Smart car advantages are varied, including improved safety, efficiency and user experience for the driver, as the integration of software and connectivity – core pillars propping up the smart car – have enhanced features in the car, from infotainment systems and graphics to increasingly sophisticated voice assistants and real-time traffic routing and navigation (to name a few features).
What defines a smart car has evolved over the years. Today, a smart car can be regarded as a vehicle incorporating advanced electronics, embedded systems, connectivity and software. Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) are signifying a monumental shift in the automotive industry; an industry that has historically been slow moving and known for slower development cycles.
SDVs are being tackled by companies ranging from Arm to Intel, as these semiconductor and technology companies are recognising opportunities in this burgeoning market. Intel, for example, spoke about a software-defined future at CES 2025 following the launch of its Arc B series graphics for large-language models, an adaptive control unit and a zonal controller. Jack Weast, Vice President and General Manager of Intel Automotive positioned SDVs as representing a significant opportunity to shape up an automotive market he characterised as having “fierce” competition, and “elusive profits”.
And Arm recently launched its Zena CSS platform, a compute system designed to reduce time to market in software development for OEMs, Tier 1s and silicon providers.
Connectivity in the smart car
Besides software, connectivity is another key component propping up what makes a smart car. Like in many other industries, connectivity is the foundation of the interactions that happen in the vehicle. Without connectivity, cars don’t receive over-the-air updates for firmware and infotainment systems; drivers can’t connect their smartphones for navigation, media and messaging purposes; and the car won’t be able to display live weather, news, and traffic updates.
Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication represents how the industry is understanding connectivity in the car; where information on speed of the car, its position, and hazard warnings – such as braked cars or pedestrians – are shared.
The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), a cross-industry organisation driving forward standardised protocols for connected vehicles, provided a glimpse of what the smart car – the connected car – could look like in the near future, such as a use case where two vehicles at an intersection were able to share data, one car informing the other about a pedestrian crossing so it could adapt its behaviour accordingly.
The technologies supporting smart car advantages include hardware such as electronic control units (ECUs) which manage braking and steering, as well as infotainment and connectivity; onboard sensors comprising a combination of cameras, radar, and LiDAR; embedded modems and short-range transceivers and connectivity; and software such as compute platforms and software stacks.
The development and convergence of these technologies into the vehicle are creating the smart car of the future; one that is just as capable of communicating with other vehicles to inform cars of potential hazards as it is allowing the driver to plot a route using their voice alone.
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