SUNNYVALE, Calif.– June 23, 2020—Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the largest software framework provider for smart machines and real-world systems, today announced it has joined the Autoware Foundation, an open alliance for autonomous driving technology. RTI joins key automotive and technology leaders in an effort to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicles and progress technological advancements in the driverless vehicle market. RTI will work with the Autoware Foundation on the development of their autonomous vehicle and simulation projects and support the Autoware.Auto open-source software stack, based on the Data Distribution Service™ (DDS) standard.

Founded in 2018 and jointly initiated by Apex.AI, Inc., Linaro/96Boards, and Tier IV, the Autoware Foundation is a non-profit organization created to initiate, grow and fund open source collaborative Autoware projects. The foundation has three active projects to date: Autoware.AI, Autoware.Auto and Autoware.IO. RTI will leverage its automotive expertise to collaborate on the development of the foundation’s autonomous vehicle project, while utilizing its experience with ROS2, the open-source robotics project based on DDS, to help advance the foundation’s Autoware.IO and Autoware.Auto initiatives.

“We are proud to welcome RTI as the latest member to join the Autoware Foundation. Given their proven expertise in DDS-based connectivity technology available for diverse hardware and software components, RTI is an exceptional partner in our joint effort to put autonomous vehicles on the road powered by Autoware,” said Shinpei Kato, who serves on the Autoware Foundation Board of Directors. “We look forward to their continued contribution to help expand the Autoware ecosystem in an open-source community.”

RTI brings extensive experience in autonomy to over 250 autonomous vehicle projects and works with over 50 commercial autonomous system developers including Aptiv, Baidu Apollo and Xpeng Motors, among others. RTI’s automotive offering Connext Drive ® is built on the DDS standard, which enables intelligent architecture by sharing information in real time and making automotive applications work together as one.  

“The DDS standard is specified by the important automotive ecosystems, including ROS2 and Autoware, and multiple commercial designs,” said Bob Leigh, Senior Market Development Director, Commercial Markets at RTI. “We believe the best path to getting autonomous vehicles on the road and into the mainstream is by leveraging the flexibility and scalability of Connext Drive and DDS, for all ecosystems industry wide. We look forward to working with the Autoware Foundation to propel the future of autonomous driving through worldwide technical collaboration.”

Read more about RTI’s work in the autonomous driving industry here.