The SDV Sector Brief — week of August 31, 2026

Top stories

Volkswagen will concentrate platforms, architectures and software into two hemispheres The group’s supervisory board approved a plan that harmonizes platforms, electronic architectures, driver assistance and software into one set for the Western hemisphere and one for the Eastern. Why it matters: Volkswagen already builds a separate electronic architecture for China, and formalizing that division across platforms, driver assistance and software is what decides which side of the world its suppliers are asked to deliver to.

Nissan and Honda signed a deal to standardize core ECUs and vehicle OS for 2029 cars The two carmakers will share the high-performance and zone controllers of their next-generation vehicles, along with the operating system, middleware and vehicle control software running on them. Why it matters: Two of Japan’s largest carmakers agreeing on common controllers, an operating system and middleware concedes what the cost curves have implied for years, that no mid-size manufacturer can carry a full vehicle-software platform alone.

NVIDIA put $3.5 billion into MediaTek and named vehicle platforms in the wider deal The two companies widened a long-running collaboration to cover AI infrastructure, PC silicon and automotive, with NVIDIA buying MediaTek convertible bonds. Why it matters: Cockpit silicon has been a market NVIDIA left to others while it sold driving compute, and a capital tie to the leading cockpit supplier changes who is competing with whom inside the car.

Changan won approval to raise 5.27 billion yuan, 1.5 billion of it for vehicle software China’s securities regulator registered Changan’s share placement on Monday, and the prospectus filed the same day itemized a digital-intelligence platform project whose largest cost line is rented computing capacity and labeled driving data. Why it matters: The filing puts a public number on what Changan budgets to build a driving stack, and most of it is rented compute and labeled data rather than engineers.

Bosch details central vehicle computers and SOVD diagnostics for software-defined trucks The supplier’s IAA Transportation portfolio put cockpit and vehicle integration platforms, over-the-air-capable computers and an ETAS diagnostic stack built on ASAM SOVD at the center of its commercial-vehicle software case. Why it matters: Bosch has put its commercial-vehicle software case on two open industry efforts rather than a proprietary stack, which makes Eclipse S-CORE and ASAM SOVD load-bearing for a supplier that sells into most of the European truck industry.

