More than 30 automakers, suppliers, and chipmakers have expanded a VDA-led open source collaboration to standardise vehicle software, reduce costs, and speed the shift to AI-driven, software-defined cars.
More than 30 companies across the global automotive supply chain have agreed to collaborate on open source software to develop next-generation vehicles while reducing costs and speeding time to market.
The initiative is led by Germany’s automotive industry lobby, the Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA), which announced the expansion at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. The move highlights the industry’s growing reliance on software and artificial intelligence as carmakers grapple with rising development costs and slow progress in vehicle software.
Participation in the initiative has nearly tripled, increasing from 11 companies at launch last year to 32. New signatories to the memorandum of understanding include European automotive group Stellantis, truck maker Traton, German supplier Schaeffler, and semiconductor companies Infineon and Qualcomm.
They join existing participants such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, bringing together carmakers, Tier-1 suppliers, and chipmakers under a shared open-source framework.
The collaboration aims to reduce development and maintenance efforts by up to 40% and accelerate time to market by up to 30%, according to the VDA. By pooling resources and standardising foundational software layers, participating companies seek to eliminate duplicated effort while allowing differentiation at higher levels of vehicle design and functionality.
The initiative is positioned as a response to mounting industry pressures, including escalating production costs and the need to rapidly advance software-defined and AI-enabled vehicles.
“The growing participation in this collaboration reflects a clear global shift toward open innovation in the automotive industry,” said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation, a co-organiser of the initiative.
