Best of LinkedIn: Next-Gen Vehicle Intelligence CW 35/ 36

00:00:00: brought to you by Thomas Allgaier and Frennis.

00:00:02: This edition highlights key LinkedIn posts on next-gen vehicle intelligence in weeks thirty-five and thirty-six.

00:00:08: Frennis supports automotive enterprises and consultancies with market and competitive intelligence, decoding disruptive technologies, customer needs, regulatory change, and competitive moves.

00:00:19: The goal is so product teams and strategy leaders don't just react, but actively shape the future of mobility.

00:00:26: Today, we're doing a deep dive into some of the most compelling insights we've seen recently from the world of next-gen vehicle intelligence.

00:00:33: We've pulled the best from LinkedIn over the past couple of weeks.

00:00:36: Yeah, it's been a really dynamic period.

00:00:38: You can see software to define mobility accelerating, moving from just concepts, frameworks into actual tangible deployments now.

00:00:45: So our goal here is to cut through some of the noise, pull out the most important nuggets of knowledge to help you really grasp this pivotal shift and what it means for the future of mobility.

00:00:55: Basically, making sure you stay ahead of the curve.

00:00:57: Okay, let's dive in then.

00:00:58: The first theme that really jumped out was the software-defined vehicle, the SDV.

00:01:04: It's everywhere, isn't it?

00:01:06: Positioned as the next big frontier in how we build cars, how we interact with them.

00:01:10: There's a huge emphasis on things like integrated operating systems, closed-loop development, AI-ready architectures, all seen as key ways for companies to differentiate themselves.

00:01:21: It really feels like a fundamental change in how the industry works.

00:01:23: It absolutely is.

00:01:24: And it's more than just operational change.

00:01:26: It's really a race for speed and agility now.

00:01:29: We saw IBM, for example, talking about their consulting and engineering capabilities.

00:01:33: They're focused on drastically cutting those innovation cycles.

00:01:37: This thing from two years down to maybe just six months, using modular platforms.

00:01:41: That's a huge acceleration.

00:01:42: Six

00:01:42: months.

00:01:43: Right.

00:01:44: What's even more interesting is how Dissalt Systems, Olivier Sapin, shared this.

00:01:48: They're already talking about the next evolution, AI-defined vehicles or ADVs.

00:01:52: He specifically pointed out the momentum coming from Chinese OEMs in this area and how high-tech and automotive are finding these really powerful synergies now.

00:02:02: It's not just software anymore, it's about embedding intelligence right from the start.

00:02:05: Okay, that's the high level.

00:02:07: But what does this actually mean for the people doing the work?

00:02:09: You know, the engineers on the front lines.

00:02:12: Justin Teems had a really interesting point about the design and release engineer role, the DNR.

00:02:16: In this SDV world, their focus is shifting a lot.

00:02:20: It's less about one single component in isolation and much more about the bigger picture, how parts integrate, defining these complex software interfaces, rigorously testing failure modes across all these interconnected components.

00:02:33: It sounds way more complex.

00:02:35: It is, definitely.

00:02:36: And that broader scope absolutely demands standardization.

00:02:40: Otherwise, you just end up with a complete mess, right?

00:02:43: A tangle of systems that can't talk to each other.

00:02:46: Thomas Rooping highlighted Autosar's push here, especially with KPI.

00:02:50: That's their common API for the adaptive platform interface.

00:02:52: API.

00:02:53: Yeah, basically, it's a standard way for different software bits inside the car to communicate.

00:02:57: And this is a fundamental shift because it moves away from those rigid, fixed software designs.

00:03:02: Yeah.

00:03:03: Towards systems that can adapt and evolve much more dynamically.

00:03:06: It's essential for speeding up SDV development globally.

00:03:10: Without common standards like that, the kind of integration Justin Teams talked about becomes incredibly difficult.

00:03:15: may be impossible.

00:03:16: Right.

00:03:17: You need everyone speaking the same language, essentially.

00:03:20: So given how big this shift is, who's actually leading the charge right now, Augustine Friedle shared some insights from Gartner's ranking of OEMs on SDV readiness, and maybe unsurprisingly, Tesla and several Chinese OEMs like NIO, X-PEN, Xiaomi technology, they're really out front.

00:03:38: They're ahead, not just on the tech performance in the vehicle, but also organizationally, they seem set up for it.

00:03:44: Meanwhile, a lot of the legacy OEMs, well, they're facing pretty big transformation challenges, often struggling with how to separate and manage hardware and software development effectively, sometimes even restructuring their organizations.

