SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jun 6, 2023 – Sonatus, a leading automotive software company that is accelerating the transition to software-defined vehicles (SDVs), today announced Sonatus Automator, its newest product, which enables vehicle functions to be deployed without the burden of a full software development and validation cycle. Automator is designed to enable use cases spanning prototyping, feature personalization, production testing, post-sales service and maintenance, and downstream value-added services such as fleet management and other vehicle monetization.
A component of the Sonatus Vehicle Platform, Automator follows the successful production deployment of Sonatus Collector, which provides dynamically configurable data collection. Automator extends this capability by activating functions in the vehicle to trigger features or perform tests and diagnostics. It can also take actions outside the vehicle such as invoking APIs, sending notifications, and integrating with services like home automation. Automator’s lightweight policy updates are measured in kilobytes, and can be deployed across individual vehicles or an entire fleet, reducing the frequency of complex OTA updates.
“OEMs, tier-1s, and consumers all benefit from the ability to easily and cost-efficiently extend vehicle functionality, which will be a growing requirement from vehicle software in the coming years,” says Jeff Chou, co-founder and CEO of Sonatus. “Sonatus Automator builds on our proven production experience, adding the ability to augment capabilities in vehicles throughout their lifecycle, enhancing value in countless ways.”
Automator enables innovation by many different sub-groups across OEMs, tier-1s, as well as downstream service providers:
- Product managers can rapidly prototype new features, including personalized experiences based on customer preferences.
- Production engineers can deploy vehicle-run self-test capabilities both during production and before sale to ensure strong test coverage and initial quality.
- Post-sales diagnostics engineers or dealer service technicians can deploy capabilities to detect and respond to faults, helping avoid or minimize recalls.
- Downstream service providers such as fleet managers can create value-added services without the risk of disrupting safety-critical vehicle functions.
A critical component of automation in vehicles is ensuring capabilities are only exposed to authorized users. Automator incorporates role-based access control to ensure users at different roles—ranging from those in the production process to downstream post-sales agents—are each given appropriate authority. This enables rich testing capabilities during manufacture and pre-sales, while restricting access post-sales to ensure certification and safety are not disrupted.
“Most automakers and their partners have yet to truly unlock the potential of the software-defined vehicle,” said Alex Oyler, director at SBD Automotive, a global automotive technology research and consulting firm. “Ultimately, the automakers who have the prudence to blend the right mix of silicon, software, and development tools now will be able to build and support the most differentiating mobility experiences while optimizing costs throughout the development lifecycle. Bridging data collection with intelligent automation within the vehicle represents a key near-term opportunity to empower different areas of automaker businesses to truly capitalize on the benefits of software-defined vehicles.”
Automator will be launched in production vehicles in 2024, and builds on Sonatus’ achievement in production deployment of prior technologies. This new product empowers the automotive ecosystem by providing a powerful and flexible tool to address a range of needs, while retaining their differentiation and relationship with customers. Sonatus’ proven track record of collaboration with OEMs and tier-1 suppliers can pave the way for Automator to be easily incorporated into existing software infrastructure, or to be built on top of Sonatus Foundation, providing critical fundamental capabilities to enable software-defined vehicles.
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Additional resources:
Video – Sonatus Automator overview
ABOUT SONATUS
Sonatus is accelerating vehicle software innovation and the transition towards software-defined vehicles. The diverse products comprising the Sonatus Vehicle Platform serve as the key building blocks that allow automotive companies and their ecosystem to fast forward to the future of mobility and deliver continuous improvements in costs, capabilities, reliability, and user experience over the vehicle lifespan. Sonatus’ award-winning software platform is in mass production in over 1 million vehicles from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis today and will grow to millions of cars by 2024. The company has raised more than $110 million USD with world-class automotive, technology, and venture investors including Foxconn, Hyundai Motor Group’s Kia Corporation, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC and Translink Orchestrating Future Fund, SAIC Capital, Translink Capital, UMC Capital, and Wanxiang. Sonatus is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA (Silicon Valley), with offices in Dublin, Paris, Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo. Sonatus is a trademark of Sonatus, Inc. For more information visit www.sonatus.com.