At a time when the very definition of a software-defined vehicle (SDV) hasn’t reached industry consensus yet, it is unsurprising that the automotive hardware and software ecosystem is highly fragmented. However, the consequence of leaving this rift unrepaired could not only be financially costly for OEMs but dangerous. In 2019, semiconductor and software design company Arm recognised that the software/hardware ecosystem would never be sufficient to comply with vehicle safety standards without harmonisation.
“When automakers switch from one company’s system on a chip (SoC) to another, they have to change fundamental aspects of their software like boot, power management, and security,” explains Suraj Gajendra, Vice President of Automotive Product and Software Solutions at Arm. “That’s not the most streamlined way to do things.” As the SDV concept evolved between 2019 and 2020, cloud-native software development and over-the-air updates also came to the fore, requiring even greater consistency between environments.
Gajendra believes the industry needs to aim for parity, cost efficiency, and portability in the auto software space. To set the wheels in motion, Arm developed a standardised firmware layer—Edge Workload Abstraction and Orchestration Layer (EWAOL)—and made this framework available for the open-source developer community. Then, in 2021, the company started gathering industry leaders together to form a consortium—Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE)—to help spread its message. “SOAFEE is working to bring the SDV idea closer to reality,” he tells Automotive World.
Targeting SDVs at scale
At the time of writing, SOAFEE has around 130 members, including General Motors, Geely, Tata Motors, AWS, Bosch, and Continental. All are bound by a commitment to three objectives, the accomplishment of which could facilitate the deployment of SDVs at scale. These are as follows: the ability to port software across different hardware platforms, consistency in the cloud and at the edge, and the development of new software before the necessary hardware becomes available. Gajendra acts as Chairperson of the SOAFEE Governing Body.
“We have several active working groups running to look at various aspects of software stack standardisation,” he says. Subjects tackled include how the safety-critical and non-safety-critical components of an application can functionally co-exist on a single platform. This is particularly important in advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous driving software, where constantly evolving road conditions will determine what functions should have priority.
“Cars are complex machines consisting of hundreds of ECUs,” Gajendra continues. “Deciding what to consolidate and how requires really in-depth industry conversations.” There are several other consortia—AUTOSAR, COVESA, Eclipse SDV—also considering various issues within the same ecosystem. In January 2024, these came together with SOAFEE to form a “collaboration of collaborations” called the SDV Alliance. “There are some overlaps, but we’re not competing; we’re generally considering different problems,” states Gajendra.
Creating synergy
For its part, SOAFEE is contributing the fundamental or “non-differentiating” compute layer to deliver a standards-based architecture for cloud-native software development. This includes “free-to-reimplement APIs” to help seed solutions in the open-source and commercial developer spaces, which in turn will lead to consistency across the cloud and automotive software edge ecosystem. By doing so, the group hopes to create a shared foundation upon which the industry can innovate and ultimately make SDVs a reality.
“Putting together a sub-system just based on hardware IP building blocks can take nine to 12 months and become very expensive. By providing EWAOL, we bring down the time-to-market for SDVs significantly,” says Gajendra. Importantly, the synergy between system safety monitoring and CPUs is also standardised, creating more reliable and complementary hardware/software interactivity. “This enables engineers to direct resources to other aspects: the things that will create brand differentiation and value for their company.”
Ultimately, he considers the SDV concept a “backdrop” for the autonomous, connected, and electric mobility technology megatrends currently blooming in the industry. At the same time, these underscore the difficulty of maintaining old ways of working in the auto software space. “Think about the evolution that’s happening and how fast things are changing. Waiting months and months for new platform developments as the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware grows is unacceptable.” From September 2024, the consortium’s next phase—dubbed ‘SOAFEE.next’—has focused on rewriting how AI-enabled SDVs scale.
The magic bullet
In order to keep pace with the latest automotive architectures, SOAFEE.next will bring together new hardware, development platforms, and validation services. “For every piece of new hardware, we’re offering a complete suite of matching virtual platforms from our partners like Cadence, Corellium, and Siemens,” explains Gajendra. Removing the need to work exclusively on physical silicon, these platforms allow software engineers to accelerate development through virtual prototyping in the cloud.
This is the magic bullet: total parity between all platforms in the vehicle and in the cloud
By combining SOAFEE software solutions with Arm’s Reference Design-1 AE hardware, Gajendra states that AI, security, safety, and virtualisation can be aligned to balance SDV functions operating at different levels of mission criticality. “This is the magic bullet: total parity between all platforms in the vehicle and in the cloud. It’s a dream situation, because all the environments are based on Arm IP, and the software doesn’t need to be reconfigured.”
Over the coming years, SOAFEE aims to create a continuous integration and continuous deployment pipeline that allows it to resolve prominent challenges raised by the SDV community. The group will showcase its solutions through ‘Blueprints’: domain-specific applications with a SOAFEE-compliant implementation and standards-based firmware and hardware. 30 such projects are currently underway, and the group is adamant that communities and an ecosystem approach will be necessary for taking automotive firmly into the SDV era.
In a 4 September press release to mark SOAFEE’s three-year anniversary, Dipti Vachani, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Automotive at Arm, reinforced this collaborative message: “No one company can solve the unique software challenges in the automotive industry alone. I firmly believe that it’s truly exceptional what we can do together, as proven by the past three years of SOAFEE. Together with all the SOAFEE members, we are dedicated to driving the transformation of the automotive industry that runs on Arm.”
