Subaru plans to launch software-defined vehicles in the second half of this decade, the Japanese automaker said at a development strategy briefing on Sunday, Oct. 18, at its research center in Sano, north of Tokyo, Reuters reported.
The vehicles will get over-the-air updates for driver-assistance, automated-driving and vehicle performance functions. To support them, Subaru will gradually roll out a newly developed integrated electronic control unit across its lineup.
At the core of that ECU is a chip Subaru co-developed with Advanced Micro Devices. The company plans to standardize the electronic platform across its electric, hybrid and gasoline-powered models. According to Nikkei, the unit combines Subaru’s EyeSight driver-assistance system with the controls that manage vehicle movement.
Managing executive officer Eiji Shibata said the goal is ease of use, not a showcase of features. “We want to make SDVs convenient to use, rather than pack them with extremely advanced features,” he said, according to Jiji Press via Nippon.com. Shibata said Subaru wants to offer the vehicle at an affordable price to drive wider adoption, and the company aims to hold down costs by optimizing the system’s functions.
Faster development
Subaru also wants to cut vehicle development time by about 40% so it can launch models faster. It plans to lean on digital simulations in prototyping and to run design, testing and production preparation in parallel instead of one after another. Nikkei reported that on a technology test vehicle for Subaru’s next in-house EV, digital-first development cut a stage that used to take two years down to one.
Subaru has no plans at present to adopt Toyota’s Arene software platform, even though Toyota owns 21% of the company. Toyota said on Friday, Oct. 16, that it expects Arene to be deployed in 10 million new vehicles a year by 2030 and in alliance partners’ vehicles by 2035.