Automotive SDV Track (Hosted at Bosch on 24 March, Feuerbach, Germany)
Open source SDV with Automotive Grade Linux(AGL) SoDeV (Dan Cauchy (AGL))
Decoupling software from hardware is central to the development of Software-Defined Vehicles, yet many automakers are struggling to achieve this at scale. To address this, automakers and suppliers are working together to accelerate SDV development through the newly launched AGL SoDeV reference platform. SoDeV enables software-first development decoupled from hardware constraints and can run on real automotive SoCs, virtual machines, or in the cloud. The initiative is led by Panasonic Automotive Systems, Honda, and the AGL SDV Expert Group, with contributions from Toyota, Mazda, AISIN, and Renesas. SoDeV integrates the AGL Unified Code Base with key open-source projects, including Linux Containers, VirtIO, Xen, Yocto Project, Zephyr, and ELISA. Availability is planned for 2026 for virtual environments, cloud processors, and automotive SoCs.
SDV Landscape (Christian Heissenberger (Eclipse))
The Eclipse SDV Landscape Project aims to provide a structured, community-driven overview of the growing Software-Defined Vehicle ecosystem within the Eclipse Foundation. As the software-defined vehicle (SDV) ecosystem experiences rapid growth, structured transparency becomes vital to help new community members navigate the landscape and showcase diverse technological components without stalling innovation due to unmanaged complexity. Taking inspiration from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s (CNCF) successful landscape model, the Eclipse SDV Landscape is designed as an interactive, CI/CD-driven website that visualizes, classifies, and automatically maps projects according to their specific automotive software functions directly from their Eclipse project metadata. Governed by the Eclipse SDV Working Group’s Technical Advisory Committee and maintained by dedicated committers, the platform already tracks dozens of initiatives across multiple maturity stages spanning areas such as runtime orchestration, service fabric, tooling, and communication middleware. Beyond the core landscape, the initiative encompasses The Automotive Collection, a broader, community-driven catalog of automotive open-source software (OSS). Covering domains from operating systems and middleware to developer tools, simulation, cloud infrastructure, AI, and robotics, this collection aims to prevent developers from reinventing the wheel. Community members can actively participate by proposing new projects via Git forks and pull requests, joining upcoming hackathons like the Eclipse SDV HackFest in Esslingen, and expanding cross-industry collaborations with groups such as Automotive Grade Linux (AGL).
FEDERATE and how the automotive industry moves towards Open Source (Detlef Zerfowski (ETAS))
The automotive software industry is facing a significant transformation. There is a dichotomy between vehicle software paradigms operating inside and outside the modern automobile. On one side, high-performance vehicle computers, cloud servers, and mobile platforms leverage virtualization, modern programming languages such as C++, machine learning, and high-speed Ethernet connectivity. In this cloud, mobile, and developer tooling domain, open-source software and agile IT practices are already widely established. Conversely, software within traditional electronic control units (ECUs) remains strictly governed by C programming, real-time operating systems, and legacy automotive bus networks like CAN and FlexRay. Historically, this low-level embedded layer has operated under a defensive stance toward open-source technologies, creating a stark cultural and technical contrast with the broader software ecosystem.
In 2022, the European Union and the VDA initiated structured activities regarding Software-Defined Vehicles. The journey began when the EU approached the automotive industry to initiate a “European CAR.OS,” leading to regular meetings between the European Commission (DG Connect), European OEMs, and Tier suppliers. This momentum culminated in a joint declaration by European automotive manufacturers and suppliers to collaborate on an open-source SDV ecosystem. By 2024 and 2025, major publicly funded EU projects were launched, including FEDERATE for coordination and support, alongside implementation initiatives such as HAL4SDV for hardware abstraction and SHIFT2SDV for standardized vehicle signal interfaces. At the same time, VDA-driven efforts established Eclipse S-CORE (Safe Open Vehicle Core), which reached its version 0.5 milestone.
