Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. have entered into a joint development agreement to standardize electronic control units (ECUs) and software for next-generation software-defined vehicles (SDVs).
The companies plan to jointly develop common specifications for multiple core ECUs within their next-generation electrical/electronic (E/E) architectures. The work will also cover the in-vehicle operating system, middleware, and vehicle-control software that run on those ECUs.
Honda’s ASIMO OS and software-defined vehicle architecture. (Image: Honda)
The jointly developed E/E architecture is expected to be introduced in next-generation Nissan and Honda SDVs beginning in fiscal 2029.
The agreement builds on previous collaboration between the automakers in software and vehicle electrification. Nissan and Honda began joint research into fundamental technologies for next-generation SDV platforms in 2024.
The core ECUs covered by the agreement include high-performance computing units that use systems-on-chip (SoCs), as well as zonal ECUs responsible for individual areas of the vehicle.
Nissan and Honda said standardizing the underlying hardware and software is intended to shorten development cycles, improve development efficiency, and reduce costs through greater economies of scale.
Filed Under: Software, Technology News