Step aside, hardware: Software was the star of the show at CES 2025.

As expected, much of the mobility-focused elements of CES focused less on vehicles themselves and more on the ways emerging tech is reshaping the in-vehicle experience, from seamless EV route planning to automated driving system improvements.

“If I had even a quarter for every time they used the term ‘software-defined vehicle’ over the course of the week…I would have walked away a much wealthier person,” C.J. Finn, partner and US automotive industry leader at PwC US, told Tech Brew. “That was a key focus point.”

All about the software

Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) have been top of mind for auto industry leaders for years now, but the shift is coming into better focus.

“Where I think we’re still early days is then determining, who are the new industry players coming in and how do they partner with the OEMs?” Finn said. “And where’s the right to the data, who really controls the information flow, and how do you share some of that source code to make sure that the over-the-air updates are occurring timely and safely?”

One of the key promises of SDVs is the ability to deliver over-the-air (OTA) software updates, enabling faster vehicle improvements and fixes via centralized compute systems that feature less wiring and fewer electronic control units.

At CES, Honda announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to speed the transition to SDVs using the automaker’s Digital Proving Ground platform.

AWS said its platform would give Honda the ability “to collect data that helps estimate EV driving range, visualizes energy consumption and vehicle performance data, and delivers vehicle software updates.”

One of the features Honda is working on for its forthcoming 0 Series vehicle lineup would guide EV drivers to charging stations “based on current location, remaining battery, charging speed, fees, and proximity to shopping centers.”

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America said in a news release that its in-cabin cockpit system, FlexConnect, would use QNX software and AWS to bring to life features like facial recognition, biometric monitoring, fatigue tracking, and distraction detection. Such a system would create a new revenue stream via subscription-based services.

“The industry is shifting toward a data-driven model, combining artificial intelligence, real-time data, and cloud technology to improve safety and unlock new opportunities for OEMs,” Mohammad Horani, Mitsubishi Electric’s director of advanced engineering, said in a statement.

And Remco Timmer, VP of product and leader of the automotive solutions team for digital mapmaker HERE Technologies, told us he expects the vehicle mapping system to become an even more visible part of the cabin, because it’s “a way to demonstrate the car is connected, it’s smart, it’s aware of its environment.”

Increasingly, he said, the digital experience in vehicles is the new way for automakers to differentiate themselves.

AI hype

Would it even be a tech industry event without repeated references to the latest AI trends?

“Everybody was trying to identify how AI was leveraged in creating an enhanced customer experience,” Finn said, “and people all had buzzwords of how to make AI more personable, or started putting adjectives associated with AI to otherwise make it seem more friendly.”

HERE unveiled a new feature that would leverage generative AI to help with route planning.

“This kind of conversational style, getting the right recommendation for you, is made possible with the help of large language models, but also connecting the large language model to our factual database,” Timmer said.

“Last year, you saw a lot of first implementations of LLMs. And at that time, I think they struggled with cost…And the latency was a bit long, and they weren’t multimodal yet, so you couldn’t use voice in an intuitive way,” he added. “Those few things have really been resolved.”

Heightened senses

Another theme of the show was advancements in autonomous-vehicle tech.

Israel-based Innoviz Technologies was on hand to demonstrate the capabilities of its automotive-grade lidar sensors and perception software, which it supplies to automakers, and to highlight a new collaboration with Nvidia.

“It’s about scale. Maybe six, seven years ago, we would be talking about…the remaining technical gaps,” Innoviz CEO Omer Keilaf told us. “I think the technology is there.”

Then there are companies like Irish startup Provizio, which highlighted its single-chip 4D imaging radar from Texas Instruments, as well as a perception radar product featuring a graphics processing unit from Nvidia––solutions that, Provizio believes, represent big enough advancements in radar tech to eliminate the need for lidar.

“In the past, the choices have been, well, maybe we need to do lidar, because there was no other choice. There was camera, there was base radar, and then there was lidar,” Barry Jones, Provizio’s strategic sales lead, told us. “4D imaging is now coming into its maturity.”