00:03:56: Yeah, that brings up a critical question.

00:03:58: How are those established players adapting?

00:04:00: What are they doing?

00:04:01: Marcus Hein from Bosch talked about their leadership in software-driven mobility.

00:04:04: He emphasized things like flexibility, deep system expertise, and crucially strategic partnerships.

00:04:10: And Matthias Pillen, also from Bosch, went even further.

00:04:13: He described Bosch mobility fundamentally shifting towards centralized EE architectures.

00:04:17: Electrical

00:04:18: and electronic rate.

00:04:19: Exactly.

00:04:19: And the revolutionary part is that software now drives the hardware design.

00:04:24: that completely flips the traditional way of doing things.

00:04:27: For a giant like Bosch, that signals a huge commitment to reinventing themselves, moving from just supplying parts to being an integrated system architect.

00:04:36: That's a massive shift in thinking, flipping the script entirely.

00:04:40: And what about the money side?

00:04:42: the business impact of all this software focus.

00:04:45: Michael Schulte observed that software-driven revenue is expected to basically double in the next decade.

00:04:50: And Roberto Diesel took it even further, predicting software will become the most important source of revenue by twenty thirty.

00:04:56: The most important wow.

00:04:57: Yeah, driven by things like over-the-air updates, adding new functions after the car is sold, enhancing the customer experience over the whole life of the vehicle.

00:05:06: Cars are becoming, you know, mobile software platforms that just keep generating value.

00:05:10: Exactly.

00:05:11: and we're already seeing tangible benefits.

00:05:14: It's not just theory.

00:05:15: Ian Plummer cited Renault Group achieving some really impressive results, cutting costs by fifty percent and shrinking development cycles from four years down to just sixteen months.

00:05:25: Sixteen months instead of four years?

00:05:27: Yeah.

00:05:27: And he linked this directly to their SDV innovations, which are also helping them with sustainable EV sales.

00:05:34: So it clearly shows, this isn't just talk, it delivers real financial and operational wins for companies that fully commit.

00:05:41: That's pretty compelling evidence, definitely.

00:05:44: But, you know, it's also fair to say not everyone is completely sold on the current direction, maybe the execution of STVs.

00:05:51: Julie Salish, for instance, had a pretty sharp critique of what he called smartphone on wheels gimmicks.

00:05:55: He's arguing for design that's purpose-led, driver-centric, and for true STVs that deliver genuinely valuable, integrated experiences, not just fake tech, as he put it, like overly complex touchscreens that actually make simple things harder.

00:06:08: He makes a good point about avoiding tech for tech's sake.

00:06:11: Yeah, that's a valid point.

00:06:12: And it taps into this broader transformation, Arshal and Galhar highlighted, which is that car companies are fundamentally becoming tech companies, selling software subscriptions that, well, just happen to have wheels attached.

00:06:24: And this isn't just changing the product, it's reshaping the skills needed, the career paths across the whole industry.

00:06:30: Moving away from traditional manufacturing skills towards things like UX design, data analytics, robust software development, the talent required is shifting just as much as the tech.

00:06:40: a whole new kind of workforce emerging.

00:06:42: Okay, that leads us nicely into our next theme.

00:06:45: Let's talk about artificial intelligence and advanced driver assistance systems.

00:06:49: ADS, things are moving incredibly fast here too.

00:07:05: They're right up there alongside established global players like BMW, Tesla and Ford.

00:07:09: So this isn't just a Western race anymore.

00:07:11: It's truly global competition when it comes to ADS innovation.

00:07:14: It definitely feels that way.

00:07:15: And experts are really zeroing in on some key AD topics, things like automated emergency braking, AI for parking, predictive maintenance, and just the continuous evolution of camera tech.

00:07:28: Agnieszka meets Blylov and pointed out a really fundamental transition happening too.

00:07:32: She noted that AI-driven driverless systems are moving beyond simple rule-based automation, basic.

00:07:39: if this, then that logic, towards adaptive intelligence, systems that can learn evolve which is powerful obviously but it also raises big questions about transparency.

00:07:48: how did these systems make decisions and the ethics of deploying them especially in really complex unpredictable situations

00:07:55: and that transparency in those ethics become absolutely critical when these systems hit the real world the unpredictable real world.

00:08:02: your gross heart made a point quite humorously actually, but very insightful about real life testing.

00:08:07: It needs to account for the unexpected, like his example was a goat suddenly appearing on the road.

