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John Heinlein, CMO at Sonatus, joins Molly Boigon, Automotive News reporter, on the “Shift” podcast to discuss the new developments in open-source platforms for software-defined vehicles.

In this episode, we talk with Slate about its decision not to sell data to third parties and how the automaker's configuration page helped the company make a big decision about range. Plus, Sonatus shares information about how automakers are using data based on an industry survey.

Speaking at the ETAutoTech SDV Summit 2026, industry leaders said future revenue growth will come from connected mobility ecosystems, data-driven services and personalized customer experiences rather than vehicle hardware alone.

[Originally Published in German] Ein SDV kann bis zu 2 Terabyte fragmentierte und uneinheitliche Rohdaten pro Tag erzeugen, die für KI-Modelle nicht nutzbar sind. Eine vernünftige Datenbasis und die durchgängige Orchestrierung von Fahrzeug-, Edge- und Cloud-Daten ist entscheidender für die Verarbeitbarkeit als die Größe der KI-Modelle.

USA – At the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo, held between 4-7 May at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Sonatus Inc presented a digital platform for monitoring new vehicle development that draws on the same technology employed in its smart diagnostics system for fleet operations.

[Originally Published in German] Sonatus ebnet den Weg für das selbstoptimierende Fahrzeug der Zukunft. Durch intelligente Edge-KI verwandelt sich das Auto vom statischen System in ein lernendes, hochsicheres Software-Defined Vehicle.

For years, the limiting factor in automotive diagnostics was data — how to collect it, move it and gather enough to understand what was happening inside a vehicle.

Modern products behave less like applications and more like ecosystems. A single customer experience spans embedded controllers, cloud services, mobile apps, supplier components and real-time data pipelines.

Survey shows smart diagnostics and predictive maintenance emerging as top use cases for AI in software-defined vehicles industry, but expected monetisation yet to materialise

Fleets have the potential to save thousands of dollars per vehicle and hours of labor costs with emerging artificial intelligence tied to fleet maintenance. But how do you get beyond the “AI” buzzword into genuine operational solutions?

Smart diagnostics and predictive maintenance are now the leading AI use cases inside software-defined vehicles, cited by 34% of respondents in a global survey from Sonatus and Omdia.

Artificial intelligence is steadily making its way into commercial vehicles, but today’s deployments tend to be narrowly focused — designed to solve one pain point at a time. Fleets might use AI to improve maintenance planning, OEMs might apply it to accelerate validation, and suppliers may experiment with in-vehicle models.