The virtual 13th AUTOSAR Open Conference showed the recent developments in the Automotive Open System Architecture

Dedicated to the motto “AUTOSAR solutions for heterogeneous system integration” the 13th AUTOSAR Open Conference was held on May 11th and 12th virtually with around 200 participants from all over the world.

On May 11th and 12th, AUTOSAR hosted its 13th annual AUTOSAR Open Conference (AOC). The AOC participants got a global insight into the usage of AUTomotive Open System Architecture, coupled with the opportunity to meet AUTOSAR partners, interested non-partners, and collaborating organizations. The application of AUTOSAR Platforms with go-live examples, communication and interconnectivity between the AUTOSAR Platforms, as well as safety and security aspects, were the main topics of the Virtual 13th AOC.

AUTOSAR’s European Spokesperson Günter Reichart started the 13th AUTOSAR Open Conference with a warm welcome and led the audience through the two-day event.

In his welcome note, AUTOSAR Chairperson Rinat Asmus outlined AUTOSAR’s international way forward and the purpose of collaborating more closely with 3rd parties to tackle standardization together by jointly building a solid automotive development ecosystem. To cope with the abstract Vehicle OS matter, the aim is to get into an exchange with the active parties in this area, so that AUTOSAR can make the desired contribution in its domain for the definition of the technologies and thereby ensuring a smooth standardization. Accordingly, the first day was filled with presentations from international 3rd party organizations giving a foretaste on how to shape the Software Defined Vehicle of the future together.

Katherine Scott, Developer Advocate at Open Robotics, delivered the keynote presentation focusing on ROS. Afterward, ASAM presented the collaboration with focus on diagnostics and automated driving.

AUTOSAR Regional Spokesperson Jing Zhe and Shang Jin introduced CAICV/CAIFS (China Industry Innovation Alliance for Intelligent and Connected Vehicles) and the collaboration with AUTOSAR. Next, the alliance with JasPar (Japan Automotive Software Platform and Architecture) was presented by Kazuo Tsobouchi-San and the AUTOSAR Regional Spokesperson Japan, Masahiro Goto- San.

Michael Wong and Neil Trevett from Khronos presented the cooperation for safe acceleration frameworks followed by COVESA’s Executive Director Steve Crumb, who also acts as AUTOSAR Regional Spokesperson North America, presenting the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative.

Lastly, David Ward as MISRA Director introduced and presented MISRA and the partnership with AUTOSAR; closed off by a speech from Christopher Hoffman, Alain Dauron and Samuel Boutin from INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering).

The first day was rounded off by a Panel Discussion with 3rd Party representatives and AUTOSAR Deputy Chairperson Michael Niklas-Höret on the stage.

The second day of the 13th AUTOSAR Open Conference started with an overview about the AUTOSAR organization followed by the technical overview presented by selected AUTOSAR contributors giving insights on how to apply AUTOSAR.

As the Software Defined Vehicle keeps the community alive and challenged, AUTOSAR Chairperson Rinat Asmus addressed the planned AUTOSAR Opening Strategy and included aspects to the audience. In order to manage all areas of the AUTOSAR organization towards a valuable contribution to the Software Defined Vehicle topic, the AUTOSAR organization plans to establish an open Vehicle API standard and to make parts of the AUTOSAR standards more accessible in the upcoming years. For 2022, the introduction of a new partnership type, the Premium Partner Plus Program, is planned which gives the participating Premium Partners more influence on the standard in accordance with additional obligations to fulfill. AUTOSAR plans to ease the usage of AUTOSAR in other industries for so called “derived applications” by maintaining an according positive list for its partners. As an outlook for 2023 these measures are intended to be compatible with the IoT world, and also provide a lower entry threshold for open-source organizations, universities, and startups using AUTOSAR in their according frameworks.

In his keynote, Jan Becker from APEX.AI presented synergies between AUTOSAR and ROS2. Afterward, Jan Hegewald and Jennifer Neumüller presented the status of the Classic Platform and Adaptive Platform; including common elements as part of the Foundation, which are continuously improved and enlarged.

Numerous presentations on new concepts and application scenarios were held by AUTOSAR contributing partners. At the end of the technical presentations, members of the AUTOSAR Steering Committee and Project Leader Team were on stage giving the conference participants the chance to ask questions. The Q&A session covered extensive responses and explanations related to the organization, the standard itself and the future of AUTOSAR.

Conclusively Chairperson Rinat Asmus addressed closing words to the audience and summarized the 13th AUTOSAR Open Conference: “It was intense, interesting and impressive. It has shown that together we can create a Software Defined Vehicle that makes us capable to handle the complexity of the future.”

The vision of AUTOSAR is the base for all activities within the organization and the presentations during both event days clearly showed the progress and the directions which AUTOSAR is following hand in hand with a strong community based on responsibility and trust with more than 330 global partners. It’s safe to say, that AUTOSAR is a learning organization with sound and open discussions, advanced ideas, and concepts combined with a willingness to cooperate to achieve the common vision. Strict focus and high ambitions lead to AUTOSAR heading into the direction of being a globally established standard and methodology to enable open E/E system architecture for future intelligent mobility supporting high levels of dependability, underlining safety, and security.

The 14th AUTOSAR Open Conference is planned to take place on 11th and 12th of May in the United States.