecture decisions. Too many projects remain technology-driven, creating impressive demonstrations but limited commercial value.

His conclusion was that OEMs must become significantly more customer-centric, avoid the Proof-of-Concept trap and focus on the relatively small number of AI use cases capable of generating meaningful business value.

Industry Outlook

Steven van Arsdale from PwC presented an overview of future automotive growth opportunities.

Although the transition towards battery electric vehicles has slowed following regulatory changes and reduced government incentives, Europe and China continue to lead electrification. Growth is expected to come less from overall vehicle volume and increasingly from technology-intensive content such as software, AI, autonomous driving and EV components.

As traditional value pools mature, software engineering capability, AI expertise and resilient supply chains will become decisive competitive advantages.

The presentation concluded that future winners will be companies capable of building technology ecosystems while simultaneously increasing operational resilience.

Regulation as a Business Opportunity

Robert Fisher from SBD Automotive examined the impact of the EU Data Act. Rather than viewing regulation solely as a compliance burden, he showed how several OEMs have already transformed data access requirements into recurring revenue opportunities through new digital services, while others remain focused primarily on achieving compliance.

The presentation reinforced the idea that regulation can become an innovation catalyst rather than simply an obligation.

Scaling Software-Defined Vehicles

Severin Bredhal-Banovic, VP Solution Architecture at HERE, argued that the industry is now moving beyond innovation towards industrial-scale deployment.

Three technological directions are expected to dominate the coming years:

• convergence of navigation and autonomous driving domains;

• increasingly immersive digital user experiences; and

• extensive use of simulation and virtualization to accelerate software development.

HERE presented its navigation platform as a deterministic location engine capable of reducing AI hallucinations while supporting conversational interfaces and advanced graphical rendering.

The company also introduced its vision for AD Generation 3.0, combining ADAS L2++, robotaxis and end-to-end AI architectures. Voice-controlled navigation integrated with autonomous driving functions and edge-based processing were presented as important enablers for both user experience and GDPR compliance.

Performance claims for the HERE SDV Accelerator indicated approximately 70% faster development cycles and roughly 30% lower costs than comparable cloud-based approaches.

An interesting observation concerned explainable AI. According to HERE, some current AI-based driving systems cannot fully explain the reasoning behind vehicle decisions or collisions. Such limited explainability is considered difficult to reconcile with future European regulatory expectations.

Benchmarking ADAS

Roberto Vallejo from P3 compared European and Chinese ADAS implementations. Chinese systems currently perform extremely well in their domestic market but continue to face challenges in Europe due to differences in regulation, localization of HD maps and the maturity of AI training datasets for European driving environments.

Conversely, Chinese OEMs benefit from strong domestic AI ecosystems, rapid iteration cycles, close integration between HMI and ADAS development, and a regulatory environment that favours technological deployment.

Accelerating AI Development

Julian Gonsior from HERE described the AI development pipeline, from data engineering through model training, validation and deployment.

Large-scale data collection and enrichment remain fundamental to successful AI development. Extensive simulation allows more validation work to be completed before physical testing, significantly reducing development time.

HERE also introduced a new commercial model based on annual development fees combined with either per-vehicle licensing or royalty-based pricing.

The Future of Automotive Maps

Marie-Anne Mittet from Renault challenged the growing perception that end-to-end AI systems no longer require maps.

She argued that maps remain essential for safety, redundancy, vehicle homologation, predictive driving behaviour and passenger comfort.

Mapping itself is evolving from manually surveyed HD maps towards continuously updated fleet-generated maps and ultimately towards AI-generated implicit maps.

Future maps will increasingly provide driving knowledge rather than simply geographic information, with OEMs demanding freshness, confidence, behavioural intelligence and AI-ready data structures.

AI Beyond Driving

Leonardo Siladic from Mireo demonstrated how AI can simplify vehicle sensor data analytics, provided that raw data is first transformed into a robust structured data model. Once properly organized, AI becomes highly effective at generating SQL queries and supporting engineering analysis.

Gabriel Gautron from Appning by Forvia discussed the evolution towards agentic digital cockpits. New AAOS releases are enabling increasingly voice-centric user experiences, flexible window management and ASIL-compliant deployment while allowing OEMs to retain ownership of customer data.

Finally, Christian Bauer from Amazon Smart Vehicles presented Alexa+ and Alexa Customer Assistant, which aim to create a seamless digital experience connecting home, mobile devices and the vehicle. The system, launching on the 2026 BMW iX3, introduces natural language interaction, contextual awareness, implicit control, agentic navigation and home integration.

"The event has highlighted a shift from proving in-vehicle software and AI to scaling these capabilities profitably. Given the scale and complexity of the transition, no single company can succeed alone; identifying the right ecosystem partners and building cross-industry collaboration is essential. The HERE Tech day event, with its diverse mix of attendees, illustrated this emerging model in practice. Winners will combine rapid software development, strong partnerships, AI-ready data and mapping capabilities, and a focus on customer value. Execution and business model sustainability are now key differentiators." Luigi Bisbiglia - Senior Business Development Manager

How SBD can help

SBD Automotive can help benchmark your position against the wider industry and identify where action is needed most. To explore how these trends impact your strategy, architecture and supplier roadmap, get in touch with SBD Automotive for a deeper discussion. Email info@sbdautomotive.com