Jumping into my world - vehicles redefined for the modern age

The eruption in electric vehicles in the last decade has primarily been defined by the evolution of the electric powertrain. Companies like Telsa, Rivian, Lucid, Polestar, etc., have been disrupting the automotive industry with new products focused around battery powered, electric-motor based vehicles.

These cars pose their own challenges, as everyone well knows, they have limited range and take longer to refuel compared to traditional cars, but are highly efficient and arguably greener.

I want to dive deeper into the layer beneath all of the EV hype, Software Defined Vehicles. This is one of the areas where legacy automakers are well-behind and clawing their way forward. A software defined vehicle should be fully networked, over-the-air updatable, flexible, and capable. Automakers hope to make future vehicles that possess scalable hardware and software in order to reduce their long term cost structures through the elimination of tier 1 suppliers, internal ownership of key features, and reduced in-field recalls.

OEMs spend tens of billions of dollars annually on warranty payouts, driven by unreliable engineering that fails too soon within the product lifecycle. Historically, automakers have been below average investments. They have massive cost structures driven by expensive manufacturing, excessive Tier-1 and Tier-2 purchase agreements, and aggressive competition.