Software-Defined Vehicles given official definition and unlocked as part of a £4 billion funding pledge in new APC report
In a report released by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC), the automotive industry has been provided with a definition for Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) and the key levels and components, with the industrial shift becoming a fundable UK technology frontier.
For designers, there is a funding category for innovation in technology for zero-emission vehicles and transformation.
The rise of SDVs has changed how vehicles are designed, validated, updated, and supported, and reshaped where value is created across the automotive industry. The new DRIVE35 scope will introduce key elements of an SDV as fundable areas of technology development.
DRIVE35 is part of the UK Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, which outlines its commitment to a zero-emission future, with £4 billion of grant funding available to 2035 for automotive R&D, scale-up, and transformation.
The term SDV is used to describe a vehicle where software plays a central role in controlling functions, enabling updates, personalising user experiences and supporting continuous improvement after launch.
It has been defined as a vehicle with the key characteristics of: functions delivered, controlled, and updated through software; features updated beyond Start of Production (SOP); software issues resolved remotely after vehicle release; and hardware and software becoming increasingly decoupled
The report explains how “the automotive industry is experiencing a shift in how value is created, captured, and sustained, with differentiation moving beyond purely mechanical systems towards compute, software, data, and cloud-enabled services.”
In practice, this shift changes the way that cars are designed; a greater emphasis on connected functions increases system interdependency, network traffic, and integration burden. Making architecture-first design, earlier verification and validation, software reuse, and automated delivery practices more important.
“The UK’s strongest opportunity is in the high-value enabling capabilities that help OEMs and suppliers develop, integrate, validate, and operate SDVs safely at scale. These capabilities are increasingly central to competitiveness because SDV value is not only created at vehicle launch, but through the ability to improve, assure, and update vehicles throughout their lifecycle,” said APC head of technology Dr Hadi Moztarzadeh.
DEVELOP3D readers can see the full report here and out more about DRIVE35 funding at APC.
