BMW is looking for partners to create automobile Open Source platform

Technology news and updates blog article

5th November 2008

The German automobile giant BMW at the conference of Convergence 2008 announced its intention to develop a software open-source platform for use in cars.
The company is now seeking partners for joint development of this Open Source project. According to a BMW representative, they are going to create a software open-source platform for “a vehicle” (car?), sales of which in the near 5-7 years are going to account for about 200 thousand units.
The conference was attended by representatives of other giants of the automotive industry: Chrysler, Ford Motor, General Motors and Honda. Though BMW urged everyone to join their ambitious project, none of these companies gave any response for far. However, a representative of General Motors said that his company is thinking over joining the project, and the decision will be made in the next 6-12 months.
According to Automotive News Europe, the Open Source-platform is planned to be based on Linux. Main technology partners of BMW on the project are the companies Wind River Systems Inc. and Intel Corp.