- May consolidate 50+ ECUs typical in new EVs to just some
- Nets a 3-5% acquire in effectivity and vary, quicker charging
- Simplifies meeting, cuts weight, extends attain of OTA updates
- Karma Kaveya EV arriving in 2026 is constructed on Intel structure
The concept of the software-defined automobile is, it appears, a billion-dollar buzzword in in the present day’s auto {industry}.
Really, the cash’s on it. In November, Volkswagen—recognizing Rivian’s progress within the space—invested as much as $5.8 billion in a brand new three way partnership with the U.S. EV maker. The funding is aimed toward creating each the electrical structure and the software program for what would possibly quantity to thousands and thousands of next-generation software-defined autos (SDVs).
Whereas we wait and see what that partnership brings, there’s a widespread consensus amongst tech suppliers and automakers that SDVs are the long run for EVs and past—whereas few have supplied a concrete roadmap of how and once they intend to get there.
At CES in Las Vegas earlier this month, Intel stood out as an exception, for its unveiling of a complete, whole-vehicle SDV answer. It claims rather more than over-the-air updates, and that it would make EVs not solely extra adaptive to wants but in addition extra environment friendly—with as much as a 5% acquire in EV vary and effectivity from its new software-defined structure plus a extra responsive driving expertise.
Karma Kaveya
Karma to be “dwelling growth prototype” for Intel structure
That structure isn’t a far-out idea, and it may very well be put to the take a look at in lower than two years. The Intel whole-vehicle software-defined structure is because of be included on the Karma Kaveya, a 1,000-hp totally electrical all-wheel-drive coupe, with claimed 0-60 mph acceleration below 3.0 seconds, that’s slated for manufacturing in 2026.
“We expect that we have now the chance to be the very first producer to deploy a full ground-up true software-defined automobile structure,” mentioned Marques McCammon, at Intel Automotive’s CES presentation. “And we’ll do this with the Karma Kaveya; it would have the flexibility to have workloads redistributed, be up to date by way of the cloud, and it’ll function a platform for each Karma automobile going ahead.”
McCammon mentioned that the Karma EV will likely be “a dwelling growth prototype for the broader {industry}, as we ally for the event, appearing as a growth accomplice at scale.”
Revealed at CES was Intel’s Adaptive Management Unit (ACU), which claims to consolidate the management of auto domains, functions, and safety-critical capabilities all onto one central processing chip.
Karma Kaveya idea
Extra than simply OTA updates, Intel simplifies {hardware}
Most fashionable autos make use of plenty of separate controllers, every with their very own wiring and digital management unit (ECU), both as a part of a distributed strategy or a consolidated zonal strategy. Intel claims that with the ACU it might probably scale back total power demand from an EV’s battery pack by really adapting the voltage degree for high-voltage methods in actual time, relying on the circumstances (like driving type).
Its methodology, with a software-defined zonal controller, can freely shift workloads round. Tesla’s Sentry mode for automobile safety, for instance, runs on the in-cabin system in the present day and makes use of 40 to 50 watts consistently, talked about Jack Weast, Intel’s VP and the final supervisor of Intel Automotive, within the firm’s CES presentation earlier this month. However with a zonal platform it might probably run on just some watts, turning on the bigger system when there’s an intruder.
Or, famous Weast later, if you happen to’re at a protracted stoplight, some points of active-safety methods won’t should be powered up.
“The best way that we have a look at it’s to consider a knowledge middle; you get all these huge racks of computing however you possibly can actually use software program to activate one rack or the opposite, transfer workloads forwards and backwards,” defined McCammon to Inexperienced Automobile Studies as we took within the present.
The Karma CEO famous the parallels between the thought and one {industry} normal that began with Intel and developed from not simply communication to scalable energy and voltage—that of the USB port.
USB port
This form of dynamic variable voltage scaling might need been used on parts of the EV platform beforehand, however increasing the idea to your complete automobile is one thing new.
“That is what we’ve been doing in PC platforms for 20 years,” summed Weast within the CES presentation.
It could be a welcome change at this level. Immediately’s autos will be nightmares to service, not to mention assemble—basically rats’ nests of disparate management items, positioned across the automobile and infrequently operating at totally different voltages and ranges of connectivity, leaving some methods able to over-the-air updates and others not. Greater than 50 ECUs isn’t unusual in new autos, and a few autos have greater than 100.
Intel’s answer may assist “a number of topologies,” as a part of a whole-vehicle structure, it claims, and it may very well be the following step—or one of many subsequent steps—in a quiet revolution in how autos are conceived, constructed, and upgraded.
