Silicon Valley Startup Sibros to Supply its Connected Vehicle Software for the 'Lightyear One' Solar-Powered EV

author: Eric Walz   

Silicon Valley startup Sibros, a developer of a connected vehicle software platform for automakers that can run on any vehicle architecture, today announced a new collaboration with Netherlands-based electric vehicle startup Lightyear, developer of an innovative solar-powered electric vehicle named the Lightyear One.

Lightyear will integrate Sibros' OTA Deep Logger, which will allow the company to collect real world driving data from all of the Lightyear One's sensors. The partnership with Sibros provides Lightyear with software to collect and manage vehicle data from the One EV, as well as the ability to perform remote diagnostics and update the vehicle's sub systems remotely.

The company's Deep Logger will help accelerate Lightyear's speed-to-market by providing a safe and secure vehicle data platform. The Deep Logger software is able to collect data from every ECU and network domain in a vehicle. It provides automakers with deep-level access and data insights into their vehicles.

In addition, the OTA Deep Logger offers advanced data abstraction, filtering and logging rules, with up to 95% log file compression, which can reduce vehicle-to-cloud cellular, compute resources and data storage costs by up to 60%, according to Sibros. The advanced filtering rules allow automakers to only collect the data they need from the vehicle.

"We are excited to join forces with Lightyear to provide deep, safe and secure vehicle-to-cloud capabilities for end-to-end software and data management solutions to the Lightyear One," said Hemant Sikaria, CEO and Co-Founder of Sibros. "Full vehicle OTA software updates and connected vehicle data management are crucial components for bringing clean, sustainable and high-efficiency energy consumption electric vehicles to the world." 

Lightyear is aiming to commercialize electric vehicles by adding integrated solar cells in order to minimize the charging needs while at the same time lessening reliance on the grid for charging.  The Lightyear One has 5 square meters of embedded solar cells on the roof and hood, allowing the car to charge itself whenever it absorbs sunlight.  

Lightyear's EV technology also includes an efficient powertrain and optimized thermal management system. The solar-electric Light year One will have a range of 440 miles, the company claims.

The Lightyear One EV.

The Lightyear One and other connected vehicles in the future will generate massive amounts of data that will be sent to and from the cloud. But managing all of this vehicle data will be a new challenge for automakers, so they are turning to tech companies like Sibros with expertise in vehicle data management.

The Sibros Deep Logger can also collect alerts, retrieve faults and debug data in order to take action and reduce risk when a vehicle is operating outside of its preset conditions. The company's software platform can help OEMs to lower the percentage of recalls that are software related and reduce warranty claims by fixing problems remotely with OTA updates.

"Lightyear is proud to work alongside Sibros and integrate its market-proven platform as we scale to production," said Arjo van der Ham, CTO and Co-Founder of Lightyear. "With the excellent engineering and tremendous technical support from the team at Sibros, this vehicle will be able to perform comprehensive remote diagnostics and data analysis which is vital to long-range solar and energy efficiency unique to the Lightyear One."

TIME Magazine recognized the Lightyear One in its 2019 list of ‘100 Best Inventions'. In 2020, Lightyear won the ‘Rising Star' and ‘Most Disruptive Innovator' Award of the Technology Fast 50 program organized by Deloitte, which recognizes fast growing and innovative technology companies in Europe.

A limited number of Lightyear One EVs are planned to go into production in the summer of 2022, with plans to address the mass market in 2024-2025. Lightyear is expected to first deliver the Lightyear One in Europe, including Norway and Switzerland.

Sibros was founded by Sikaria, who serves as CEO. Prior to founding Sibros, he spent 5+ years at the electric automaker designing and implementing the company's pioneering OTA software update platform, which now supports the entire Tesla fleet. 

The ability to update vehicle software remotely is now being adopted by more automakers. Legacy automakers, including Ford, Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz, are beginning to introduce their own connected vehicle platforms that can help manage data from their fleets. 

In July, Sibros announced a separate collaboration with Munich-based solar-electric vehicle startup Sono Motors, a company founded in 2016 that developed proprietary solar technology for its Solar Electric Vehicle (SEV) named the Sion.

Sono Motors will deploy the Sibros Deep Connected Platform (DCP) to manage the entire Sion EV fleet.

In September, commercial electric truck manufacturer Volta Trucks announced that Sibros will provide its connected software-based platform for the Volta Zero, the world's first fully-electric 16-ton electric truck purposely built for urban freight delivery.

Sibros' vehicle software platform was recently named "Connected Car Platform of the Year" in the 2021 IoT Breakthrough Awards.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.