After years of doing its best imitation of a non-legacy manufacturer, Ford made a big splash last fall when it announced a new, “software-defined vehicle” platform aimed at bringing affordable EVs to the U.S. market. But if the current (now discontinued) F-150 Lightning and Mach-E aren’t software-defined EVs, then what are they? And just what constitutes a true “software-defined” vehicle?
In broad strokes, a software-defined vehicle is exactly what it sounds like. If a car’s features are effectively digital, rather than requiring physical hardware, it fits the bill. It’s a tantalizing notion for automakers, whose traditional production costs balloon as feature offerings become more diverse. In the ideal software-defined vehicle, virtually every car rolls off the line with the same equipment; software is what decides which features are enabled or not.
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