Schaeffler And ThunderSoft Further Develop Multi-Domain Computing Platforms

E/E Architectures Schaeffler And ThunderSoft Further Develop Multi-Domain Computing Platforms

2026-05-12 From Stefanie Eckardt 1 min Reading Time

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Schaeffler and ThunderSoft have entered into a strategic partnership. The two companies intend to jointly develop and market central vehicle computer platforms for future vehicle architectures.

Gerd Winkler, Head of Strategy Software-Defined Vehicles, Business Unit Vehicle & Battery Controls at Schaeffler and Xu Dongchao, Vice President of ThunderSoft Intelligent Automotive, sealed their strategic partnership with a handshake.(Image: Schaeffler) — Gerd Winkler, Head of Strategy Software-Defined Vehicles, Business Unit Vehicle & Battery Controls at Schaeffler and Xu Dongchao, Vice President of ThunderSoft Intelligent Automotive, sealed their strategic partnership with a handshake.
(Image: Schaeffler)

With the transition from classic, distributed control unit architectures to centralized vehicle computers, powerful, highly integrated computer platforms are playing an increasingly important role. They make it possible to combine several vehicle domains—such as drive, energy supply, driving functions and infotainment—in one central computing unit. They therefore form the basis for flexibly scalable, data-centric E/E architectures. "Central vehicle computers are developing into a key technology for software-based vehicles," emphasizes Thomas Stierle, Member of the Board of Management for E Mobility at Schaeffler.

Bundling Strengths

Schaeffler contributes its experience in the development, industrialization and large-scale production of complex automotive electronic systems to the partnership. These include, in particular, safety-relevant driving functions, drive systems, chassis solutions as well as battery and energy management. ThunderSoft complements these competencies with its expertise in central vehicle software platforms, operating systems and high-performance computer architectures for infotainment and driver assistance systems. In addition, ThunderSoft has access to a broadly established technology ecosystem.

This close collaboration allows functions that were previously distributed across several control units to be bundled on a central vehicle computer. This reduces system complexity, shortens development times and enables flexible and cost-efficient scaling across different vehicle models and markets.

Initial Focus on the Asia-Pacific Region

As part of their partnership, the two companies plan to develop fully integrated solutions for vehicle computer platforms. These will map functions from the areas of driver assistance, infotainment and driving domains on a common, flexible hardware basis. An initial regional focus is on the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. In the future, the cooperation will be expanded to China and North America. Regional regulatory requirements for connected vehicles will be taken into account from the outset. (se)

The switch to SDV is the most complex transformation the industry has ever had to master. The end consumer gets a vehicle that gains rather than loses value over its lifetime. (Image:Sonatus)

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