The Eclipse Foundation Joins Bosch, Microsoft, and Other Industry Leaders to Create an Open Source Working Group for the Software-Defined Vehicle

The Eclipse Foundation, one of the world’s largest open source foundations, along with multiple industry leaders, including Bosch, Microsoft and others, today announced an open invitation for technology leaders to help define a new working group focused specifically on the Software-Defined Vehicle. The ultimate goal will be the creation of a vendor-agnostic, open source ecosystem with a vivid, contributing community focused on building the foundation for a new era in automotive software development. This announcement serves as a “call to action” for all interested parties to join this initiative and help shape the future of mobility.

Today, next-generation vehicle developers are turning to software-based solutions for their new designs. The Eclipse Foundation believes this will lead to an open source revolution that results in software-defined vehicles. Software-defined vehicles will enable vehicle manufacturers as well as automotive suppliers to put software at the very center of vehicle development, with hardware considerations to follow.

“We’re very excited to develop this new effort here at the Eclipse Foundation. Although we have extensive roots with the automotive community, a project of this scope and scale has never been attempted before,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. “This initiative enables participants to get in at the ‘ground level” and ensure they each have an equal voice in this project.”

To achieve this significant change in the design process, this new working group will build the foundation of an open ecosystem for deploying, configuring, and monitoring vehicle software in a secure and safe way. Vehicle manufactures around the world may use this foundation to focus on differentiating customer features, like mobility services and end-user experience improvements, while saving time and cost on the non-differentiating elements, like operating systems, middleware or communication protocols.

To support the transformation to software-defined vehicles, major players from the technology industry as well as the automotive industry are encouraged to collaboratively develop an open source in-vehicle application runtime stack, cloud-based vehicle operations as well as highly integrated development toolchains. The ultimate goal of the open source software-defined vehicle initiative is to scale in-vehicle software across vehicle models, product lines, brands, organizations, and time.

The Eclipse Foundation and its decades of experience managing the governance of complex technology initiatives and multi-vendor organizations make it the ideal organization to help manage such an endeavor. Its commitment to transparency, vendor-neutrality, and a shared voice will ensure that all participants have the opportunity to shape the future of the working group.

To learn more about getting involved with the Eclipse Foundation’s Software-Defined Vehicle initiative, please visit us at sdv.eclipse.org, or email us at membership@eclipse.org.

Quotes from Members

BlackBerry
“This Eclipse Foundation Software-Defined Vehicle collaboration will be an important factor in influencing next-generation Software-Defined Vehicle architectures,” said Grant Courville, vice-president of product management and strategy at BlackBerry QNX. “BlackBerry QNX has a long history of embracing industry standards and we continue to work very closely with our customers and partners to help define and enable future automotive architectures. As a founding member, for 20 years BlackBerry has had a front row seat to The Eclipse Foundation’s relentless pursuit to help spur developer innovation and we’re thrilled to be part of this new initiative with a view to accelerating the software-defined future of automotive.”

Bosch
“Technological, organizational, and cultural innovations pave the way for the software-defined vehicle. The use of open-source software and technology neutrality are the pillars for a strong community to actively shape the transformation in automotive software engineering together with our customers and partners,” said Sven Kappel, vice president – Head of Project Software Defined Vehicle at Bosch. “For Bosch, collaboration across industries is key to realize the software-defined vehicle. Together with the Eclipse Foundation and other participants we are driving this change and looking forward to welcoming additional contributors to the initiative.”

EPAM Systems
“The automotive industry is undergoing a period of rapid transformation, with the next generation of vehicles transitioning to software-defined,” said Alex Agizim, CTO, Automotive & Embedded Systems, EPAM. “EPAM is proud to bring its embedded engineering and digital orchestration expertise to this industry-first initiative for open-source software-defined vehicles. In partnership with Bosch, Microsoft, The Eclipse Foundation and more, this collaboration will help usher in the new era in automotive development.”

ETAS
“The software-defined vehicle will play a key role in the future of mobility,” said Christoph Hartung, president and chairman of the ETAS Board of Management. “The explosive increase in complexity can only be mastered by working closely together as we do in this initiative.”

Microsoft
“With digital technologies unlocking the future of accessible, sustainable and safe transportation experiences, mobility services providers are increasingly looking to differentiate through software innovation,” said Ulrich Homann, corporate vice president and Distinguished Architect, Microsoft. “By standardizing the development, deployment and management of software-defined vehicles through collaboration in the open-source space, businesses can bring tailored mobility solutions to their customers faster and can focus on innovations.”

Red Hat
“Since our founding, Red Hat has clearly seen and advocated for open source collaboration as a force multiplier for software quality and value,” said Francis Chow, vice president, In-Vehicle Operating System, Red Hat. “We are pleased to collaborate on software-defined vehicles built with an open source backbone alongside the other member organizations of the Eclipse Software-Defined Vehicle initiative.”

SUSE
“Defining and developing the software-defined vehicle will transform the automotive industry, enabling manufacturers to truly address the rapidly changing concerns and pain points the market is experiencing today,” said Thomas Di Giacomo, SUSE chief technology and product officer. “For nearly 30 years, SUSE has been a trusted partner supporting systems and essential workloads in some of the most challenging and critical industries, including the automotive industry. We are eager to contribute our experience and ready-to-use open source technologies to help advance the automotive software industry.”

About the Eclipse Foundation
The Eclipse Foundation provides our global community of individuals and organizations with a mature, scalable, and business-friendly environment for open source software collaboration and innovation. The Foundation is home to the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, and over 400 open source projects, including runtimes, tools, and frameworks for cloud and edge applications, IoT, AI, automotive, systems engineering, distributed ledger technologies, open processor designs, and many others. The Eclipse Foundation is an international non-profit association supported by over 330 members, including industry leaders who value open source as a key enabler for their business strategies. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @EclipseFdn, LinkedIn or visit eclipse.org.