Role of Software and IT in EV Industry

The electric Vehicle market is growing rapidly. Research by Morgan Stanley shows that one billion electric cars will be on the roads by 2050.

It’s hard to imagine a modern car without embedded software. It’s even harder to imagine an electric vehicle without it. From maintaining and monitoring the battery to the user interface software is one of the most vital components of EV. EVs already have software embedded in every part, and this trend will be only greater in future EVs.

This prevalence of software and digital all over the electric vehicle opens up a wide variety of opportunities for the IT, software companies and digital solutions providers. The other automotive trends such as connected, shared and autonomous vehicles add even further diversity to these opportunities.

With the future of software in EVs looking so bright, IT & software firms with the right strategy and approach could have laid the foundations for big wins.

Source: Boston Consulting Group

Examples of EV software opportunities analysed in EVIT

• Siemens PLM Software offers simulation and testing solutions covering every aspect of electrification. Siemens is the only solution provider that offers a complete, integrated, and accurate digital twin addressing challenges for all aspects of electric vehicle engineering - from electric powertrain to electrical/electronic system architecture to vehicle engineering, controls, and embedded software. This not only enables companies to achieve a significant competitive advantage, ROI, and operational performance edge in developing electric vehicles but also empowers them to adapt and evolve in the fast-approaching era of new mobility.
• Toyota Motor Corporation established its Toyota Research Institute Advanced Development, Inc. (TRI-AD) as a research and development portal to accelerate development and deployment of automated vehicle technology for the automaker. A big part of TRI-AD's mission was to help establish Toyota as a world-class software & technology company and build the safest car in the world.
• The Volvo Group has signed an agreement with NVIDIA to jointly develop the decision making system of autonomous commercial vehicles and machines. Utilizing NVIDIA’s end-to-end artificial intelligence platform for training, simulation and in-vehicle computing, the resulting system is designed to safely handle fully autonomous driving on public roads and highways. The solution will be built on NVIDIA’s full software stack for sensor processing, perception, map localization and path planning, enabling a wide range of possible autonomous driving applications, such as freight transport, refuse and recycling collection, public transport, construction, mining, forestry and more.
• Tel Aviv-based Ottopia is pitching itself as a teleoperation platform for autonomous vehicles. While part of its offering does indeed enable the manual control of vehicles by a remote human operator, the company’s pitch is more than that — it promises a hybrid system that relies on a human operator working in tandem with the car’s AI smarts during a remote intervention. The company said that the remote assistant may provide a new waypoint to circumvent a problem, instruct the car that it’s okay to temporarily cross over road markings to get around a blockade, or help the AV choose a new path based on multiple options. And, yes, the human can take full control if the situation requires it. 
• Electriphi designs a suitable fleet operation method depending on various factors by running simulations using a software. Fleet management software refers to an application that helps business enterprises coordinate and manage work vehicles in a central information system for the smooth functioning of the entire organization. The software thus helps the enterprise to reduce costs and enhances performance according to government regulations. It uses a basic combination of Big Data Analytics and GPS to track, analyze, store information and make predictions. With the advancement of technology and User Interface design, it is becoming increasingly mobile-friendly and easy to use.
• Turntide Technologies has developed Smart motar systems which are IoT enabled. The smart motor system is an energy conservation measure. Testing by National Renewable Energy Labs certified that the Turntide Smart Motor System is the most efficient motor system in the world, maintaining high efficiency across speeds and loads. NREL determined that the Smart Motor System is generally 33% more efficient than a standard motor with VFD. 
• ROCSYS is developing a soft robotic arm and computer vision technology to enable fully automated charging of electric vehicles. This will be a convenient option for drivers of electric cars. It will also provide operators of fast-charging stations and owners of commercial fleets such as buses, trucks, and industrial vehicles to make optimal use of their assets.
• TWAICE Predictive Analytics Software platform provides battery analytics solutions across different industries to monitor, analyze and optimize the operation of Li-ion batteries. Based on deep battery knowledge, AI and Machine Learning, the TWAICE Analytics Cloud processes real-life battery data into actionable insights. TWAICE analytics results are accessible intuitively anytime from anywhere via the TWAICE UI or the TWAICE API which smoothly integrates into any battery monitoring and management solution.
• Calogy Solutions have developed thermal management solutions for batteries irrespective of battery chemistry.They have added sensor capabilities enabling in-situ measurement of parameters. This leads to a more precise monitoring of individual cells inside the battery pack, reducing thermal runaway risks and creating large data-sets for electric vehicle manufacturers. Combined with data-driven algorithms.
• Feasible EchoStat™ uses ultrasound and machine learning to rapidly and non-invasively deliver actionable information throughout the entire battery value chain. Their patented process-control and process-enabling solutions are designed to help our customers achieve best-in-class battery performance, reliability, and safety while reducing overall battery costs. 
• Astrolabe Analytics provides a software solution for battery companies and their partners that enables their clients to efficiently use their battery data to make batteries that work better, longer, and more reliably using a suite of cloud computing, data management, and machine learning techniques.
  • ETL - Automatically vacuum up data from different battery test hardware Supported to date
  • Data Management - Backup,  organize metadata, and search through active and historical tests
  • Electrochemical Analysis - Easily compare multiple  datasets across different hardware brands
• Chargetrip’s routing engine uses over fifteen different variables to calculate the real-time range of any electric vehicle. By taking into account the outside temperature, weather, charge speed, elevation, rolling resistance, real-time vehicle data, and congestion at charge stations.  The company allows EV users to build queries, mention their vehicles, find suitable charging stations etc with their API(software). Chargetrip also develops web and mobile applications for various purposes as required by the customer company.
• Otonomo provides a platform to share that data between various manufacturers while also protecting critical company and vehicle information (Cloud based data collection, processing and distribution technology). Collected data can also be distributed to various other companies from different parts of the value chain to help them build their businesses and applications based on this data.The Otonomo platform ingests automotive data from multiple sources, including OEMs and other data providers.
• Akkurate diagnoses batteries which are used in fleets or in large numbers and provides their performance, maintenance requirements and end-of-life alerts to the Fleet operator. Akkurate studies all batteries of different specifications from different manufacturers in a centralized diagnostics centre (using Software called Diagnose) all through the battery’s life and provides cell level safety and performance information. It also ensures effective battery recycling and repurposing by indicating the reusable cells/parts of the spent battery.

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Sample list of start-ups from EVIT