Guest commentary: Car-to-cloud could mean operating as a software-led organization

The automotive sector is undergoing a generational transformation with the rapid advancement of software-defined vehicles.

As a result of a convergence of macro trends, including a move to electric vehicles, cost economics, demographic shifts and autonomous technologies, there is a wholesale move from hardware-first designs to a software platform paradigm. This is disrupting how some legacy automakers define their product with a hard pivot on software platforms. Many automakers now want to be more like a technology company, which can be easier said than done.

A software-defined vehicle has a different value proposition than a traditional vehicle. The passenger and driving experiences are no longer fixed in production. The quality of the technology in the vehicle can improve over its lifetime. For example, a software update can be added to improve the accuracy of detecting animals or roadside obstacles. Personalization features can be offered to set the vehicle's GPS to coordinate with an appointment scheduled on the driver's smartphone calendar or recognize when a driver steps into the vehicle and adjusts the seat, mirrors and radio to presets. Or a brand-new augmented-reality feature could be added to display higher resolution images during poor weather conditions.

To make all this possible, a software-defined vehicle often needs to rely on a "car-to-cloud" platform that manages the release of potentially thousands of features. That same platform can orchestrate what workloads happen in the cloud and what must run in the vehicle because it must be performed in real time. This platform can act as the central brain that supervises the network of advanced sensors, electronic control units, high-performance computers and actuators that must work seamlessly together.

The development of car-to-cloud platforms means there may be new challenges and opportunities for manufacturers and automakers, as well as service providers and consumers.

One such example might be the speed, scale and shift to software-based R&D operations development. Traditionally, vehicle development has relied on long hardware-based product life cycles that could make it difficult to quickly enhance existing configurations. Fundamentally, the design-to-manufacturing process should be adapted to accommodate bug-free software delivery, at scale and across brands, while also introducing ways to reduce the need for in-person interactions for servicing. This could include achieving zero fault for vehicles coming off the line as well as addressing ongoing vehicle issues via over-the-air updates.

The leaders in this first iteration of software-defined vehicles will likely be those automakers that are able to shift the organization, at speed and scale, to be agile, feature driven and cloud native. Car-to-cloud means that vehicles are moving so far beyond being just a collection of parts and components that they're now part of a product-led software business that can potentially deliver thousands of functions on demand as software-defined vehicles could unlock new revenue streams for automakers.

Automakers should transform operating models and culture to adapt to a software-based organization. Traditional processes for designing, validating and manufacturing cars are rooted in leading practices for integrating parts up to assembly, whereas software-defined vehicles can require processes and tools to continually launch and enhance experiences. This means that an automaker's software development foundation can be as critical as the assembly plant. For some automakers, this could be a tectonic shift in operating model, culture, talent strategy and investment portfolio, but should be addressed for products to compete at scale.

To build cars that can integrate with modern chip sets and take advantage of advanced technologies, automakers should embrace cloud-native software development. This involves building software applications in the cloud and using modern programming languages and frameworks. Cloud-native software development can offer several advantages for car manufacturers, including greater scalability and flexibility, potentially making it easier and quicker to deploy new features and applications.

Car-to-cloud development platforms could allow for more collaboration among developers, suppliers and other stakeholders, which can improve the quality and speed of software development. For certain applications, there may even be the flexibility to run either in vehicle, in near real time in the cloud, or with the workload distributed across both.

In turn, continuous integration and delivery and the combination of software development and operations can allow auto manufacturers to better identify and address vulnerabilities in their software. The security of a vehicle's software can also be enhanced with cloud-native software development. This also could allow for more frequent updates and patches, which can reduce the risk of exploitation by cybercriminals.

To fully take advantage of these technologies, car manufacturers should continue to prioritize innovation and collaboration in an agile and cloud-native environment for both mobile, vehicle applications and even embedded software. The resulting features and applications could revolutionize the total vehicle experience for consumers.