Cummins collaborates on Open Telematics architecture for commercial vehicles

Cummins announced its collaboration with the Eclipse Foundation, Microsoft, and industry partners to release a new and innovative approach to develop telematics software for commercial vehicles: the Open Telematics Framework is being designed to allow companies to accelerate time to market and reduce costs. It allows each company to write their telematics application once and deploy it to any telematics hardware running the Open Telematics Framework. This write once, run anywhere approach will eliminate the complex customization and reprogramming efforts that have historically burdened telematics application developers. It also incorporates the latest cybersecurity capabilities.

“We believe there is a better way for the industry to advance digital technologies by removing much of the costly and time-consuming development efforts that most companies experience when bringing new telematics applications and features to market,” said Sherry Aaholm, Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Cummins. “We are contributing this Open Telematics infrastructure through a non-commercial license because we believe having a common telematics environment will enable the industry to develop customer-facing applications more quickly and easily, bringing the value to our customers sooner.”

First introduced to this project through its relationship with Microsoft, Cummins will be releasing the Open Telematics Framework through the Eclipse Foundation’s Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) Working Group. 

“Cummins joining the Eclipse SDV Working Group and contributing to the Open Telematics Framework is exactly the type of collaboration we are looking to foster,” said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation. “We welcome their participation and view this as another exciting milestone towards building an automotive software ecosystem delivering production-ready technology the industry can use to implement the future of the connected vehicle.”

Microsoft is working on cloud management capabilities, that when combined with the in-vehicle capabilities contributed by Cummins, will result in an open and comprehensive end-to-end solution. The Eclipse Foundation’s Software Defined Vehicle Working Group includes a growing list of 38 different automotive and technology companies.

“We believe our Software Defined Vehicle collaboration at The Eclipse Foundation will help simplify and accelerate the transformation of our automotive customers,” said Brian Willson, Vice President, West & Midwest region, Microsoft. “We are thrilled that Cummins is joining this initiative to lead the transformation in the commercial vehicle space. Their experience and open-source contribution will help the commercial vehicle space at large.”

The Open Telematics Framework is a collaboration between numerous companies in the industry and not just a Cummins-focused effort. Participants will not be locked into any proprietary solutions. The goal is for companies to collaborate on a solution to grow capabilities, enhancing the Open Telematics Framework to serve an even broader range of developers, OEMs, and aftermarket telematics providers, including Saucon Technologies.

“Saucon Technologies has been in collaboration with Cummins for many years through innovative hardware designs, software development, and integration expertise. The participation in the Open Telematics Framework, via the Eclipse Foundation’s Software Defined Vehicle project, is a further testament to Saucon and Cummins’ shared commitment to innovation and driving the industry forward alongside other industry leaders,” said Bill French, CEO and Founder, Saucon Technologies. “This open framework will allow the industry to provide more cost-effective solutions, in a fraction of the time, while delivering seamless connectivity and unparalleled advancements in the world of mobility.”

Bosch is another participating partner and one of the founding members of the Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle Working Group.

“Bosch, and its subsidiary ETAS, have a strong history collaborating across the commercial vehicle industry with OEM and Tier 1 partners. As a founding member of the Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle Working Group, we have shown our commitment to open source software solutions that can readily be implemented across industry ecosystems,” said Ansgar Lindwedel, Director SDV Ecosystem Development ETAs, Bosch. “We look forward to collaborating with Cummins and other organizations to bring this framework to the commercial vehicle segment, and appreciate Cummins’ engagement within this important open source community.”