Session: 12-11: Software-Defined Vehicles, Digital Twins, and Connected AI Platforms

Paper Number: 197554

197554 - Open-Source Sdv: How Open-Source Safety-Certifiable Middleware Accelerates Adas Development and Innovation 

Abstract: 

Software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures are rapidly transforming the commercial vehicle industry, enabling faster deployment of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), over-the-air updates, and increasingly modular vehicle software platforms. However, the commercial vehicle segment faces unique challenges, including smaller production volumes, long product lifecycles, and stringent safety and reliability requirements. These constraints make collaboration on non-differentiating software capabilities essential to accelerating innovation while controlling development cost and complexity.

This presentation will explore how open-source, safety-certifiable middleware platforms can accelerate ADAS development for commercial vehicles by enabling greater software reuse, interoperability, and ecosystem collaboration. The session will highlight ongoing industry efforts to build a practical SDV reference implementation leveraging key open-source technologies and standards, with a focus on middleware architectures designed to support safety-critical applications.

The presentation will examine how open-source middleware can simplify integration across heterogeneous hardware platforms, improve portability of ADAS applications, and reduce duplicated engineering effort across the industry. It will also discuss the practical challenges associated with deploying safety-certifiable open-source software in production vehicle programs, including functional safety considerations, cybersecurity, validation, and long-term maintainability. These SDV middleware architectures also enable scalable deployment of connected AI applications, including predictive ADAS, cooperative vehicle intelligence, and cloud-edge-enabled decision making.

Finally, the session will summarize lessons learned from deploying these architectures within internal development and test fleets, identify remaining technical gaps, and outline opportunities for future collaboration across OEMs, suppliers, and the broader open-source community to accelerate the adoption of scalable SDV platforms for commercial vehicles.

Presenting Author: Carlton Bale Cummins Inc.

Presenting Author Biography: Carlton Bale is a technology-obsessed engineer and MBA working in the commercial vehicle space and focusing on collaboration between companies to create industry-changing advances. His experience spans from leading the tech-focused strategies for large companies to being the founder of an IoT startup. When not immersed in tech, he spends time with his family and enjoys building and creating electronics, automobiles, and motorcycles and activities such as camping and skiing.

Authors:

Carlton Bale Cummins Inc.