New Sonatus platform helps OEMs use AI to transform driving and ownership experiences with greater efficiency and lower costs.

Sonatus, a leading supplier of AI and software-defined vehicle (SDV) solutions, today announced Sonatus AI Director, a game-changing platform that enables OEMs to deploy AI at the vehicle edge. Automotive AI is growing rapidly, projected to reach a market size of $46B annually by 2034*, and in-vehicle edge AI software and services will be an increasingly important component. To meet this demand, Sonatus AI Director provides OEMs and suppliers with an end-to-end toolchain for model training, validation, optimization, and deployment, while seamlessly integrating with vehicle data, executing models in isolated environments, and providing cloud-based remote monitoring of model performance. As a comprehensive toolchain and in-vehicle runtime environment, Sonatus AI Director lowers the barriers to edge AI adoption and innovation compared to today’s siloed approach using disparate ML development (MLops) tools, reducing effort from months to weeks or days.

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Sonatus Director: In-Vehicle Edge AI

OEMs are always seeking innovative ways to deliver customer value across passenger and commercial vehicles throughout their lifecycle. In-vehicle edge AI, fueled by real-time and contextual vehicle data, allows OEMs to unlock new features and capabilities that enable adaptive and personalized driving experiences, proactive maintenance, improved efficiency, and optimal vehicle performance. Instead of relying solely on cloud-based models, Sonatus AI Director lets vehicle manufacturers run AI directly in the vehicle, providing faster response, reducing data upload costs, preserving data and algorithm privacy, and ensuring continuity across intermittent connectivity. Rather than waiting for next-generation ECU hardware, OEMs can use Sonatus AI Director to maximize the value of their existing compute resources, accelerating time-to-market while also providing a path to scale AI performance as new silicon becomes available. Sonatus AI Director supports a range of model types, including physics- and neural network-based models, as well as Small and Large Language Models (SLMs/LLMs), catering to diverse vehicle use cases.

Sonatus AI Director solves key challenges the industry faces in deploying in-vehicle edge AI:

• Vehicle manufacturers (OEMs) gain a consistent framework that enables them to deploy models from different vendors with a single platform and across vehicle models.
• Tier-1 suppliers can optimize the systems they deliver to OEMs and more easily leverage AI across hardware and software technologies.
• Silicon providers can help their customers take full advantage of the compute and AI acceleration capabilities their chips offer.
• Suppliers and AI model vendors gain access to the needed input data from across different subsystems while protecting the intellectual property of their models.

“Artificial intelligence is creating opportunities for new ideas that were never before possible in vehicles,” said Jeff Chou, CEO and co-founder of Sonatus. “With Sonatus AI Director, we are empowering OEMs to deploy AI algorithms of all types into vehicles easily and efficiently, unlocking new categories and opening up an ecosystem of innovation that connects cloud, silicon, Tier-1 suppliers, and AI model developers.”

Using Sonatus AI Director, an OEM can easily manage and deploy a diverse set of AI models spanning many vehicle subsystems, realizing benefits that include cost, performance, security, and efficiency improvements. Initial launch partners include leading automotive silicon provider NXP, compute IP leader Arm, cloud service provider leader AWS, and a range of subsystem expert model providers: COMPREDICT, Qnovo, Smart Eye, and VicOne. The model vendor launch partners have seen these benefits in their respective use cases:

