1st Open Conference of AUTOSAR in the US was a success

A large audience, of which more than 100 U.S.-based professionals, academics, and journalists attended the 1st AUTOSAR Open Conference in the United States, which took place late October 2008, in Detroit, Michigan. 

Gerulf Kinkelin, spokesperson of the AUTOSAR partnership and EE and Telematics Innovation Area Manager at PSA Peugeot Citroën, said: “The success of the 1st Open Conference in the U.S. with such an international audience is a clear sign that AUTOSAR is going global. We will continue our efforts to promote the standard outside Europe as well.” The conference coincides with the first roll out of production vehicles featuring AUTOSAR in 2008, and the growing need for international support for the deployment of the standard. 

The highlights of this event were the introduction, the keynote speech of Jim Buczkowski, Director, Global Electrical and Electronics Systems Engineering of the Ford Motor Company, showing the added value of open systems and the central place given to AUTOSAR in the future roadmaps, and the concluding question and answer session with the core partners. 

Companies such as Delphi-Mecel, Elektrobit, ETAS, Hyundai, KPIT, Magneti Marelli, Tata Elexsi, Valeo, and Vector delivered a variety of briefings focused on their experience in implementing AUTOSAR, giving a quite impressive view of how the standard becoming an integral part of automotive engineering, and this on a global scale.

AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) is a worldwide development partnership of car manufacturers, suppliers and other companies from the electronics, semiconductor and software industry. Since 2003 they have been working on the development and introduction of an open, standardized software architecture for the automotive industry. By simplifying the exchange and update options for software and hardware with the AUTOSAR approach, it forms the basis for reliably controlling the growing complexity of the electrical and electronic systems in motor vehicles. AUTOSAR also improves cost efficiency without compromising quality. The “core partners” of AUTOSAR are the BMW Group, Bosch, Continental, Daimler, Ford, Opel, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Toyota and Volkswagen. In addition to these companies, approximately 50 “premium members” play an important role in the success of the partnership. Companies which join the AUTOSAR development partnership can use the specifications free of charge.