- May consolidate 50+ ECUs typical in new EVs to only a few
- Nets a 3-5% achieve 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 thought of the software-defined car is, it appears, a billion-dollar buzzword in immediately’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 geared toward creating each the electrical structure and the software program for what may quantity to tens of millions 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 longer term for EVs and past—whereas few have offered a concrete roadmap of how and after 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 resolution. It claims way more than over-the-air updates, and that it would make EVs not solely extra adaptive to wants but additionally extra environment friendly—with as much as a 5% achieve in EV vary and effectivity from its new software-defined structure plus a extra responsive driving expertise.
Karma Kaveya
Karma to be “residing growth prototype” for Intel structure
That structure isn’t a far-out idea, and it might be put to the check 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 beneath 3.0 seconds, that’s slated for manufacturing in 2026.
“We predict that we now have the chance to be the very first producer to deploy a full ground-up true software-defined car structure,” stated Marques McCammon, at Intel Automotive’s CES presentation. “And we’ll do this with the Karma Kaveya; it is going to have the flexibility to have workloads redistributed, be up to date through the cloud, and it’ll function a platform for each Karma car going ahead.”
McCammon stated that the Karma EV might be “a residing growth prototype for the broader {industry}, as we ally for the event, appearing as a growth associate at scale.”
Revealed at CES was Intel’s Adaptive Management Unit (ACU), which claims to consolidate the management of car domains, purposes, 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 quite a lot 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 could possibly cut back total vitality demand from an EV’s battery pack by really adapting the voltage stage for high-voltage methods in actual time, relying on the circumstances (like driving model).
Its methodology, with a software-defined zonal controller, can freely shift workloads round. Tesla’s Sentry mode for car safety, for instance, runs on the in-cabin system immediately and makes use of 40 to 50 watts always, talked about Jack Weast, Intel’s VP and the overall supervisor of Intel Automotive, within the firm’s CES presentation earlier this month. However with a zonal platform it could possibly run on only a few watts, turning on the bigger system when there’s an intruder.
Or, famous Weast later, in case you’re at an extended stoplight, some features of active-safety methods may not must be powered up.
“The best way that we have a look at it’s to consider an information middle; you get all these large 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 Automotive Reviews as we took within the present.
The Karma CEO famous the parallels between the concept and one {industry} customary that began with Intel and advanced 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 entire car is one thing new.
“That is what we’ve been doing in PC platforms for 20 years,” summed Weast within the CES presentation.
It might be a welcome change at this level. At this time’s autos might be nightmares to service, not to mention assemble—primarily rats’ nests of disparate management items, positioned across the car 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 resolution might assist “a number of topologies,” as a part of a whole-vehicle structure, it claims, and it might 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 undertaking
Constructing on Tesla and Rivian, or leapfrogging it?
Business 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 based mostly on bodily location quite than particular duties, is likely one of the keys. So is shifting to software program controls for these zones and the parts 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 concept of methods that might be readily upgraded or options that is perhaps enabled through 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 yr within the 2025 Rivian R1S and R1T to consolidate an already-neat 17 ECUs down to simply seven, reducing 1.6 miles of copper wiring from the car, serving to optimize effectivity and simplifying the availability chain.
Underneath VW’s funding in Rivian, it is going to license that zonal design and permit future collaboration between the 2 corporations. The strategy might result in extra simply upgradable autos that may price much less to construct and in addition may higher deal with {hardware} adjustments over time.
Intel Adaptive Management Unit for software-defined autos
Though there’s no full manufacturing car 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 car element prices, permitting a smaller motor and battery pack—and lower-cost EV platforms total.
All this stated, it’s unclear whether or not Intel’s resolution is merely treading water amongst tomorrow’s EVs or swimming laps round them. Almost each automaker by now understands the need to simplify with a view to compete. Ford CEO Jim Farley, for example, stated in 2023 that its next-generation EVs might 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 vitality 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 vitality losses—netting a 3-5% achieve in effectivity and vary, by WLTP-cycle testing, together with quicker charging and “a extra responsive driving expertise.”
The inverter is likely one of the keys to that, and California’s Karma Automotive developed an inverter unit that’s meant to be a part of Intel’s whole-vehicle resolution. The silicon carbide inverter is Karma’s personal mental property, confirmed Marques McCammon to Inexperienced Automotive Reviews, and prone to be made in Michigan, but it surely’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 car 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 method?
It stems from an extended 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 car was going to be,” McCammon defined to GCR. “However once we thought this up, we at all times wanted somebody to go first.”
Quick ahead a decade, to a few yr in the past, and Intel had simply acquired Silicon Mobility, which McCammon stated was a turning level.
Intel Automotive EV interface
“We stated, the place can we begin? All people’s centered on the cabin, however actually vitality administration, utilization, and effectivity is within the powertrain domains.”
Karma had already been creating its personal inverter, its personal powertrain area management unit, and a chipset, McCammon defined, however Intel and Silicon Mobility delivered to the desk “added a stage of software program programmability right into a system that’s often very mounted.”
McCammon defined that Karma primarily now it has a programmable API between motor and {hardware}—one thing most different fashionable EVs don’t have. “We had been already engaged on it for our subsequent inverter, for our subsequent era merchandise,” he stated. “It was a pure match.”
“The inverter is one piece of it—this half we’re speaking about immediately— however we’re engaged on a lot, way more,” added McCammon.
