This flexible data collection approach supports quicker issue resolution and richer performance insights, easing the management of increasingly complex vehicle systems and speeding up development.

OEMs will be able to run and continuously improve functions like steering, braking, and energy management directly on control units, with new features deployable over the vehicle lifecycle without hardware changes.

Sonatus’ technology is already in over eight million vehicles and includes real-time data collection (Collector AI) and on-vehicle AI model deployment and lifecycle management (AI Director).

Schaeffler brings cross-domain control units and system integration expertise across powertrain, energy, chassis, and body domains to support centralized and zonal SDV architectures.

The partnership is framed as a step toward turning static control units into dynamic, intelligence-driven systems capable of continuous learning and adaptation.

The collaboration aims to cut OEMs’ integration and validation efforts by providing a pre-integrated software infrastructure on central control units, accelerating time to market and software centralization.

Flexible data collection enables faster issue resolution and deeper insights into vehicle performance, helping OEMs manage rising system complexity and accelerate development cycles.

A key benefit for OEMs is running and refining steering, braking, and energy management on the control unit, with lifecycle deployments that avoid hardware changes.

The joint solution supports a shift from distributed to centralized electrical/electronic architectures, enabling central control units with dynamic, intelligence-driven capabilities.

Schaeffler and Sonatus have formed a global partnership to bring Edge AI into motion control for software-defined vehicles, integrating Sonatus AI software with Schaeffler control units to enable intelligence at the vehicle edge and speed up development.

The collaboration reduces OEM integration and validation workload for centralized architectures and enables function updates on the control unit throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle.

Notes suggest the partnership could shorten time-to-market for next-generation vehicle architectures by streamlining integration and validation.