Hyundai teams with Sonatus for next step in software-defined car
Sonatus has its roots in business IT and is also considered an expert in embedded software. The company has experience with a topic that is currently very much in vogue in the automotive industry: the Californians are experts in software-defined data centres. “The cars of the future are practically data centres on wheels,” explains Troy Trenchard, Chief Product Officer of Sonatus.
Sonatus’ Digital Dynamic software solutions will be used by Hyundai to build out their existing capabilities with flexible vehicle data collection and monitoring, as well as with cloud-managed in-vehicle network management and optimization in next-generation Genesis, Hyundai, and Kia vehicles. Hyundai expects to enable the most demanding use cases of tomorrow with the Sonatus software suite.
Going forward, all OEMs will have to evolve their vehicle infrastructure with technologies like Ethernet, IP and universal cloud connectivity. However, the management of these technologies introduces significant new challenges. With this partnership, Sonatus is bringing critical experience and visibility that is enabling Hyundai to transition away from legacy architectures and transform its vehicle development, E/E architecture capabilities, and ownership experience—and ultimately build the digitally dynamic vehicles of the future.
The Sonatus programme code runs partly on platforms in the vehicle and in the cloud and dovetails the functionalities of both worlds with each other. While it benefits from a virtualised environment, it does not require extremely powerful compute platforms like those recently introduced by tier ones like Bosch or Continental, says Trenchard. Instead, it can run on commodity microprocessors like those from the usual suspects such as NXP, Arm and the like.
Software-defined vehicles are widely regarded as the future of automotive, and Sonatus has set out to enable automakers to digitally transform their lineups. The company’s scalable solutions make it easy for OEM customers to accelerate the digitization of their vehicles, embrace continuous innovation, and gain sustainable advantage in the digital era, Sonatus advertises. The scope of the Sonatus functionality includes in-vehicle infrastructure such as network optimizing, V2C communication, service-oriented communication controllers and in-vehicle network security. The second tier of this functionality includes data management with features such as a dynamic data collector and a real-time cloud data pipeline. The third tier is automated data management in the car and the cloud.
“Automakers that strategically align with partners that can help them accelerate the shift toward service delivery architectures will likely be the leaders in the digital era,” said Roger Lanctot, director of the global automotive practice at Strategy Analytics. “It’s encouraging to see Hyundai Motor Group partnering with an innovative new industry player like Sonatus as it seeks to gain an early-mover advantage with software-defined vehicles.”
In the long run, the goal of software and E/E architects is creating not only a software-defines car but ultimately a software-defined IT overall environment. Thus, OTA updates are a core feature of the Sonatus offerings, explains Trenchard.
Related articles:
TTTech Auto entices key managers from auto, tech sector
Bosch relies on Microsoft for automotive connectivity platform
Stellantis, Foxconn establish software JV
Top 5 growth opportunities in connected cars
ZF rolls automotive middleware layer
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