In brief

China published its draft traffic law, adding data-security duties for autonomous vehicles — the explanation published with the draft, made on the State Council’s behalf, would require makers and importers of autonomous vehicles to guarantee network and data security
China’s new size standard exempts radar, cameras and V2X antennas from vehicle limits — radar, cameras and V2X antennas carved out of the mandatory limits that decide where perception hardware can sit
NHTSA gave the industry another month to comment on its AV exemption framework — comment on the framework guidance and the rewritten Part 555 exemption rule now runs to September 30
Japan delayed its mandatory cybersecurity and software-update rules for existing models — the September 1 application date moved to November 1 for models already in production, after earthquake damage left ordered cars unbuilt
Euro NCAP marks down screen-only driving controls in second 2026-protocol batch — four models scored on assisted-driving software, driver monitoring and the design of the cabin controls
Knorr-Bremse put an ISO 24089-certified software update system into series production — a certified update-management system already in series production, alongside an open update hub built with Cojali
ZF sets out its software-defined truck roadmap around updates, diagnostics and a data link — secure update management, diagnostics and a high-speed truck-trailer connection named as the building blocks
Marelli and Microchip sent central-computer video to displays over an open standard — graphics and video from the central computer to displays over an open standard rather than a proprietary link
Nexteer said its steer-by-wire system was the first certified to ASIL D in production — two program launches disclosed in the interim report, one of them claimed as the first full system certified to the highest safety integrity level
Wayve and Uber began supervised autonomous rides in London — the first autonomous ride-hailing service offered in the United Kingdom, with a licensed driver on board
Applied Intuition’s Self-Driving System won a national truck program in Saudi Arabia — thousands of autonomous trucks on Saudi logistics corridors by 2030, running the software company’s own driving stack
Horizon Robotics passed 15 million driver-assistance chips, 5 million in a year — five years to the first ten million Journey chips and twelve months to the next five
Horizon Robotics’ licensing revenue overtook chip sales in the first half — licence and service income back ahead of chip and module revenue, as it was in every year but one
Momenta reported 76% revenue growth in its first results as a listed company — 62 percent of first-half revenue from engineering contracts and the rest from per-vehicle licence fees
Neusoft’s automotive revenue fell 14.7% as it picked Qualcomm for its next cockpit ECU — the domestic business shrinking while overseas revenue grew, with Snapdragon Ride Flex named for the next cockpit domain controller
BYD cut R&D spending 6.5% while merging cabin, drive and power onto one central brain — a 6.5 percent fall in research spending recorded in the same document as a consolidation of cockpit, driving and electric-drive computing
Black Sesame’s revenue rose 81% as its cockpit-driving chip entered mass production — 458.5 million yuan of first-half revenue against development spending of nearly twice that
Ambarella posted a record edge-AI quarter on its 5nm CV75 and CV72 vision chips — a record edge-AI quarter put on the public record without a single automotive figure in it
Minieye signed a 240 million yuan capital increase with Horizon among the investors — a Horizon Robotics subsidiary among seven investors, and the venture’s spending mandate written into the contract rather than left to its board
Foryou’s board cleared the way for a shareholder vote on a state takeover — 28.30 percent of a cockpit-electronics supplier heading to a municipal state owner, subject to a September 21 shareholder vote
Changan nominated Baidu’s former intelligent driving chief as an independent director — the former head of Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group put forward for the board of the carmaker now funding its own driving stack
FPT to take over Nippon Seiki’s Gdansk software unit and its roughly 50 engineers — a newly formed Polish entity, roughly 50 engineers, and a transfer that takes effect on October 2
Volvo Cars will close the Stockholm office it opened for software and AI work — around 450 employees at a site the carmaker opened to reach talent it could not hire at home, closing March 1, 2027
Micware split its automotive software group around an SDV platform, effective September 1 — infotainment, driver assistance, connected services and quality assurance gathered under one platform business from September 1
JiYue told owners that cracking a head unit may break China’s cybersecurity law — owners of a collapsed carmaker’s cars going to a grey market for the updates nobody ships any more
NTT and an insurer will grade an automated shuttle against telematics fleet data — an automated shuttle’s own driving data checked against an insurer’s telematics record

New on the job

Kenta Imaida becomes chief technology officer of Micware Automotive on September 1, moving from the presidency of Micware Navigations, which is renamed on the same day. Our report
Masahide Shigeno becomes chief executive of Micware Spacia, the name Micware Navigations takes on the same date as the group’s location-information business. Our report
Li Zhenyu has been nominated as an independent director of Changan Automobile, after leading Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group and now chairing an embodied-AI startup. The nomination goes to the carmaker’s next board. Our report

Jobs

Roles where vehicle software is the work, picked by us from employers’ own postings. The listings are free, we have no relationship with the employers and no money changes hands. Postings close without notice — every link below was open on the morning this brief was published.

Embedded Software Engineer – ADAS Functions Realization for Driving — Bosch, Cluj-Napoca
Embedded Automotive Platforms Software Engineer — Wayve, London
Senior Software Developer, Vehicle Applications Software — Sonatus, Dublin
Senior, Product Cybersecurity Architect — Torc Robotics, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Staff Embedded Software Engineer - ADAS/AD — Lucid Motors, Newark, California
Functional Safety Engineer, Software — Kodiak, Mountain View, California
Autonomy Release Engineer II — May Mobility, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Autonomous Driving System Safety Lead — Nuro, Mountain View, California
Senior C++ Software Engineer, Cloud Apps (Embedded) — Motional, Singapore

Upcoming events

IAA Transportation 2026 — September 15-20, 2026, Hanover
The Autonomous — September 23-24, 2026, Vienna
Automotive Grade Linux All Member Meeting Europe — September 30 to October 1, 2026, Berlin
Auto-ISAC Annual Automotive Cybersecurity Summit — October 6-9, 2026, Novi, Michigan
Open Source Summit Europe — October 7-9, 2026, Prague
ELIV — Electronics In Vehicles — October 14-15, 2026, Baden-Baden

About this brief

Every Monday the week just past is published here as a briefing. Once a month the same material goes out by email as The SDV Sector Brief — first Tuesday, 08:30 CET. Press-room items, when included, are labeled as non-editorial content. Subscribe · Editorial policy