TOKYO, Dec. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tier IV, Inc. is proud to announce the launch of the Autoware Foundation, an open alliance for autonomous driving technology jointly initiated by Apex.AI, Inc., Linaro/96Boards, and Tier IV, Inc.

The Autoware Foundation is a non-profit organisation created to initiate, grow, and fund open source collaborative engineering Autoware projects, starting with Autoware.AI, Autoware.Auto, and Autoware.IO. Autoware.AI is the original Autoware project started in 2015 by Shinpei Kato at Nagoya University that is being used globally by more than 100 companies in more than 30 vehicles today. Autoware.Auto is a rewrite of Autoware using ROS 2.0 for certifiable software stacks used in vehicles. Autoware.IO focuses on as many ECUs as possible, heterogeneous architectures, vehicle control interfaces, and a collection of third-party software and tools to help deliver the core values of Autoware. Examples of Autoware.IO projects include simulators, device drivers for sensors, by-wire controllers for vehicles, and hardware-independent programs for SoC boards.

Shinpei Kato from Tier IV and the University of Tokyo, Jan Becker from Apex.AI and Stanford University and Yang Zhang from Linaro/96Boards and the Chinese Academy of Sciences AI Institute have together formed the founding Board of Directors for the Autoware Foundation. The Board is responsible for the operation of the Autoware Foundation, while a Technical Steering Committee is being formed from representatives of the Premium Members to drive the technical direction of the projects. Autoware is based on ROS, with Brian Gerkey, Founder and CEO of Open Robotics (OSRF), as an advisor to the foundation.

Founding Members:

The Autoware Foundation embarks with an impressive set of founding members. Tier IV, Linaro/96Boards and Apex.AI, have welcomed ARM, AutoCore, AutonomouStuff, eSOL, Huawei/HiSilicon, Intel Labs, Kalray, LG Electronics, Nagoya University, Open Robotics (OSRF), Parkopedia, RoboSense, SEMI Japan, SiFive/RISC-V Foundation, StreetDrone, Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), Velodyne LiDAR, and Xilinx to join as founding members.

Board Quotes:

"Thank all of you involved in making this crucial launch of the Autoware Foundation. Autoware will drive innovation for everyone who loves open-source software and autonomous driving technology. We can never make it alone. We are all here to open the way to the future together," said Shinpei Kato, Board of Directors of the Autoware Foundation and Founder of Tier IV, Inc. "Tier IV's vision is to democratize an ecosystem of intelligent vehicles. As part of the Autoware Foundation, Tier IV provides mobility service platforms and software toolchains that enable Autoware to be deployed in the emerging market."

"Apex.AI is thrilled to be part of the Autoware Foundation. An open source project of this scope needs to be independent from a single company and must embrace the community supporting it. Therefore we are following the example of the Linux Foundation and Open Robotics by putting all Autoware projects under the roof of this foundation," says Jan Becker, Board of Directors of the Autoware Foundation and Co-Founder/CEO of Apex.AI. Inc.

"Autoware has recognized momentum in the industry and we are excited to be able to build on its success to offer open source projects supporting the deployment of the world's leading autonomous vehicle technology," said Yang Zhang, Board of Directors of the Autoware Foundation and Director of 96Boards. "Linaro's 96Boards program will help define the standardized hardware platforms on which to maintain and grow the Autoware code base and extend support for it across a broader range of SoC solutions."

