In this exclusive interview, Bao Nguyen, Director of PM Center, Smart Services at a leading OEM, shares his insights on the critical architectural decisions that shape software-defined vehicle platforms from the outset. He explores how organizations can successfully navigate the transition from legacy E/E architectures to centralized compute and zonal architectures, while balancing the cost and complexity of change. Bao also discusses the key considerations behind build-versus-buy decisions, outlining the trade-offs between developing capabilities in-house and leveraging third-party platforms and components. In addition, he examines how automotive organizations are modernizing development toolchains to enable continuous integration, large-scale simulation, AI-driven workflows, and faster development cycles.

Finally, he highlights the test automation investments delivering the greatest impact for SDV development and validation, and shares his perspective on the most critical steps in preparing your SDV platform for production launch - both technically and organizationally.