Valeo: New developments in the software-defined vehicle – and much more!

At the Valeo booth at the trade fair, there were many screens this time - and the lights of the Renault 5, which they also supplied for the original model back in 1972! The first major guest was France's President Emmanuel Macron, with whom we were practically led around the stand.

Afterwards, we went to Espace Claquesin, a former distillery, where Derek de Bono, Vice-President Software Defined Vehicle, welcomed us to the round table and delved deeper into the topic. Because, for Valeo, this is the next big "hot stuff" that is supposed to fundamentally change the automotive and supplier industry. De Bono didn't exactly express it that way, but that's certainly what he meant! 

The car is software on wheels

In fact, he believes the car must be reimagined as software on wheels. With which you can also extend its lifespan and develop new business models. We need to move away from developing a car - which is always extremely expensive - and then selling it over the years to recoup those costs and then make a profit. The current problem: customers are no longer fully complying with the newer higher new car prices, and software is rapidly evolving, meaning solutions must be found to reduce development costs or maintain revenue from additional features longer.

Advantage of SDV: you only pay for what you need. Disadvantage: There's a lot on board that you can't use

Especially since with the SDV, you have far more possibilities to adapt the car to the desired circumstances: Already today, you can have the rear axle steering at Mercedes-Benz "unlocked" from four to ten degrees of lock, but those who don't need it don't have to pay for it. The annoying thing from a customer's perspective is: today, you get cars that can do far more than you receive - but you can only use it for an extra charge, which, sorry, triggers a bit of a feeling of being fooled, because: The beautiful expensive features are already all on board, but you are not allowed to use them... and since we're nitpicking: Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important! The problem is: if you don't constantly update your car, one day the KGB might control it, or it might not drive at all, even though the hardware is fully intact! And: all this costs and brings customers into new payment dependencies...

No one pays for cybersecurity

The problem of the automotive industry: according to de Bono, it must be given similar to a phone, so it remains a matter for car manufacturers: "No one pays for a security patch!" he knows the reality. He's right, but we don't want to follow de Bono's views without reservation everywhere. And what if you need more computing power later? Valeo also has a solution for that: The new control units are modular and can be expanded with a second stack.

In general, safety: this is demonstrated to us by his colleague Hisham al Saeed, who shows us various hardware boxes, which he doesn't want photographed in detail. It so happens that after a few years, you unfortunately can't simply swap the chip and replace it with a newer, stronger one. That's why Valeo created the option to add a new "brain." This intelligently cooperates with the "old" central computer: both serve as mutual backups and share the tasks according to computational demand, ideally so that neither runs in "overload." Then al Saeed disconnects a computer, and the dashboard goes black except for the emergency displays. It takes about two to three seconds for the second computer to notice the failure, take over the failed tasks, and resume! There is also the option to simply replace a defective cartridge if necessary.