Driving forward: How Ampere is taking Renault Group into the future with software-defined vehicles

Key Takeaways:

• Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) are the key to bringing Renault closer to its customers.
• The Snapdragon Digital Chassis Solution will allow Ampere and Renault to dramatically accelerate the time it takes to roll out new features to cars.
• Artificial intelligence will play a big role in shaking up how we interact with our vehicles.

Henry Bzeih is a big believer in the power of prioritizing the customer and building loyalty. But for automakers, the ability to foster that relationship once a buyer drives their new car off the lot have traditionally been limited.

The prospect of shattering this dynamic is what excites Bzeih, who serves as the chief software officer of Ampere, the first European company solely focused on intelligent electric vehicles, born from Renault Group. Bzeih is tasked with executing on the vision of the software-designed vehicle, allowing companies to upgrade their cars like you would add an app on a smartphone. He believes this evolution of the car experience is critical to building new bridges with customers.

“That’s what a software-defined vehicle does: It creates winning moments for customers. It brings brands closer to them,” Bzeih said in an interview with OnQ. “It creates amazing experiences.”

A high-performance SDV platform represents the next step for vehicles, shaking up how cars are designed and maintained, as well as radically improving the driver and rider experience. By adding software to the mix, the vehicle becomes an ecosystem, creating value from a business and customer intimacy perspective. Powering this initiative is Qualcomm Technologies and its Snapdragon Digital Chassis, part of the company’s initiative to grow beyond simply offering chips and into a partner offering solutions.

Bzeih talks about Ampere’s role as a pure play automotive software provider and how it and Renault are poised to make a big digital leap.

Ampere’s mission 

In a bid to jumpstart its efforts in technology, Renault Group in November 2023 launched Ampere, the first European player purely focused on the development of electric vehicles and software. Ampere isn’t a small startup, with a workforce of 11,000 employees, of which 35% are engineers.

“What you have here is essentially a tech company within a company,” Bzeih said. “That’s the genesis of Ampere. And this is one of the main reasons why I joined — I was intrigued by the possibility.”

Qualcomm Technologies and Renault Group had already worked together extensively prior to the launch of Ampere, with new Renault vehicles integrating Snapdragon cockpit and connectivity solutions. Even before Ampere’s creation, the companies were aligned on the vision of where vehicles were headed.

The goal for Ampere was to make that vision — to create a next-generation platform for vehicles to use starting in 2026 — a reality.

A software-centric approach

To Bzeih, the key ingredient that’s been missing in the automotive industry over the last century has been a constant connection between the vehicle and the customer.

“We design the vehicle, we build the vehicle, you go to the dealership, you buy the vehicle, and then, ‘ bye, bye,’ right?” Bzeih said. “You may see the dealer when there’s a problem, then you’re done.”

With a software-defined vehicle platform, Ampere and Renault can deliver new features through over-the-air updates. Or drivers and passengers can access programs like they would download apps on the phone. The primary benefit is how much nimbler they will be when it comes to improving the car.

Typically, it takes years for new features and capabilities to show up in cars. If you bought a 2021 model car, and a new feature debuts in the 2022 version, guess what? You’re out of luck.

But with a SDV, new features can be pushed out in months after a car is purchased. Older cars running on the same platform will get those upgrades. As a result, customers wanting to personalize their car’s settings will have a wealth of options — with the opportunity for more to come down the line.

Bzeih gave an example of a customer creating a feature that would recognize the color of the shirt they’re wearing and adjust the ambient light and even mood music to match. Such a system would take advantage of existing hardware tools of the car such as the lighting system, infotainment console and advanced driver assistance systems and stringing them together in a new way.

“You want to surprise and delight customers,” he said. “For customers today, it’s about personalization, especially with Gen Z and Millennials.”

Where Qualcomm comes in

Qualcomm Technologies has been a long-term partner to the auto industry, initially supplying components like modems for connectivity and telematics. But over the last few years, we’ve invested significantly in resources and capabilities to bring solutions to help automakers such as Renault make their vision of the future of cars a reality.

That includes the Snapdragon Digital Chassis, which brings together advanced capabilities across connectivity, processing and intelligence, providing automakers with a proven technology suite for creating connected, intelligent vehicles that are highly customizable, experiential and upgradable. At Snapdragon Summit 2024, Qualcomm Technologies unveiled its new Snapdragon Ride Elite and Snapdragon Cockpit Elite platforms, which will both be powered by our powerful custom Qualcomm Oryon processor.

Bzeih noted that Ampere and Renault have been pioneers in innovating with the Snapdragon Ride Platform, an open and scalable ADAS platform, and said that their collaboration goes beyond solutions.

AI plays a big role

Artificial intelligence is already playing a big role in the development of the platform and vehicles. Bzeih says that AI has shortened development cycles and the time it takes to validate new features.

It’s with the customer experience that Bzeih sees the biggest potential change, with AI being able to understand behavior and routines and proactively creating new use cases.

He gave the example of a parent needing to drop their kids off to school every weekday. The AI will understand that the car will need to go a certain route at 7:30 a.m. every day and discern from the pattern new scenarios and use cases that benefit the driver. That could come in the form of anything including the kind of music played for the kids to the route being proactively plotted to avoid traffic areas.

“I can now spin those patterns into new customer features and new capabilities,” he said.

The launch and beyond

2026 is poised to be a big year for Ampere and Renault. The launch of Renault’s software-defined vehicle platforms means a wave of vehicles with a radically improved experience.

Bzeih said the company has plans for multiple cars — consumer and commercial — that will ride on this platform. Ultimately, he hopes this platform will allow Renault and Ampere to bring these new capabilities to the mass market, bringing to reality what would’ve been deemed sci-fi just a decade ago.

Bzeih is a firm believer that the work that he and his team are working on represents a “huge paradigm shift” that will set Renault up for the next century.

“This is really going to change the world,” Bzeih said. “When you have that sort of motivator, it’s an incredible feeling when you know you have a hand in this.”