General Motors Announces New Software Platform- Ultifi

(RTTNews) - General Motors Co. (GM) on Thursday unveiled a latest end-to-end software program in vehicles called Ultifi. This program will become available in all General Motors vehicles from 2023 onwards. The program is designed to make the vehicle more user friendly with distinct features like providing drivers access to in-car subscription and using over-the-air updates to offer new apps and services.

The Ultifi software program is designed in such a manner that it makes driving extremely comfortable even for a novice driver. With the help of this program, drivers get easy access to all car facilities like sensors. For example, if a driver sees a child in the backseat, the Ultifi program will immediately sense the danger and lock the car doors.

Commenting on the new software, Scott Miller, GM's VP of software-defined vehicles, said, "It's a big next step in our software strategy. Today cars are enabled by software. With Ultifi, they're going to be defined by it."

General Motors said that the software program will be developed atop the company's vehicle intelligence platform, or VIP, the base hardware architecture, which supplies data processing power for the vehicle movement. The car giant said that while vehicles equipped with VIP already have over-the-air software updates, Utlifi will ensure smooth movement by bringing all of the vehicle modules to one single platform.

The software program will also offer General Motor drivers easy access to subscription services, like Super Cruise, which is the company's hands-free advanced driver assistance system.

The latest software program will work along side Android Automotive, the OS embedded in some GM infotainment systems. Talking about the difference between both the software, Miller said, "Android Automotive is a certain subset of functionality in the car, while Ultifi is more of an umbrella overall strategy."

Ultifi, which is still being developed, will become available in 2023 and be easily available to all vehicles, despite the computing demands of the system. Customers can either purchase the vehicle or purchase different access plans, General Motors said. The company did not offer any information about the prices of the software and how much revenue it would generate.