00:08:11: A goat, right.

00:08:12: His message was clear.

00:08:14: Adias can't just understand the technical stuff.

00:08:16: It has to understand the natural environment too, because life isn't a controlled test track.

00:08:22: You really can't script everything that might happen out there.

00:08:25: Absolutely, goats don't follow test protocols, and that unpredictability really underscores the need for robust autonomous capabilities, doesn't it?

00:08:33: Jonathan Graham observed that human attention spans seem to be shortening, which, frankly, makes autonomous vehicles potentially critical for road safety down the line.

00:08:42: And thinking about the tech experience inside the car, James Carter's JD Power tech experience index findings were interesting.

00:08:49: Tesla and Rivian are dominating there, largely because their vehicles were designed as SDVs from the get-go, which enables features people notice, like integrated drive cameras and sentry mode.

00:08:59: We also saw Jack Levy and Christian Rake both highlighting Tesla's progress with unsupervised full self-driving, mentioning cars autonomously driving right off the assembly line at Giga Berlin.

00:09:09: That's quite a step, but what's really crucial to understand to unlock the full potential of these higher levels of autonomy is the infrastructure.

00:09:17: It's absolutely critical.

00:09:19: Kineshwin-Govindasami pointed out this kind of chicken and egg problem with telcos.

00:09:23: For them to become serious enablers for advanced IDOS, you need mature, five-g networks widespread.

00:09:30: You need common standards for vehicle to everything, V-to-X communication.

00:09:34: And you probably need entirely new business models for sharing revenue.

00:09:37: Without the telcos fully invested in those foundations in place, the network heavy features of advanced idos.

00:09:43: They'll struggle to scale effectively.

00:09:45: That makes total sense.

00:09:46: The car can only be as smart as the network allows.

00:09:48: In some ways.

00:09:50: Okay.

00:09:50: On the innovation side, we saw an announcement from Abraham Darwish at Cars XE.

00:09:55: They're launching the first model context protocol server MCP in the auto industry.

00:09:59: Think of it like a universal translator for car data.

00:10:02: Right now, if an AI needs vehicle data, Vindy coding, market value, recall info, it often has to learn a different format or language for each provider.

00:10:12: MCP aims to create one common standard language, making it radically simple.

00:10:18: and faster for AI applications to pull in and use diverse vehicle data from lots of different sources, it could be a big deal for streamlining data access.

00:10:26: Interesting.

00:10:26: That sounds like it could really simplify things.

00:10:29: And as vehicles get more autonomous, relying so heavily on these systems and data, the legal and ethical side is shifting dramatically too.

00:10:37: Steve Greenfield made the point that liability, the responsibility, is moving away from the human driver.

00:10:42: Yeah.

00:10:43: Towards the OEM or the company that made the autonomous tech.

00:10:46: We're already seeing new insurance models emerge because of this.

00:10:49: Some are even splitting liability between the human driver and the system itself.

00:10:52: It's a fundamental change in who's accountable.

00:10:54: Yeah, a huge shift in responsibility.

00:10:57: And related to that, Lucas Tim's pretty strong reaction to Tesla's full self-driving marketing and the rulings holding the company accountable for claims seen as potentially misleading.

00:11:06: It just underscores how critical getting these legal and ethical boundaries right is, especially as the tech evolves so quickly.

00:11:13: Absolutely.

00:11:15: OK, so we've covered SDVs, AI, ADs, all these massive shifts.

00:11:20: But none of this is happening in a vacuum, right?

00:11:23: Our final theme is really about the ecosystems, the collaborations, and future innovations needed to make it all work.

00:11:29: It's clear no single company can do this alone.

00:11:32: Collaboration is essential.

00:11:34: Adelina Gruskou shared news about Vallejo and Capgem and I working together on ADS testing and validation.

00:11:39: That seems like a great example of deeper cooperation forming between tier ones and digital engineering.

00:11:44: firms.

00:11:44: These kinds of specialized partnerships feel crucial.

00:11:47: Definitely.

00:11:47: And connecting that to the bigger picture, Bernie Niedemeyer pointed out the rapid growth of open source and automotive.

00:11:54: Communities like Eclipse SDV and Covesa are really gaining traction.

00:11:58: But he also noted, realistically, there are still maturity challenges.

00:12:02: especially around things like service level agreements, SLAs, and cybersecurity processes within these open source frameworks.

00:12:09: Philip Bach also mentioned UL Solutions joining the Eclipse Foundation to boost safety and security, which is obviously vital for wider adoption in cars.

