Industry Partnership to Create Open Standard for Electronic Architecture

Auto manufacturers BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen, and automotive system suppliers, Bosch, Continental and Siemens VDO, today announced the formation of an industry partnership to jointly develop and commercially release a standardized Electrical/Electronic (E/E) architecture for in-vehicle software applications. Known as the AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture, or AUTOSAR, it will serve as a basic infrastructure for the management of functions within both future applications and standard software modules. The AUTOSAR scope includes body electronics, powertrain, chassis and safety as well as multimedia systems, telematics and man-machine-interface.

The AUTOSAR partnership has been established in response to the increasing complexity of in-vehicle electronics, driven by applications such as driver information and driver assistance systems and increased passenger and legal requirements. The complexity and reliability of these systems, particularly in luxury cars from DaimlerChrysler and BMW, has come under increasing criticism in recent years. The goals of AUTOSAR include the standardization of basic system functions and functional interfaces, the ability to integrate and transfer functions and to substantially improve software updates and upgrades over the vehicle lifetime. The use of standard software modules will allow developers to focus resources on increasing system functionality and reliability, reducing development effort and product proliferation.

The partners, each key members of the FlexRay consortium developing an in-vehicle communications standard, will actively involve third parties in the development of AUTOSAR in order to create an open industry standard.