General Motors is partnering with auto supplier Magna and consultancy firm Wipro Limited to launch a virtual marketplace called SDVerse for buyers and sellers of automotive software.
The new B2B platform will effectively serve as an automotive app store for automotive software developers to hock their wares to car manufacturers and other potential customers. General Motors claims SDVerse will overcome current inefficiencies in the shopping and implementation of embedded vehicle software while providing a transparent storefront that buyers and sellers can trust.
Automotive software has been a topic of frequent discussion in the car sector, in part due to the industry’s lack of experience in development, which has had a negative impact on some consumers, and in part due to the potential revenues that could be earned if the industry found ways to effectively monetize its digital offerings. Although automakers are financially incentivized to create software in-house as fast as possible, their attempts have been met with recalls and often negative reviews. General Motors is looking to overcome the gap in expertise by making it easier to connect with third-party developers.
The three companies have yet to confirm a launch date for SDVerse. However, a livestream panel discussion is scheduled for April 4th, during which representatives from General Motors, Magna, and Wipro will offer additional details.
“Automotive grade software development is rapidly transforming, and we all need to ask ourselves how we get customers really unique differentiating features faster,” stated General Motors’ Vice President of Strategic Technology Initiatives Dan Nicholson. “Part of that is identifying the common underlying code that can be shared in the name of higher quality and lower costs for our end customers.” Through SDVerse, Nicholson goes on to say that automotive software will become cheaper to make and faster to implement.
