NTT DATA Japan Corporation and DENSO Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding to form a strategic partnership for the development of in-vehicle software. The two companies will hire more advanced software engineers and upskill current engineers at both companies to create a globally deployable software-oriented mobility service platform, which will help support a mobility-centered society in the era of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).

As the first initiative, the two companies will jointly establish a software development system, as well as training engineers and increase the number of engineers to 3,000 engineers by 2030.

Background. In response to automated driving, electrification, and artificial intelligence, including the rise of ever-connected cars, there is a need to enhance the ability to develop large-scale, advanced in-vehicle software and drastically increase development efficiency. Meanwhile, the concept of SDVs, in which software raises the value of vehicles and services, has become widely desirable, making software development increasingly important and necessitating closer linkage between vehicles and infrastructure.

Accordingly, initiatives using cloud technology have become essential. With various social issues emerging in society, such as challenges relating to public transportation, population growth and driver shortages in the logistics industry, mobility services are needed to help solve these issues and an underlying platform needs to be built by connecting vehicles with the cloud via software and ensuring data linkage.

NTT DATA and DENSO have been collaborating with each other for many years. In 2016, DENSO took a stake in NTT DATA MSE, a software development company. In 2022, NTT DATA and DENSO launched an initiative to build an industry-wide ecosystem for electric vehicle batteries. The two companies have strengthened their ties by working on software initiatives together to transform the automotive industry.

Details of the partnership. Against this backdrop, the two companies have reached a basic agreement on a strategic partnership for software with the aim of accelerating conventional activities, developing the automotive industry and solving social issues. The synergies of the two companies will be maximized in terms of strategy, human resources, and technology by leveraging the cloud technology strengths of NTT DATA, which has worked in various industries, and the in-vehicle software strengths of DENSO, which has mainly focused on the automotive industry.

This partnership will tackle the following initiatives.

1. Expansion of global software resources. Software will be the key to automotive development in the future, as exemplified by automated driving, electrification, and SDVs, necessitating substantial software resources. NTT DATA and DENSO will establish a global development system with 3,000 engineers by 2030 to maximize the synergies of software resources at their group companies in Japan and overseas, in order to develop increasingly large-scale and sophisticated in-vehicle software.

2. Cultivating advanced software engineers. NTT DATA and DENSO will establish a program in the software domain to train human resources who can generate business value. The two companies aim to update the definition of software engineers whom the two companies have cultivated, reinforce and standardize the program, and deploy and utilize the program throughout the automotive industry.

3. Enhance the platform to support software development. It is crucial to increase the speed and efficiency of developing in-vehicle software, which is becoming larger in scale and more sophisticated, for the era of SDVs. It is indispensable to build a common platform to support the software development, which underpins the development of various other functions, including AI-based evaluation tools. NTT DATA and DENSO aim jointly to develop and deploy an optimal platform to support the development based on combinations of solutions by harnessing the advanced IT that they have refined.

4. Joint initiative to tackle social issues. NTT Data has been providing services that contribute to the growth of businesses and the resolution of social issues, using IT, extending beyond the boundaries of various companies and industries to social infrastructure. DENSO aims to reduce its environmental burden and realize a society with zero traffic accidents. DENSO has been expanding the technology it has cultivated in the automotive field to various other areas, continuing to provide new value to society.