Smart Vehicle Architecture™

Revolution in design and implementation
SVA™ reduces complexity as it enables scalable solutions and the transition to software-defined vehicles.

Sustainable Architecture

Reducing total cost of ownership while creating an open platform for innovation

Aptiv's Smart Vehicle ArchitectureTM (SVATM) is a vehicle-level design philosophy and concept for electrical and electronic systems that lowers total cost of ownership and enables feature-rich, highly automated vehicles.

Reduce complexity
Reduce complexity and interdependencies among the many different ECUs
Unite diverse applications
Unite applications to unlock new
software-enabled functionality
Empower our customers
Empower our customers to fully control the software that defines the user experience of their vehicles — something they know best

We accomplish these goals via a standard-based approach to interfaces, which improves reuse
and creates an open platform for innovation.

SVA™ Design Philosophy

Three key fundamental elements differentiate SVA™ from today’s architectures

Abstract Software from Hardware

Abstract Software from Hardware

SEPARATE I/O from Compute
SEPARATE I/O from Compute

SEPARATE I/O from Compute

Enable Serverization of Compute

ENABLE Serverization of Compute

SVA™ Becoming Reality

Our experts show off the latest technology advancements bringing Aptiv's Smart Vehicle Architecture™ to life.

Zone Controllers

By separating I/O from compute, Aptiv zone controllers deliver one of the key benefits of SVA. Instead of each sensor and actuator running data lines to an active safety domain controller, the zone controller aggregates the data onto a single high-speed interface.

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Central Vehicle Controller

Central Vehicle Controller

As OEMs build the brain and nervous system that Aptiv’s SVA™ comprises, they should not underestimate the crucial role of the CVC — the little brain that not only enables higher functions of software-defined vehicles but also quietly keeps everything moving smoothly.

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Advanced Software Development

Aptiv’s SVA™ helps the automotive industry evolve toward the software-defined vehicle, in which more features and functions are primarily enabled through software that can be updated quickly and easily. Ensuring that developers have superior tools, processes and structures to create, test and update that software efficiently is a top priority for the entire industry.

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Central Vehicle Controller

Bringing It All Together

SVA's holistic approach encompasses the electrical/electronic architecture for the entire vehicle.
It includes the hardware, software and sensors, as well as the power and data distribution throughout.

Video Series – Turning Point

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Reducing Cost of Ownership

SVA™ lowers total cost of ownership on a like-for-like basis over the life of the platform

SVA™ massively accelerates time to market by enabling software to be developed completely independent of the underlying hardware, with these benefits:

  • Defining the hardware class of the architecture, allows us to offer the software “guaranteed performance levels."
  • Breaking apart monolithic solutions into modular pieces of functionality means testing and validation get easier, quicker and less risky.
  • Enabling over the air updates allows functionality to be delivered when it is stable and mature, even after the vehicle has left the factory.
  • Making the same software going into newly manufactured vehicles available to those already in the field significantly reduces software-related warranty costs and eliminates the need for model-year updates.
  • Up-integrating distributed ECUs into a consolidated set of domain controllers means compute power is maintained or increased, but the excess baggage of multiple micro-controllers, power supplies, housings and copper is discarded, while greatly simplifying physical complexity.
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SEPARATE I/O from Compute
SEPARATE I/O from Compute

Starting With a Clean Sheet

Incremental Approach to Architecture No Longer Viable

Consumer expectations around the safe, green and connected megatrends are demanding new features which are increasingly delivered through software. This increase in software brings with it more advanced sensing and compute platforms to power it. All of this is putting tremendous strain on the classical approach to vehicle architectures. Up to 100+ controllers with many different variants, over 200 million lines of code, and thousands of functions interdependent on multiple controllers – the incremental, monolithic approach to delivering features and functions is driving unmanageable complexity in all phases of the vehicle lifecycle and is crippling the industry’s ability to innovate. There are challenges in all three phases of the vehicle lifecycle:

  • Development: Speed to market is critical to competitiveness, but complexity means that development times are getting longer, not shorter. A monolithic approach to solutions limits reuse and makes any engineering changes difficult.
  • Manufacturing & assembly: Components are unwieldy and do not lend themselves to automation. Further, the vehicle is physically out of space, limiting the ability to add the sensors and compute that new software-enabled features are demanding.
  • Post Production: A “feature complete” approach does not keep pace with consumer expectations for features that evolve and remain fresh over the lifecycle of the vehicles. 

Manufacturers have innovated on what a car can do without really changing the way it is made. All of this means wasted time and money, and that is why Aptiv created Smart Vehicle Architecture™.

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Brain and Nervous System

Aptiv's Smart Vehicle Architecture™ approach powers Aptiv’s mission to deliver safe, green and connected solutions through a full portfolio of advanced technologies, leveraging our unique position with the integrated vehicle brain and nervous system to address our customers’ toughest challenges. Get details on how Aptiv can help OEMs reduce vehicle electrical and electronic complexity today.

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