Member Quotes:

"As we work towards the mass deployment of safe, fully autonomous vehicles, we need to ensure that automotive players have the ability to influence technical direction and implement platform support for their solutions. This partnership will allow the Autoware ecosystem to further collaborate on certifiable software stacks for secure, safe, and efficient next-generation vehicles."
- Mark Hambleton, Vice President Open Source Software, Arm

"The AutonomouStuff team leads the industry in implementing, supporting and deploying Autoware applications in automated vehicles and fleets. As part of the Autoware Foundation, we look forward to enabling further rapid development of autonomous driving solutions that will utilize our combined solutions."
- Bobby Hambrick, Founder and CEO, AutonomouStuff

"We are excited to join this new venture to further accelerate the realization of autonomous driving technologies. eSOL already supports Autoware with its eMCOS, the scalable and safe RTOS, and welcomes the idea of safety-certifiable Autoware."
- Masaki Gondo, CTO and Vice President, eSOL

"We are thrilled to be joining the Autoware Foundation. Huawei is a leading global ICT solutions provider. We advocate customer-centricity, dedication, and continuous innovation based on customer needs. Collaboration with Autoware enables us to work with the community to develop the self-driving vehicle software that accelerates the industry growth and benefits our customers."
- Jerry Su, Chief Architect of Huawei Autonomous Driving, Huawei

"We are very excited of participating to the Autoware Foundation creation. The Autoware open software stack is one of the most advanced software available today for autonomous and intelligent systems. We will work with the other members of the foundation to open, extend and industrialize this software solution and make it run with optimum efficiency on Kalray MPPA intelligent processor family."
- Eric Baissus, CEO, Kalray

"We are excited to join the Autoware Foundation and to offer LG's autonomous driving simulator with built-in support for Autoware to facilitate research, development, and testing of autonomous software. We look forward to collaborating with foundation members and the community at large as we drive towards an autonomous future together." 
- Seonman Kim, Vice President of Advanced Platform Lab, LG Electronics

"We're excited to be part of the Autoware Foundation. We share a common vision of building new industries on open platforms. It's exciting to see Autoware committing to using and contributing to ROS 2, and we look forward to further collaboration between our communities."
- Brian Gerkey, CEO, Open Robotics (OSRF)

 "We are thrilled to be joining the Autoware Foundation at such an early stage following our involvement and contributions to the Autoware open source self-driving car project. Parkopedia is committed to building high quality automotive-grade maps to support Autonomous Valet Parking and our collaboration with Autoware enables us to work with the community to develop the self-driving car software on which we will demonstrate these maps."
- Brian Holt, Head of Autonomous Driving, Parkopedia

"Autoware as an open-source software platform has widespread influence in the autonomous driving ecosystem. That it has already established deep cooperation with numerous world's top autonomous driving players and that it has never ceased in promoting the development of autonomous driving technology is highly in alignment with the vision of RoboSense. It's our greatest honor to become the Founding Member of the Autoware Foundation. Through providing the best LiDAR system solutions comprised of LiDAR hardware and software, we wish to share our interpretation and accumulation of technology in the LiDAR and the autonomous driving industry, and to make our share of contribution to the Foundation."
- Mark Qiu, CO-founder and COO, RoboSense

"SiFive welcomes the Autoware initiative, as an open-source self-driving software stack is a natural fit to high-performance AI hardware based on the free and open RISC-V architecture." 
- Krste Asanovic, Chief Architect, SiFive/RISC-V Foundation

"Through participation to the Autoware Foundation, TRI-AD would like to help build a large, engaged, and self-governed open source community around Autonomous Driving Technology by contributing and providing support for code that it will be using internally." 
- James Kuffner, CEO, Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD)

"We are very proud to be Autoware Foundation members. Xilinx's flexible and adaptive processing platforms will contribute to define projects towards the development of semi-autonomous and autonomous platforms with Autoware Foundation members." 
- Dan Isaacs, Director, Automotive Strategy & Market Development, Xilinx Inc.

Call for Participation:

We appreciate your participation to the Autoware Foundation. If you or your organization wants to support open-source software projects for autonomous driving technology, you are encouraged to contact us at auto@autoware.org. We will also seek for the contributions from automotive manufacturers and suppliers so as to expand the deployment of Autoware in the automotive industry. Your contribution is essential to put Autoware on a wide and solid foundation. To find more details, please visit https://autoware.org/.

Thanks for loving Autoware!

SOURCE Tier IV, Inc.

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