SODA.Auto’s kit opens up SDV development for all automakers

Players in the automotive industry have long discussed the concept of making cars like ‘smartphones on wheels’. The software-defined vehicle (SDV) solidifies this aspiration into an ideal product form, but some commentators now fear a ‘Nokia moment’. Just as that company failed to anticipate and adapt to the paradigm shift instigated by Apple’s iPhone, automakers risk falling behind in a new marked shaped by digital technology.

Sergey Malygin, Chief Executive of SODA.Auto (Software-Defined Auto), has witnessed this situation develop first-hand. After several years working in the telecom industry, he noticed the emerging opportunities in automotive software and changed career paths to follow it in 2014, “before SDVs were even an idea.” Following executive positions at Roborace and Arrival—two companies focused on software for autonomous and electric vehicles—he founded SODA.Auto in 2023. Subsequently, the company created the “world’s first ready-to-use kit” for developing an SDV from the ground up.