AUTOSAR heralds new era on the way to a global standard

The AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) development partnership has defined its goals for post phase III organization beginning in 2013. To guarantee a smooth transition from phase III at the end of 2012, the partnership will continue on a permanent basis with the focus on ensuring the stabilization of current releases as well as backwards compatibility, the continuous incorporation of functional enhancements and the establishment of a flexible work package structure. AUTOSAR maintains a maximum of two releases in parallel with a strong focus on stability, backward compatibility and long-term suitability to meet the future market requirements. A well defined life cycle for releases enhances existing AUTOSAR processes and ensures the stabilization of current releases.

“With releases 3.2 and 4.x, AUTOSAR provides stable releases for exploitation in current series developments. The further development of AUTOSAR will be driven by market needs,” said Dr. Stefan Schmerler, AUTOSAR Spokesperson. “As the key software technology in the automotive industries worldwide, AUTOSAR will continue to sustainably meet the demands posed by the OEMs’ series application at any time. I’m also looking forward to the 5th AUTOSAR Open Conference on November 26 in Beijing with great pleasure, as the impact of AUTOSAR in Asia is increasing constantly.”

By closing gaps in the existing functionality and reducing the variety and potential consolidation of functionalities, AUTOSAR will ensure the stabilization of current releases and further improve the quality of specifications. The technical content for 2013 onwards will focus on ensuring exchangeability of implementation via acceptance tests, establishing the possibility to generate configuration profiles and further enhancing the management of backward compatibility. The development partnership has published Release 3.2 Revision 2 at the end of June 2012 with the focus on maintenance and improved ease of use. This incorporates feedback from series development. With Release 4.1 Revision 1, planned for publication in March 2013, AUTOSAR will introduce 31 new concepts for enhanced functionality and maintainability, usability and compliance. All of these concepts will thoroughly be validated before the release date. In addition, AUTOSAR will enhance support for new technologies like multi-core processors, Ethernet with TCP/IP communication mechanisms and others.

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 AG, Ford, General Motors, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Toyota and the Volkswagen Group. In addition to these companies, more than 160 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.

Additional information is available at:
www.autosar.org