• COMPREDICT AI-based Virtual Headlight Leveling Sensor reduces bill of materials (BOM) cost by up to $20 per vehicle by eliminating hardware components. COMPREDICT’s solution empowers OEMs to achieve full 2027 UN R48 compliance with a 100% software approach. The solution is part of COMPREDICT’s broader portfolio of embedded Virtual Sensors for the chassis and powertrain domains, enabling OEMs to reduce costs at scale, boost aftersales revenue, and unlock software-defined sensing easily across vehicle platforms.
• Qnovo Health & Safety Diagnostics (HSD) delivers 98.7% accurate battery fault prediction through multi-metric diagnostics. Integrated with Sonatus’s platform, AI-powered HSD enables deployment anywhere in the vehicle or cloud in a matter of days, creating a battery management solution that adapts to specific vehicles, drivers, and environmental conditions.
• SmartEye cabin monitoring systems can detect distracted drivers with very high accuracy. OEMs apply fixed rules to these detections to determine when to play in-vehicle alerts. With Sonatus AI Director, OEMs can more easily customize these alerts based on holistic driver behavior by combining distraction model outputs with data from other vehicle subsystems.
• VicOne xCarbon Edge AI, a GenAI-based in-vehicle intrusion detection system, enhances threat detection coverage from a single ECU to the entire vehicle. By sending only critical security events to the cloud, it can reduce data transfer and cloud processing costs by up to 60%. With dynamic model scheduling and various in-vehicle data collected by Sonatus AI Director, the system can accurately infer security risks and run compute-intensive AI models even on deployed hardware.
• Sonatus is demonstrating an engine anomaly detection model that can help vehicle engineers find suspicious timestamps without sifting through vast amounts of data while saving associated data upload costs by more than 6X when compared with running the model in the cloud.

“The evolving technology and competitive landscape are compelling automakers to transition towards software-defined vehicles and make greater use of AI to improve their business,” said Alex Oyler, consulting director at global automotive research firm SBD Automotive. “Innovative tools like Sonatus AI Director can expand the use of in-vehicle AI to deliver adaptive, intelligent, and compelling driving experiences that ensure OEMs stay ahead of global competition.”

Successful in-vehicle edge AI is enabled by the capabilities of software-defined vehicles. Sonatus has a proven track record of delivering key SDV building blocks covering everything from the cloud to the vehicle edge, including on-demand access to precise vehicle data, a critical foundational element in this new innovation. Existing products, such as Sonatus Collector AI and Sonatus Automator AI, can complement Sonatus AI Director; the combination further extends the capabilities of each. Similarly, models managed by Sonatus AI Director can enhance the capabilities of Sonatus AI Technician, such as building in detectors for various types of anomalies that may assist with vehicle diagnostics.

Sonatus will demonstrate Sonatus AI Director publicly for the first time at the IAA Mobility conference in Munich, Germany, September 8-12, 2025. For more details, visit the Sonatus AI Director web page or the solution brief “Deliver In-Vehicle Edge AI at Scale” that includes more details about representative use cases.

* Source: Precedence Research, Automotive Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market Size and Forecast 2025 to 2034

Launch Partners

Arm

“As vehicles become increasingly defined by AI, we’re seeing demand for intelligent processing at the edge,” said Suraj Gajendra, VP of product solutions and software, Automotive Business at Arm. “The new Sonatus AI Director is a powerful example of how Arm is enabling edge AI today by combining Sonatus’s dynamic software architecture with the performance and efficiency of Arm-based platforms – like the new Arm Zena Compute Subsystems – to deliver the next generation of automotive intelligence and real-time decision making.”

AWS

Launch partner AWS provides seamless integration with Sonatus AI Director. This powerful combination enables users to collect vehicle data through Sonatus Collector AI, seamlessly transfer the telemetry to AWS SageMaker Unified Studio for advanced data preparation and model training, then effortlessly deliver to Sonatus AI Director for final optimization and policy integration into production-ready vehicle model bundles. This unified workflow dramatically accelerates the entire model development lifecycle from data collection to deployment.

COMPREDICT

“At COMPREDICT, we are redefining how software can replace physical vehicle components. Integrating our AI-driven Virtual Headlight Leveling Sensor with the Sonatus AI Director platform enables us to reach OEMs more quickly, scale our models while safeguarding our intellectual property, and optimize performance across various ECUs — all while delivering OEMs up to $20 in bill of materials cost savings per vehicle,” said Stefan Hassels, Head of Product at COMPREDICT.

