For the second time in just ten months, Eclipse SDV traveled to Japan to connect with our highly engaged local community. This time, we not only co-hosted a meetup but also participated in Automotive World Japan, a major industry exhibition that brings together automotive manufacturers, suppliers, and technology providers to showcase and discuss innovations shaping the future of mobility.
From open hardware to compliance: Eclipse SDV Community Meetup
On September 8, one day before Automotive World Japan opened its gates, Elektrobit hosted our second Eclipse SDV meetup in Japan at the Trust City Conference Center Marunouchi in Tokyo. 100 participants joined on-site and online.
Akihiko Kawai of Elektrobit Japan opened the event by welcoming the community.
Ansgar Lindwedel of the Eclipse Foundation and Yoshi Kawashima of IBM, one of our Eclipse SDV Ambassadors, shared the latest updates on Eclipse SDV, reflected on the initiative’s progress, and explored how open source enables vendor-neutral collaboration across the global automotive industry.
Adrien Pierret of Elektrobit Japan introduced Eclipse Ankaios, highlighting its lightweight approach to workload orchestration for automotive systems.
Francisco Carneiro of the Eclipse Foundation examined the increasingly complex regulatory landscape for software-defined vehicles and explained how open source collaboration can enable more practical, scalable approaches to compliance.
In the afternoon, Andrea Gallo of RISC-V International and Florian Wohlrab of the OpenHW Foundation discussed how open specifications and open silicon can shape the future of automotive computing. They also explored how collaboration between RISC-V International and the OpenHW Foundation can enable more flexible, vendor-independent hardware for software-defined vehicles.
Ramachandran Chakravadhanula of ZF shared the latest developments in Eclipse OpenSOVD Core, including progress on open, service-oriented vehicle diagnostics and the project’s evolution within the broader Eclipse SDV ecosystem.
Yoshinari Shimazaki of Elektrobit Japan explored what it will take for the industry to converge on an open Vehicle OS, bringing together initiatives such as Eclipse S-CORE, JASPAR API, COVESA VSS, AGL, and Eclipse Ankaios.
The event concluded with further opportunities for networking and conversations across the community.
One meetup participant, Maitê Alves Bezerra, Senior Principal Analyst at OMDIA, commented on LinkedIn:
Great discussions today at the Eclipse SDV Japan Meetup! 🇯🇵🚗
– Maitê Alves Bezerra
Bridging different ecosystems is one of the most critical challenges in the SDV era, so I really enjoyed seeing speakers from Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) and AUTOSAR talking about collaboration rather than operating in isolated silos.
A standout session by Masaki Gondo (eSOL) explored the “convergence zone” between AUTOSAR Adaptive and S-Core, breaking down how they can be used together. ETAS, Elektrobit, and eSOL also provided a good overview of business models for software companies engaging in collaborative, open-source projects such as S-CORE.
Excellent insights and vibrant community energy here in Tokyo.
For more photos, see our Flickr album.
Bridging ecosystems: Automotive World Japan
The Eclipse SDV team also had a strong presence at Automotive World from 9-11 September, where we shared a booth with our partners ETAS, Elektrobit, and Red Hat. Together, we represented key areas of the Eclipse ecosystem. Apart from Eclipse SDV, this included Open Regulatory Compliance (ORC), and OpenHW.
We were there alongside other major organisations in the SDV ecosystem, including COVESA and AUTOSAR. This made Automotive World a great opportunity to engage with the broader SDV community, exchange perspectives, and demonstrate how Eclipse contributes to an increasingly collaborative automotive software landscape.
Throughout the event, we saw significant interest in the Eclipse Automotive Stack, Eclipse S-CORE, and other Eclipse SDV initiatives. We also made valuable connections with major Japanese OEMs, opening up further conversations around open source collaboration and the role of Eclipse technologies in the transition toward software-defined vehicles.
At the same time, it became clear that many people still associate Eclipse primarily with the Eclipse IDE. Automotive World gave us an important opportunity to show how much Eclipse has evolved – from its IDE roots into a broad open source ecosystem tackling some of the automotive industry’s most important software challenges.
A highlight of the event was a joint talk on Eclipse SDV and the role of open source collaboration in the future of software-defined vehicles. In their presentation, “Eclipse SDV: Open Source Supporting Non-Competitive Areas of SDV,” Yoshiyuki Kawashima (IBM), and Ansgar Lindwedel (Eclipse Foundation) introduced Eclipse SDV and highlighted the work of its international community, which comprises more than 60 companies. They explored the opportunities and boundaries of open source collaboration, examining how OEMs and suppliers can jointly develop a common SDV infrastructure layer while focusing their individual resources on differentiated applications.
Overall, the Eclipse SDV Community Meetup and Automotive World were a valuable opportunity to strengthen our presence in the Japanese automotive ecosystem, deepen relationships with OEMs and industry partners, engage with fellow SDV organisations such as COVESA and AUTOSAR, and demonstrate the growing momentum behind Eclipse SDV and its related initiatives. We’ll definitely be back!
For more photos, see our Flickr album.
