The shift from distributed ECU architectures to zonal systems is fundamentally reimagining vehicle electrical and software design, offering real simplification and cost advantages but demanding new approaches to integration and development.

Building on the themes explored in our technology insight, this follow-up live roundtable brings together three subject-matter experts to examine how zonal architectures are being implemented in practice and what it takes to deploy them successfully at scale.

The session will address:

• How far along the industry’s transition to zonal designs is, and whether early implementations are delivering on the promised gains in simplicity, cost, and scalability
• Which technical, integration, and organizational barriers are the most critical to resolve first
• Which emerging solutions across hardware design, networking, and software abstraction show the most promise
• How the shift to zonal designs is reshaping vehicle development workflows, supplier relationships, and the balance of power between OEMs and technology partners
• Whether zonal designs are an intermediate stage on the route to fully centralized compute, or the long-term architectural blueprint for the software-defined vehicle