How will the Software-Defined Vehicle impact future automotive planning practices?
- SBD Automotive
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
As SDV strategies take center stage in OEM investment plans for the next product planning cycle, it is key to identify not just the short-term wins in implementing SDVs, but also the key milestones and roadmaps needed to scale them across models, carlines, platforms, and even regions. While many OEMs now have a defined sourcing strategy and implementation plans for SDV, cost, and complexity, both speed and timing can alter once scalability is put into focus.
Recognizing the importance of this preparation is our all-new Scaling the SDV Deep Dive report. Focused on future-casting SDV hardware roadmaps and planning E/E architecture transformation, alongside the decoupling of hardware and software, this study helps plan an OEM’s next set of SDV milestones. Throughout the report, our experts address ambiguity around the role of the SDV across different segments and regions, and what problems need to be overcome in order to scale it accordingly. This will include decisions on considering a zonal architecture, and aim to answer whether this is a key decision factor in scaling the SDV.
Through these insights, the report provides a number of benefits for those mapping out their Software-Defined Vehicle strategies. Here, it offers detailed analysis based on various case studies that take a closer look at how a variety of OEMs and partners are today overcoming scaling to both all and corner segments.
In this Insight, we will be taking a deep dive into the new report, outlining its contents and exploring its key benefits before highlighting one of its key takeaways. At the same time, we will also spotlight the importance of the report in the context of today’s SDV landscape for the OEMs, start-ups, and even non-automotive players planning their own SDV.
Scaling the Software-Defined Vehicle
Within the report, our SDV experts reveal the gaps in hardware and software capability for each relevant piece of OEM hardware, with a focus on identifying the best-in-class as well as disruptions and follower approaches. The report’s focus on this rapidly developing landscape extends further with thorough case studies that plot the ecosystem and partnerships being set up by each OEM operating within this landscape to highlight the key players across the value chain.
Another key element of the report is the way in which it assesses how different players implement their SDV scaling strategies, and how these approaches differ within a range of key focus areas, including complexity, speed, timing, and cost. Cost reduction, across a number of verticals, was highlighted by our experts as one of the most prominent benefits of scaling the SDV.
The cost-saving benefits of scaling the SDV
In the report, our experts note that the consolidation in E/E architecture, bought about by the technological advancements facilitated by the SDV, plays a key role in these cost-saving benefits. While benefiting the vehicle itself through a reduced bill of materials, and a weight reduction in its wiring harness, scaling the SDV can also help OEMs save costs further along the vehicle lifecycle and in manufacturing. These broader benefits include improvements in scalability, lower maintenance costs, and improved efficiency, as well as the heightened potential to automate the manufacturing process itself.
The cost-saving benefits of scaling the SDV can also be felt in software development, where the innovations in software it enables can help OEMs reduce costs in various areas. Over the air updates, for example, can reduce the need for vehicle recalls, with faulty parts or features able to be remedied without the need for the customer to visit a dealership, while OEMs gain efficiency from the improved data gathering capabilities enabled by integral SDV features and technologies. Within software development, scaling the SDV can also help reduce costs by strengthening both the reusability and scalability of software, while also shortening the processing times needed for validation.
Next Steps
As demonstrated in this Insight, our Scaling the SDV Deep Dive report offers a key reference point for OEMs, automotive start-ups, or even tech giants, developing or planning their own Software-Defined Vehicle strategies. In breaking down the key benefits of scaling the SDV while more broadly highlighting best practices around the SDV hardware roadmap, E/E architecture scaling, zonal architectures, and more, it works to facilitate the robust, future-focused, planning needed to ensure repeated SDV success and customer loyalty to these innovative new vehicles.
Want to gain expert insights into the technologies discussed in this article? Then be sure to click below and secure your copy of our Scaling the SDV research report today!