Automakers have not experienced equal success in transitioning to software-defined vehicles (SDVs). Legacy automakers have generally faced setbacks that their newer counterparts successfully evaded. This has led to some older brands reaching out to start-ups for collaboration.
However, these partnerships will not be a feasible option for all brands. For some time, strategy and consultancy firm Accenture has maintained that a fundamental shift in organisational mindsets will be crucial for everyone to succeed in their SDV ambitions. In March 2024, it launched the LearnVantage Academy, an educational platform intended to instil this message, while also building core competencies and coaching leadership.
Then, in December 2024, Accenture announced it would acquire automotive digital technologies firm AOX. According to Christof Horn, Global Head of SDV at Accenture, this will bolster the consultancy’s ability to help its clients excel across the entire software development process. “Software expertise is becoming the dominating factor in the market. The AOX team will become another pillar of the automotive technology powerhouse Accenture has been building over the past few years.”
Capacity for hire
Taking cues from the amenability of major automakers to external partnerships, AOX is intended to act as both a support player and a strategic partner in software development for Accenture. The firm’s expertise spans from ideation and architecture R&D through to maintenance and firmware updates across the entire vehicle lifecycle.
“The acquisition of AOX is another strategic move in further growing our SDV capabilities Juergen Reers, Global Automotive and Mobility Lead at Accenture, tells Automotive World. “There’s a reason for that: it’s strongly focussed on in-vehicle software architecture, model-based system engineering, providing consultancy work, and enabling the overall transformation.” By bringing AOX into its wider SDV operation, Accenture hopes to build upon its existing offerings with direct software development capacity.
While fostering ‘digital native’ mindsets and a transformational approach to automotive design—hallmarks of the LearnVantage platform—remain crucial to the wider SDV mission, these may not address the more pressing realities automakers face meeting software development deadlines. “Transitioning to software development isn’t easy. It changes not only the vehicle itself, but also its integration within the wider digital infrastructure,” says Reers.
AOX will provide automakers with software architectures and written lines of code while also bolstering Accenture’s consultancy effort. In doing so, Reers explains, automakers are empowered to continue their transition towards SDVs unabated, while still transitioning away from hardware-oriented legacy mindsets. Accenture can also plug gaps in an automaker’s current software development capacity and help it facilitate the transition. This, in turn, helps prevent increasingly common occurrences such as vehicle launch delays due to software development issues, keeping automakers on track with their product release schedules.
Frameworks for success
While AOX can undertake a range of software development and support capacities—from high-performance controllers to specific areas like in-vehicle sound—its primary expertise is in building architectures that serve as a foundation for the entire vehicle design strategy. “If you want to build a house, you need to get the architecture right at the start,” remarks Horn. In practice, this means “solid” and “seamless” processes and standard operating procedures that can be iterated throughout the vehicle’s design cycle and subsequently in maintenance.
For automakers still getting to grips with the fundamentals, Accenture can support how to deliver and iterate software. For example, in October 2024, the company released a major update of in-vehicle software—a layer that translates communications between the vehicle’s hardware components and the applications running on top – as open source, making it available for OEMs, tier ones and silicon vendors. Accenture states that this software is now running in some five to six million vehicles currently on roads. Given the demanding timelines in which automakers aim to realise their software ambitions and the relative lack of industry experience, Reers believes having third parties step in, do the work, and provide guidance on how to achieve similar results could prove highly advantageous.
Accenture and AOX make recommendations based on automakers unique SDV goals, but also offer software components and deep technical expertise. One of AOX’s particular areas of expertise is QNX and other real-time operating systems— software platforms currently gaining traction in the automotive industry and used in applications where low latency and safety are crucial. Reers notes that demand in such technologies will likely increase as automated driving continues to gain traction.
Lifecycle awareness
Another area in which AOX can assist automakers is code optimisation. This is a universal theme across all software development: the leaner the code and the better it suits the unique capabilities of the hardware on which it is running, the faster and more efficiently the resulting software will perform. “You need to understand that this is a very restricted environment in terms of memory and compute power,” Horn emphasises. Using the bulk of available processing power and memory at the outset with little consideration for optimisation will inevitably make the addition of new features and updates later in the vehicle’s lifecycle more difficult.
If you want to build a house, you need to get the architecture right at the start
He adds that the “managing” process of maintaining and iterating vehicle software and its interfaces (APIs) is currently “heavily underestimated”. If a third-party provider updates its software, this may require small tweaks to the vehicle’s operating system or other embedded software to prevent unexpected glitches. “It used to be that a car was built and then more or less left as it was, but now someone needs to take care of these interfaces for a decade.” AOX can provide guidance on how to manage these lifetime processes or take a more hands-on approach, depending on how far along an automaker is on their journey with software development.
Reers states that, ultimately, Accenture’s focus remains on higher-level strategic guidance, organisational transformation, and architecture development. While the acquisition of AOX represents a strategic addition to its SDV offerings to date, it is a single part of a wider effort to transition the automotive industry away from traditional hardware-based mindsets to a more agile and software-oriented paradigm.
“Beyond the minutiae of individual processes and lines of codes, that’s the big challenge we’re looking to address,” he concludes. “The old model of vehicle design was very successful, but it’s no longer relevant. You need to think and act like a tech company, and that means shifting towards a sprint mindset in which new features don’t come with model updates every year but continuously. That will be difficult without the right expertise on hand.”
