Karma’s Still At It! Will Reveal New GT-UV at the Quail

• Karma Automotive will reveal the GT-UV concept at the Quail Friday. We have yet to see images, but perhaps the interior will be as dramatic as that of the recent Kaveya concept (pictured above).

• The GT-UV is not an SUV, Karma says, despite the "UV" in its name.

• Karma also has ambitious plans for software-defined vehicles.

Karma Automotive is still around! It was founded in 2014 from the corporate assets of the former Fisker Automotive after that company's bankruptcy. Henrik Fisker has nothing to do with the current Karma Automotive, just to be clear. The new company is making progress, it says. Here are the vehicles it has in the pipeline:

• The third-generation Karma Revero plug-in hybrid sport sedan is coming in the fourth quarter of this year.

• The Gyesera four-seater “is anticipated in 2025.”

• The all-electric Karma Kaveya super coupe, which it says has “up to 1,000 horsepower” and butterfly-doors, will arrive in 2026.

• The “GT-UV Design Study” will debut at The Quail on Friday.

All well and good, but the news here may be that these and all coming Karmas will be “software-defined vehicles” co-developed with Intel Automotive. Is “software-defined vehicle” a catch phrase like Buick DynaRide? What is a software-defined vehicle? Here are some definitions we found from a Google search:

“SDVs are designed to adapt and evolve through the use of software updates, enabling new features, capabilities, and improvements without requiring extensive hardware modifications,” says blackberry.qnx.

“Software-defined vehicles are the next evolution of the automotive industry. They are the foundation of many other advancements, including self-driving and connected cars.”

Consulting firm Deloitte notes that software-defined vehicles ultimately reflect “the gradual transformation of automobiles from highly electromechanical terminals to intelligent, expandable mobile electronic terminals that can be continuously upgraded.”

To start designing SDVs in its lineup, Karma Automotive has partnered with Intel Automotive in what it grandly calls “a Bilateral Collaboration to Blueprint the Future of the Automobile” (their caps). Big words for a company that has only produced a handful of cars for sale so far. But from big plans come big things. Or at least they can.

The collab came about from Karma Automotive President Marques McCammon’s previous job at a Silicon Valley company called Wind River Systems, then part of Intel. At that job McCammon met Jack Weast, who is now an Intel Fellow, Vice President, and General Manager at Intel Automotive. It was there the pair “first aligned on the vision for the future of the automobile,” Karma says.

From that meeting, ultimately, came today’s announcement of the bilateral collaboration.

“Further, through the shared expertise from their respective industries, the companies will demonstrate and validate critical concepts for the advancement of open standards for SDVA that can be shared openly and commercially to support the transformation of the broader automotive industry,” Karma said.

The transformation of the auto industry? Big plans indeed!

“Karma Automotive, together with Intel Automotive, will realize SDVA’s full potential to create innovative, intelligent, and beautiful Karma automobiles which, in addition to delivering unparalleled driving dynamics, will be highly efficient and offer an exceptional ownership experience,” McCammon said.

“For Tier 1 (suppliers) and OEMs not quite ready to take the leap from the old way of doing things to the new, Karma Automotive will play as an ally, helping them make that transition with business-to-business SDVA solutions in the same way we do today with Karma Connect, our proprietary Vehicle Data Management and Over the Air services platform, which presently provides services to the world’s second largest OEM.”

McCammon didn’t identify that second-largest OEM in his statement.

Weast added, “At Intel Automotive we can see that the industry is facing a perfect storm of unprecedented change. Intel has assisted other industries with such transformations in the past, and we’re honored to do the same in Automotive. Together, through this collaboration with Karma Automotive, we’re in a position to prepare the industry for the leap forward to SDVA without leaving anyone behind.”