BYD’s Seagull model (pictured) will be coming to South Africa this year, branded as Dolphin Mini.

At the heart of all modern vehicles lies intelligent software and, in particular, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which are transforming vehicles into rolling software- defined computers, improving car and road safety. According to Motor- Trend magazine, a new car now has over 100 million lines of code running through its electronic control units; McKinsey estimates that a connected car generates around 25GB of data every hour.

But ADAS comes with a steep price tag. That is until China’s leading new energy vehicle automaker BYD started offering its complete suite of ADAS software for free in all its cars.