Gabriel Tomuța is a Software Engineer at Elektrobit Automotive and an active contributor to Eclipse Ankaios within the Eclipse SDV community. Alongside his industry work, he is a Teaching Assistant and PhD student specialising in AI and collaborative robotics. We spoke with Gabriel about his journey into automotive software, the impact of open source on his career, and why he believes Eclipse SDV and Eclipse Ankaios are helping shape the future of software-defined vehicles.

When and how did you start your career in automotive?

I started my professional career during my first year of university. One of my professors, to whom I am very grateful, was also employed at Elektrobit and encouraged me to submit my CV. Thanks to this opportunity, I unexpectedly entered the automotive industry and started gaining valuable experience alongside my studies.

How has open source software influenced or changed your work and career?

Until Eclipse Ankaios, I didn’t interact a lot with the open source world, but since I got involved, I have only had appreciation for it. It is a breath of fresh air to be able to use technologies with transparent functionality, and even join into solving issues, which helps not only myself, but the whole community, so we can grow together.

What has been your #1 benefit of joining the Eclipse SDV Working Group?

The possibility to contribute your part and see how, together, a complex scenario can be achieved, using only open source projects and the ingenuity of the people working on them.

What’s your 1-sentence pitch for Eclipse Ankaios – why is it worth getting involved in the project?

Eclipse Ankaios is the missing orchestrator layer for SDV, bringing cloud-native orchestration to the automotive space.

How would you describe Eclipse SDV in three hashtags?

#OpenSource #Ingenuity #Unity