While autonomous driving features emerge as the primary revenue and loyalty driver across most regions, significant regional variations underscore the strategic importance of building standardized yet adaptable vehicle platforms. The Omdia 2025 Software-Defined Vehicle survey, sponsored by Sonatus, provides a comprehensive look at how different markets are approaching the SDV transformation, revealing distinct priorities and implementation timelines that will shape the global automotive landscape.
Regional Preference Patterns
The survey highlights these distinct regional preferences in drivers of customer loyalty:
China uniquely prioritizes AI-based voice assistant services (41%) over autonomous driving features (37%), reflecting their advancement in AI integration beyond ADAS into cockpit systems. Chinese manufacturers are also showing somewhat slower adoption of zonal architecture, aligning with findings by Omdia (formerly Wards Intelligence) that new Chinese players typically adopt domain architecture first before transitioning to zonal architectures, whereas most Western OEMs are moving directly to zonal architectures in their new SDV platforms.
Germany stands apart by ranking enhanced personalization capabilities (50%) and vehicle ride customization (41%) ahead of automated driving, indicating a preference for active driving experiences. German manufacturers also show delays in implementing high-speed in-vehicle networks compared to other regions, potentially reflecting their focus on perfecting existing systems before transitioning to new architectures.
Japan demonstrates the strongest preference for autonomous driving features (47%), followed by enhanced in-vehicle entertainment (36%). This aligns with Japan's aging population and urban congestion challenges, where automated driving offers significant quality-of-life improvements.
The United Kingdom shows equal preference (41%) for autonomous driving features, vehicle ride customization and enhanced in-vehicle entertainment, suggesting a balanced approach to vehicle innovation that addresses multiple consumer needs simultaneously.
North America displays balanced priorities between autonomous driving (36%), personalization (32%) and smart home/IoT integration (32%). However, North American manufacturers lag in a zonal architecture adoption timeline compared to their global counterparts.
The Three-Phase Implementation Approach
The survey also outlines a three-phase approach to SDV implementation that varies by region:
Phase 1 (2026-2027): Focuses on high-speed in-vehicle network backbones, establishing the essential infrastructure required to support increasingly complex and interconnected vehicle systems and growing data requirements. Regional variations in this phase are minimal, as this foundation is universally recognized as necessary.
Phase 2 (2028-2029): Characterized by vehicle platform standardization, creating consistent architectural frameworks across models and brands. This standardization will be followed by hardware consolidation, with systems running multiple workloads through abstraction layers, reducing component complexity while increasing computational efficiency. European manufacturers show the most variation in this phase.
Phase 3 (2030+): This marks the widespread transition to zonal architecture, when most automakers will benefit from having the most optimized Electrical/Electronic (E/E) architecture for SDV systems. North American and Chinese manufacturers show the most significant variations in this final phase.
These variations underscore the necessity for automakers to develop flexible platforms that can cater to local market expectations while preserving their core technological foundations. This challenge will shape competitive advantage in the evolving SDV landscape.
As global markets continue to diverge in their preferences and implementation approaches, manufacturers with adaptable architectures will be best positioned to capitalize on regional opportunities while maintaining economies of scale.