00:12:18: Open source in automotive, that's definitely an area to watch closely.

00:12:22: Beyond open source, we're seeing these major strategic partnerships focus purely on speeding up development.

00:12:28: Mike Nefkins and Marvin Ruff announced that here technologies and AWS, Amazon Web Services, are launching the SDV accelerator, which sounds like a virtual platform designed to make integration easier and cut development time for car makers.

00:12:40: A virtualized platform, yeah.

00:12:42: And Yuneh Massive shared news about Qualcomm partnering up to advance SDDAs too.

00:12:48: Focusing on making mobility smarter, safer, faster, especially around ADES solutions.

00:12:53: These are big names, teaming up to try and streamline what's obviously a very complex process.

00:12:58: They are, and these collaborations aren't just happening virtually or globally.

00:13:01: They're creating real geographic hubs of innovation, too.

00:13:05: SUP, the jury, Chapalapali announced Tata Consultancy Services is expanding in Europe, building new innovation spaces and automotive delivery centers focused specifically on next-gen mobility solutions.

00:13:15: And Richard saying Jayden shared that Tata Elksi and Suzuki launched a cloud A to L center in India.

00:13:20: Cloud A L?

00:13:21: Yeah,

00:13:21: hardware in the loop, but in the cloud.

00:13:23: Imagine testing a car as complex electronic brain.

00:13:26: It's ECU in a completely virtual environment.

00:13:29: Without needing the physical car or all its parts, it lets you do tons of testing virtually, which dramatically speeds up software development for these STD programs.

00:13:37: Got it.

00:13:37: Virtual testing on a massive scale, that makes sense.

00:13:40: The global footprint for this stuff is really expanding.

00:13:43: And then of course we have specific product launches, the enabling technologies making it all possible.

00:13:48: Manuela Lucarno Ajay announced TomTom is unveiling a new navigation app designed specifically for STVs.

00:13:54: emphasizing scalability and full stack integration, aiming to cut development costs for automakers.

00:14:00: Peter Schaefer mentioned Infineon Automotive introducing Ethernet solutions, basically the high-speed network backbone needed for all this data flying around in STVs.

00:14:08: And Gautham Nidoo highlighted how CanXL is powering the next generation of vehicle control units, the VCUs, to handle the exploding data demands.

00:14:16: It really is all about building a robust foundation.

00:14:18: It is, and what's really fascinating is seeing how these software-defined concepts cross over into other sectors.

00:14:24: Anti-shabazian, for instance, shared experiments using AI to generate drone design frameworks.

00:14:30: It shows how these software-defined ideas were starting to merge mobility and even aerospace innovation.

00:14:35: Robert Day also shared Sonatas successfully launching their AI director.

00:14:39: It's a great example of edge AI doing the AI processing right there in the vehicle, running on arm-powered processors.

00:14:45: It shows these principles are spreading beyond just cars.

00:14:48: Kamesh made a polly from Infineon echoed this when welcoming Marvell Technologies Automotive Ethernet team, highlighting their combined strength for physical AI and robotics and STVs.

00:14:57: That's a great point.

00:14:58: about the wider applications.

00:14:59: It's not just automotive.

00:15:00: And maybe to bring it back to making advanced tech more accessible.

00:15:05: Peter Bosch announced Volkswagen Group's Electric Urban Car family, which sounds really exciting because it plans to bring the award-winning software from their ID.

00:15:14: seven down into more compact, affordable models, all enabled by a scalable software platform.

00:15:21: So things like an app store with reportedly over one hundred in-car apps won't just be for luxury segments anymore.

00:15:28: It's about making intelligent mobility available to more people.

00:15:31: Democratizing the tech, essentially that's a key step.

00:15:33: Exactly.

00:15:34: Well, that brings us to the end of this deep dive into next-gen vehicle intelligence for calendar weeks thirty-five and thirty-six.

00:15:41: If you enjoyed this deep dive, new additions drop every two weeks.

00:15:44: You can also check out our other additions covering electrification and battery technology, future mobility and market evolution, and commercial fleet insights.

00:15:52: Thank you so much for tuning in and joining us on this exploration of the future of mobility.

00:15:56: And please, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on future insights.

00:16:03: Incredibly fast, this SDV and AI landscape is evolving.

00:16:06: What singular capability, or maybe what specific partnership, do you believe will define the next major leap forward in volatility for your organization?

00:16:13: Something to think about.