Intel Automotive SDV venture
Constructing on Tesla and Rivian, or leapfrogging it?
Trade suppliers have some catching-up, measuring-up, and coordinating on requirements to do, whereas there’s actually potential to innovate. However a few of this duty has been within the arms of automakers.
Shifting to a wiring-saving “zonal” structure, with zones primarily based on bodily location reasonably than particular duties, is without doubt one of the keys. So is shifting to software program controls for these zones and the elements inside them.
Tesla led greater than a decade in the past by making use of the software-based, over-the-air-update mannequin of smartphones to its autos—and making use of the zonal strategy—converging on the thought of methods that may very well be readily upgraded or options that is perhaps enabled by way of software program.
Nio, amongst others, has additionally used a zonal strategy. Rivian stays an {industry} darling of this transformation, and it managed in a rethink of its structure that arrived final 12 months within the 2025 Rivian R1S and R1T to consolidate an already-neat 17 ECUs down to only seven, chopping 1.6 miles of copper wiring from the automobile, serving to optimize effectivity and simplifying the provision chain.
Underneath VW’s funding in Rivian, it would license that zonal design and permit future collaboration between the 2 corporations. The strategy may result in extra simply upgradable autos that may value much less to construct and likewise would possibly higher deal with {hardware} modifications over time.
Intel Adaptive Management Unit for software-defined autos
Though there’s no full manufacturing automobile with Intel’s strategy but, it claims an 80% discount in ECUs, a 60% discount in wiring harness size, and a 35% or extra discount in energy consumption. Additional, Intel says that the strategy means decrease automobile part prices, permitting a smaller motor and battery pack—and lower-cost EV platforms total.
All this mentioned, it’s unclear whether or not Intel’s answer is merely treading water amongst tomorrow’s EVs or swimming laps round them. Practically each automaker by now understands the need to simplify in an effort to compete. Ford CEO Jim Farley, as an example, mentioned in 2023 that its next-generation EVs will likely be “radically simplified,” with a brand new electrical structure that’s totally software program updatable.
Intel and Karma co-branded inverter for software-defined EVs – CES 2025
Karma’s EV inverter is a key piece
Again to the power benefits, Intel says that its strategy, together with an influence administration system-on-chip (SoC), helps maximize effectivity for inverters, chargers, and converters. System-wide, the strategy recovers as much as 40% of what would in any other case be powertrain-system power losses—netting a 3-5% acquire in effectivity and vary, by WLTP-cycle testing, together with quicker charging and “a extra responsive driving expertise.”
The inverter is without doubt one of the keys to that, and California’s Karma Automotive developed an inverter unit that’s supposed to be a part of Intel’s whole-vehicle answer. The silicon carbide inverter is Karma’s personal mental property, confirmed Marques McCammon to Inexperienced Automobile Studies, and more likely to be made in Michigan, however it’s co-branded with Intel.
Intel and Karma co-branded inverter for software-defined EVs – CES 2025
By now you is perhaps questioning: Why is the CEO of the California-based area of interest, low-volume luxurious automobile maker, which is greatest recognized for reviving and refining autos and methods derived from the primary Fisker Automotive, speaking industry-altering tech in such a deep manner?
It stems from a protracted partnership when he was a administration counterpart at Wind River methods—McCammon on the software program facet, Weast on the {hardware} facet.
“We had a imaginative and prescient then of what a software-enabled, or software-defined automobile was going to be,” McCammon defined to GCR. “However once we thought this up, we all the time wanted somebody to go first.”
Quick ahead a decade, to a few 12 months in the past, and Intel had simply acquired Silicon Mobility, which McCammon mentioned was a turning level.
Intel Automotive EV interface
“We mentioned, the place can we begin? All people’s targeted on the cabin, however actually power administration, utilization, and effectivity is within the powertrain domains.”
Karma had already been growing its personal inverter, its personal powertrain area management unit, and a chipset, McCammon defined, however Intel and Silicon Mobility dropped at the desk “added a degree of software program programmability right into a system that’s normally very mounted.”
McCammon defined that Karma basically now it has a programmable API between motor and {hardware}—one thing most different fashionable EVs don’t have. “We have been already engaged on it for our subsequent inverter, for our subsequent era merchandise,” he mentioned. “It was a pure match.”
“The inverter is one piece of it—this half we’re speaking about in the present day— however we’re engaged on a lot, rather more,” added McCammon.
