Cummins, Bosch and KPIT join forces to launch open telematics software for CVs

Cummins Inc has announced a collaboration with Bosch Global Software and India’s KPIT to launch Eclipse CANought, a new open-source project for commercial vehicle telematics that will be launched as part of the Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle project. This is a part of the broader Open Telematics initiative to reduce the costs required to develop telematics applications in commercial vehicles.

“Cummins is partnering with two industry experts on this project, Bosch Global Software and KPIT, two companies that have extensive expertise in vehicle telematics and CAN communications,” said Brad Sutton, Executive Director, Powertrain Engineering, Cummins Inc. “Our combined expertise and experience enable us to innovate and create new solutions faster than we could individually, creating real value for our customers and their businesses.”

Open-source model as an innovation accelerator
Eclipse CANought creates industry-specific capabilities focused on standardizing and securing access to the CAN (Controller Area Network) bus to more easily enable features, such as over-the-air software updates. A CAN bus is a serial communications network that interconnects vehicle ECUs (Electronic Control Units), acting as the central nervous system for the vehicle.

These capabilities significantly reduce the time and cost required to develop connectivity applications that access and update vehicle ECUs. This greatly simplifies software integration work for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and suppliers.

“This collaboration among industry leaders is just one more example of how the open-source model fuels innovation in the automotive sector, making advancements accessible industry-wide. CANought is particularly exciting as it merges open-source collaboration with established industry standards and architectures such as CAN and SAE J1939, accelerating the development of Software Defined Vehicle applications," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director at the Eclipse Foundation.

Eclipse CANought provides standard and secure access to vehicle ECUs for telematics applications. It complements an existing project, Eclipse Kanto, which provides a hardware-agnostic solution for running containerized applications across any variety of telematics hardware.

“At Bosch Global Software, we believe that coordinated software updates are crucial for the commercial vehicle industry as more countries implement new regulations for cyber security,” said Pracheth Rao, Senior Director of SDV programs, BGSW. “This new collaboration will enable customers to more effectively deploy software updates to all of the vehicle systems simultaneously,” said Sven Kappel, VP Product Portfolio and architecture SDV, ETAS. “By establishing standard interfaces, our update systems can easily connect with OEM and Tier 1 ECU software update mechanisms.”

Over the next few months, Cummins, Bosch BGSW, ETAS, and KPIT will continue to contribute to the Eclipse CANought project. These contributions will be analyzed and improved by the larger Eclipse SDV community as they are made production-ready.

“KPIT is proud to be a trusted software partner to Cummins for over two decades. We are delighted to bring the power of KPIT’s remote diagnostics and OTA technology solutions to Cummins products deployed in commercial vehicles. This open-source, standardized solution, backed by Eclipse Foundation, will be a game-changer in the experience for engineering and service professionals in the commercial vehicle space” said Anup Sable, CTO, KPIT Technologies.

Eclipse Kanto and Eclipse CANought will be incorporated into telematics offerings being brought to market starting in 2025.

Lead photo: Subhash Simhudu

ALSO READ: 
KPIT's Kishor Patil talks on NEVs and AI at World Economic Forum

KPIT's net profit rises by 52.4% during Q1FY25 to Rs 204.16 crore

KPIT to hike stake in Cloud-based in-vehicle gaming company to 26%