The Future of the Software Defined Vehicle Is in the Middle The Software Defined Vehicle will be more sophisticated and intelligent than ever – its architecture needs to match in simplicity and capability. Believe it or not, it has been more than 50 years since the first Electronic Control Units appeared in vehicles, allowing components to “talk” to one another via bits and bytes. Today, vehicles may have up to 100 different ECUs, each with its own software or “language.” It’s an environment that won’t meet the requirements of the Software Defined Vehicle and the innumerable improvements that will come with this revolution.