A jointly developed case study on the benefits of Sonatus AI Director and COMPREDICT virtual sensor technology is available at https://www.sonatus.com/resources/ai-director-partner-case-study-compredict/

NXP® Semiconductors

“Sonatus AI Director aligns perfectly with NXP's commitment to delivering scalable, safe, and secure system solutions for SDVs. Leveraging the platform helps us to offer our customers faster integration, enhanced data access, and an edge AI infrastructure,” said Robert Moran, VP and GM Automotive Processors at NXP. “Sonatus AI Director, pre-integrated with NXP eIQ® Auto ML software and tailored for NXP silicon, brings an automotive-grade AI deployment framework to our customers, helping accelerate the innovation cycle. This collaboration aims to shorten development time, streamline deployment and improve data monitoring, taking another step forward in our commitment to making AI-enabled SDVs a reality."

A jointly developed case study on the benefits of Sonatus AI Director and NXP technologies is available at https://www.sonatus.com/resources/ai-director-partner-case-study-nxp/

Qnovo

"Our partnership with Sonatus transforms how quickly OEMs can deploy advanced battery safety solutions, reducing integration time to days," said Nadim Maluf, CEO of Qnovo. "Our AI-enhanced Health and Safety Diagnostics can now be deployed anywhere in the vehicle or cloud, adapting to specific drivers and environmental conditions to deliver smarter, safer battery management with dramatically faster time-to-market."

A jointly developed case study on the benefits of Sonatus AI Director and Qnovo technology is available at https://www.sonatus.com/resources/ai-director-partner-case-study-qnovo/

Smart Eye

“By integrating Smart Eye’s highly accurate Cabin Monitoring System with Sonatus AI Director, we’re giving OEMs the flexibility to go beyond fixed rules and tailor in-vehicle alerts to real-world driver behavior,” said Martin Krantz, CEO of Smart Eye. “Combining our distraction detection capabilities with data from across the vehicle makes it possible to deliver safety interventions that are both more intelligent and more responsive to each driving situation.”

VicOne

“As software-defined vehicles become increasingly complex, cybersecurity must move closer to the edge,” said Max Cheng, Chief Executive Officer of VicOne. “By combining our xCarbon Edge AI with Sonatus AI Director’s dynamic model scheduling and data access, we’re embedding Vehicle Security Operations Center (VSOC) intelligence directly into the vehicle. This joint innovation enables OEMs and Tier-1s to minimize cloud dependency, improve data access, and accelerate their response to emerging cyber threats across connected fleets.”

A jointly developed case study on the benefits of Sonatus AI Director and VicOne cybersecurity technology is available at https://www.sonatus.com/resources/ai-director-partner-case-study-vicone/

About Sonatus

Sonatus is a vehicle software company that is accelerating the transition towards AI-enabled software-defined vehicles. The diverse products comprising the Sonatus Vehicle Platform serve as key building blocks that allow automotive companies and their ecosystem to fast forward to the future of mobility and deliver continuous improvements in cost, capabilities, reliability, and user experience over the vehicle lifespan. The award-winning Sonatus software platform is in mass production in over 5 million vehicles from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. Sonatus is privately-held with world-class automotive, technology, and venture investors, including Foxconn, Hyundai Motor Group’s Kia Corporation, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC and Translink Orchestrating Future Fund, SAIC Capital, Translink Capital, UMC Capital, and Wanxiang. Sonatus worldwide headquarters is in Sunnyvale, CA (Silicon Valley), with regional headquarters in Dublin, and offices in Bangalore, Detroit, Frankfurt, Kraków, Paris, Pune, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo. For more information, visit www.sonatus.com.

Sonatus and the Sonatus logo are trademarks of Sonatus, Inc. that are registered in the United States and are registered or pending in other countries. © 2025 Sonatus, Inc.

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