- Might consolidate 50+ ECUs typical in new EVs to only a few
- 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 thought of the software-defined automobile is, it appears, a billion-dollar buzzword in as we speak’s auto {industry}.
Actually, 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 would possibly quantity to tens of millions of next-generation software-defined automobiles (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 far more than over-the-air updates, and that it’d make EVs not solely extra adaptive to wants but additionally extra environment friendly—with as much as a 5% acquire in EV vary and effectivity from its new software-defined format plus a extra responsive driving expertise.
Karma Kaveya
Karma to be “residing improvement prototype” for Intel structure
That format 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 integrated on the Karma Kaveya, a 1,000-hp absolutely 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 now we have the chance to be the very first producer to deploy a full ground-up true software-defined automobile structure,” stated Marques McCammon, at Intel Automotive’s CES presentation. “And we’ll try this with the Karma Kaveya; it should have the flexibility to have workloads redistributed, be up to date through the cloud, and it’ll function a platform for each Karma automobile going ahead.”
McCammon stated that the Karma EV will probably be “a residing improvement prototype for the broader {industry}, as we ally for the event, performing as a improvement associate at scale.”
Revealed at CES was Intel’s Adaptive Management Unit (ACU), which claims to consolidate the management of car domains, functions, and safety-critical features all onto one central processing chip.
Karma Kaveya idea
Extra than simply OTA updates, Intel simplifies {hardware}
Most trendy automobiles make use of quite a few separate controllers, every with their very own wiring and digital management unit (ECU), both as a part of a distributed method or a consolidated zonal method. Intel claims that with the ACU it could actually scale back total power demand from an EV’s battery pack by really adapting the voltage stage for high-voltage methods in actual time, relying on the situations (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 as we speak and makes use of 40 to 50 watts always, 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 could actually 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 have to be powered up.
“The way in which that we take a look at it’s to consider an information middle; you get all these large racks of computing however you may actually use software program to activate one rack or the opposite, transfer workloads backwards and forwards,” defined McCammon to Inexperienced Automobile Experiences as we took within the present.
The Karma CEO famous the parallels between the thought and one {industry} customary 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 entire 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 will be a welcome change at this level. Right now’s automobiles might be nightmares to service, not to mention assemble—basically rats’ nests of disparate management models, positioned across the automobile and sometimes working at completely 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 automobiles, and a few automobiles have greater than 100.
Intel’s resolution may help “a number of topologies,” as a part of a whole-vehicle structure, it claims, and it might be the subsequent step—or one of many subsequent steps—in a quiet revolution in how automobiles are conceived, constructed, and upgraded.
Intel Automotive SDV challenge
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 definitely potential to innovate. However a few of this duty has been within the fingers of automakers.
Shifting to a wiring-saving “zonal” structure, with zones primarily based on bodily location moderately than particular duties, is among 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 automobiles—and making use of the zonal method—converging on the thought of methods that might be readily upgraded or options that could be enabled through software program.
Nio, amongst others, has additionally used a zonal method. 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, reducing 1.6 miles of copper wiring from the automobile, serving to optimize effectivity and simplifying the provision chain.
Below VW’s funding in Rivian, it should license that zonal design and permit future collaboration between the 2 corporations. The method may result in extra simply upgradable automobiles 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 automobiles
Though there’s no full manufacturing automobile with Intel’s method 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 method means decrease automobile 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 the intention to compete. Ford CEO Jim Farley, as an example, stated in 2023 that its next-generation EVs will probably be “radically simplified,” with a brand new electrical structure that’s absolutely 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 method, together with an influence administration system-on-chip (SoC), helps maximize effectivity for inverters, chargers, and converters. System-wide, the method 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 among 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 Automobile Experiences, and prone to be made in Michigan, nevertheless it’s co-branded with Intel.
Intel and Karma co-branded inverter for software-defined EVs – CES 2025
By now you could be 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 automobiles and methods derived from the primary Fisker Automotive, speaking industry-altering tech in such a deep manner?
It stems from an extended partnership when he was a administration counterpart at Wind River methods—McCammon on the software program aspect, Weast on the {hardware} aspect.
“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 after we thought this up, we at all times 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 stated was a turning level.
Intel Automotive EV interface
“We stated, the place will 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 stage of software program programmability right into a system that’s often very fastened.”
McCammon defined that Karma basically now it has a programmable API between motor and {hardware}—one thing most different trendy EVs don’t have. “We had been already engaged on it for our subsequent inverter, for our subsequent technology merchandise,” he stated. “It was a pure match.”
“The inverter is one piece of it—this half we’re speaking about as we speak— however we’re engaged on a lot, far more,” added McCammon.
