Online car software marketplace SDVerse Get started quickly

An indication of the pace of change in the automotive industry: just 30 days after SDVerse launched the first online marketplace for automotive software, it is rapidly gaining subscribers and content.

About 300 people watched the live webcast of the launch event on September 30 and since then that number has grown to at least 1,200, according to SDVerse Chief Commercial Officer Jeff Walker, who noted, “We’ve had significant customer engagement.”

What does that mean?

“I’m monitoring the initial customer engagement and further discussions about what it will take to get on the platform,” Walker said during an interview on the sidelines of last week’s Reuters Automotive USA conference in Detroit. “Right now we have 80 people, just since the launch event I’m doing: 80 companies. These will slowly turn into commercial discussions, and they will slowly grow into memberships.”

In total, SDVerse has 14 subscribers, which Walker says is ahead of the platform’s original business plan.

The amount of software content available on the platform has also grown rapidly from 163 items to 202” and growing according to Walker.

SDVerse was founded and is financially supported by a partnership between founding partners General Motors Co. and suppliers Magna International and WiPro, aimed at bringing together automotive companies and suppliers with software providers.

According to Prashant Gulati, CEO of SDVerse, it was actually GM who first mooted the idea of ​​a digital software marketplace.

“I think they’ve evaluated a lot of approaches to solve this problem of better and different processes for a software supply chain,” Gulati explained in an interview for a previous story about SDVerse’s founding. “Eventually they landed on this concept of a marketplace.”

Revenue comes solely from memberships, with SDVerse charging no transaction fees or commissions.

Walker points out that the roles each company plays vary, with automakers and suppliers able to act as both buyers and software sellers.

“We have three people who you would traditionally consider buyers. We have Renault, we have Cummins and we have GM, but everyone in the ecosystem has also said, hey, I like some PopcornSAR, a software vendor from Korea, I like what they have to offer. Maybe I’ll work with them so they might be a buyer,” Walker explained.

That dynamic means that sometimes industry “frenemies” can work together, Walker says.

GM plans to start as a buyer but will be “active and committed” to its success as the automaker plays an important role in driving standardization,” said Kristin Toth, leader of GM’s global EV software purchasing team systems and connectivity at last month’s launch event. .

Indeed, encouraging standardization through SDVerse is a key motivation for participation, along with competition for software expertise. Toth explains, noting, “the demand for common underlying code is absolutely growing, and we need standards and shared solutions as vehicles become more and more like consumer electronics. The war for talent is undoubtedly intensifying and we believe that creating a software marketplace for embedded systems is essential.”

While GM is the largest player on the platform with a major financial stake, Walker wanted to make it very clear that he is focused on ensuring that every member is treated fairly, with GM not privy to any discussions between members.

“The fact that it’s just between them and GM has nothing to do with that,” Walker emphasized.

The growing complexity of vehicles is also driving interest in the ease of buying and selling software through SDVerse, says Joerg Grotendorst, senior vice president, corporate research and development at founder Magna.

He expects the number of lines of software code in each vehicle to grow from “hundreds of millions” today to about a billion by 2030 – a rapid pace.

The result, he noted at the launch event, is consumer expectations for faster vehicle development.

“They are taking their habits from the mobile phone industry and transferring these expectations to the car,” says Grotendorst. “SDVerse solves these problems by providing a searchable platform and encouraging comprehensive product descriptions.”

Just a month later, Walker says the software attracting the most interest falls into a few key categories: infotainment, advanced driver assistance systems, mapping, propulsion, electric vehicle management architecture and how people interact with displays.

In terms of growth, Walker sees further sophistication in electric vehicle platforms and a move toward high-performance computing, which adds processing power to zonal computing, reducing weight, cost, wiring and complexity reduced as part of high-performance computer architectures.

Although the lifespan is still only 30 days, there are plans to expand the offering on SDVerse at some point.

Software for medium-duty trucks, recreational vehicles and motorcycles are all on the table for expansion, according to Walker.

Right now, though, he’s focused on building SDVerse’s subscription list, especially with automakers, and making progress, revealing: “I don’t want to name names, but I’ll tell you there’s more than six I’m working with I am actively in discussions. At this moment, these are very well-known names for you, who are major players in the top 10 OEMs in the industry.”