Lowering the hurdles - Associate Partner [Light] Program within AUTOSAR

By Dr. Günter Reichart, AUTOSAR Spokesperson

The AUTOSAR Steering Committee has decided to introduce the Associate Partner [Light] Program. In contrast to the Associate Partner, the Associate Partner [Light] voluntarily waives the commercial exploitation of the entirety of released AUTOSAR Work (specification and code) but agrees to limit itself to the commercial exploitation of a selected share of released AUTOSAR Work as defined by AUTOSAR.

The term expresses the idea to alleviate the entrance hurdle to the AUTOSAR world, making it easy and light.

It is a membership with no partnership fee and a limitation to the commercial exploitation of a selected share of released AUTOSAR Work. This membership is specifically attractive for new players and start-ups with fresh ideas but a lack of financial resources to enter a full AUTOSAR partnership. The first supported use case under the Associate Partner [Light] Program is to make the bus protocols, which are part of the AUTOSAR solutions, more accessible to ongoing development activities even “outside” of AUTOSAR. Further use cases with different shares of AUTOSAR Work could be made available based on AUTOSAR decisions as part of its evolving opening strategy.

It should be seen as a part of AUTOSAR’s long-term strategy to lower the hurdles for applying AUTOSAR solutions and to easily use a selected share of released AUTOSAR Work. This long-term strategy, AUTOSAR Opening Strategy, does and will further address collaborations with 3rd parties and with other complementary consortia as already established in the SDV alliance. Moreover, simplifications of the application of the AUTOSAR Classic Platform will play an important role in focusing adaptations to market needs and future requirements as part of the advanced AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform. The collaboration with COVESA on the Automotive API is an ongoing initiative and serves as an example of future directions. AUTOSAR as the established SW framework for the future mobility and opensource developments for applications in a SDV world will not be competing activities, instead they will form a complementary ecosystem.