I recently had a fascinating exchange on LinkedIn with an investor and researcher, whom we\u2019ll call \u201cR\u201d who has been following the meteoric rise of the “Software-Defined Vehicle” (SDV) and noticed the massive deals happening between ride-hailing giants like Uber and various carmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
R’s question was one that hits the very core of the automotive identity crisis: Will hardware eventually become a generic \u201ccomputing box,\u201d or will this shift force engineers into an era of specialized chip design we\u2019ve never seen before?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n R:<\/strong> “Now that everyone is shifting toward this software defined direction, do you think this will cause automotive hardware to gradually become a more generic ‘computing box’?”\u2014 From a recent LinkedIn thread<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In my 18 years of blogging here at The Technic Alley<\/em>, I\u2019ve found that when people ask about “generic” hardware, they are often looking at the system through a lens of commoditization. But as an engineer, I see a different pattern: The Path of Absorption.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early days of any electronic system, we build with what\u2019s on the shelf\u2014standard logic chips on a PCB. It\u2019s bulky and inefficient, but it works for prototyping. As the “System” matures, that complexity is swallowed by programmable logic (FPGAs). Eventually, when the volume is high enough and the power\/performance requirements are strict enough, we bake it into an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n When “R” asks if hardware is becoming a “generic box,” my answer is rooted in this history: Hardware doesn’t become generic; it becomes invisible<\/strong>. By the time a processor appears “generic” in the industry, it simply means we have finally perfected the hardware-software handshake for that specific domain. But the frontier of innovation always moves to custom silicon to find the next 10% of efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Software might be the soul of the modern car, but the silicon is its nervous system\u2014and generic nerves can only react so fast.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Why are we so quick to assume the hardware is just a vessel? I believe we are suffering from Functional Fixedness<\/strong>. Because we see a car performing “computer tasks”\u2014running apps, navigating with AI, updating over the air\u2014we mentally categorize it as a “Computer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n We assume that because a laptop is a “generic box,” a car must be one too. But a car is a safety-critical, high-power, thermal-management nightmare. A PC doesn’t have to manage an 800V battery architecture while performing millisecond-latency emergency braking. When you ignore the physical system, you fall into the Simplification Bias<\/strong>\u2014assuming the code is the only thing doing the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I suspect the automotive market will split into two distinct tracks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, “Software-Defined” doesn’t mean hardware doesn’t matter. It means the hardware must be so good, so integrated, and so specialized that the software is finally free to do its job without friction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I recently had a fascinating exchange on LinkedIn with an investor and researcher, whom we\u2019ll call \u201cR\u201d who has been following the meteoric rise of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,53,30,40,42],"tags":[123,154,377],"class_list":["post-2612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automotive","category-engineering","category-misc-technology","category-software","category-tech","tag-cognitive-bias","tag-electric-vehicle-2","tag-software-defined-vehicle","wpcat-5-id","wpcat-53-id","wpcat-30-id","wpcat-40-id","wpcat-42-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2612"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2617,"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612\/revisions\/2617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technicalley.com\/central\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
The Historical Loop: Integration is Not De-valuation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Cognitive Trap: Functional Fixedness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Two-Track Future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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