Initiative for more collaboration on vehicle software: BMW Group strengthens the Eclipse Foundation.

Munich. The BMW Group has joined the Eclipse
Foundation’s Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) Working Group as a
strategic member. The Eclipse SDV Working Group facilitates global
collaboration on open-source software technologies for use in modern
vehicles. The BMW Group brings over 20 years of experience in in-house
software development to the initiative and has set industry benchmarks
in many important areas, such as digital vehicle access via smart
devices, over-the-air upgrades across all functional domains and
powertrains, as well as vehicle backend structures.

“BMW has mastered software from chip to cloud and has done so
for generations. The number of digital functions in cars is growing
rapidly. All players in our industry can benefit significantly from
more cooperation in developing and securing software that does not
differentiate from competition. That is why we are contributing our
expertise to the Eclipse SDV Working Group,” said Frank Weber,
member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Development.

The entire system of modern vehicles can contain
hundreds of millions of lines of software code. The scope continues to
grow rapidly, and many manufacturers are working with suppliers to
develop their own software packages for basic functions. According to
the Eclipse Foundation, mainstream operating system installations of
Linux, Windows, and macOS are estimated to use much more code between
each other than vehicles from any two OEMs. Even in the automotive
industry, there is a great deal of potential overlap for basic
software functionality.

“We see open-source as an active collaboration model for
software development and expect a lot from the joint activities in the
Eclipse SDV Working Group,” says Christian Salzmann, Vice President
BMW Group Global Software Strategy and Software Factory. “As an active
contributor in open-source projects such as ‘Zuul’, we already bring a lot of
relevant experience to the table.”

“The Eclipse SDV Working Group has quickly become the ‘centre of
gravity’ for open-source software development in the global automotive
industry,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse
Foundation. “We’re thrilled to have an innovative leader of BMW’s
calibre join as a strategic member. Their contributions will play a
pivotal role in driving this transformative shift in modern vehicle design.”

Strategic members of the SDV Working Group are organisations
that view participation in Eclipse projects as strategic to their
business and are investing significant developer and other resources
to further drive Eclipse Foundation technology. As a Strategic Member
of the SDV Working Group, the BMW Group has the opportunity to guide
the working group’s direction and lead multiple projects. The BMW
Group has been a long-standing member of the Eclipse Foundation for
more than a decade and will continue to support and drive innovation
within the openMDM and openPass working groups.

In addition to the new activities under the Eclipse Foundation,
the BMW Group will continue to contribute to AUTOSAR (Automotive Open
System Architecture). As a founding member of AUTOSAR, the BMW Group
has been working with other automotive manufacturers, suppliers and
companies from the electronics, semiconductor and software industries
to advance standards for electrical electronics (E/E) architecture.
“AUTOSAR is a success story that does a lot for the automotive
industry. We see the activities in Eclipse as a supplement, not as a
substitute,” adds Christian Salzmann.

What is the Eclipse SDV Working Group?

Eclipse
SDV, a working group within the Eclipse Foundation, supports the
open-source development of automotive software. With over 50 members,
including major automotive manufacturers, global cloud providers,
technology leaders, electronics companies, and supply chain partners,
the initiative has garnered significant industry support. The working
group’s objective is to provide a forum for developing and promoting
open-source solutions for the global automotive industry. SDV projects
adopt a “code first” approach, focusing on building the industry’s
first open-source software stacks and associated tools for the core
functions of future vehicle generations.

The SDV Working Group is designed as a vendor-neutral,
member-led organisation. The working group provides a governance
framework for open-source IP management and collaboration. This
includes a steering committee that defines and manages the strategy
and technical roadmap of the working group. A technical advisory board
recommends which Eclipse Foundation open-source projects should be
included within the scope of the working group.

How is the BMW Group getting involved?
The
relevant specialist departments from the BMW Group’s development
division, in particular from the Software Factory, will be directly
and actively involved in the various projects of the Eclipse SDV
Working Group. The aim will be to develop software for series projects
together with the partner network. BMW Group employees will also take
part in the SDV Hackathons and Community Days and work closely with
experts from other member companies.