Cummins’ open-source telematics solution aims to reduce costs, streamline updates

Cummins is collaborating with Bosch Global Software and KPIT to launch a new open-source project for commercial vehicle telematics that will be part of the Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle project, part of a broader movement to reduce commercial vehicle telematics development costs.

The open-source program, Eclipse CANought, standardizes and secures access to the controller area network bus to enable features such as over-the-air software updates, according to a Cummins announcement on September 25. Acting as the central nervous system for the vehicle, the CAN bus communications network interconnects vehicle electronic control units.

Brad Sutton, Cummins executive director of powertrain engineering, noted Bosch and KPIT’s extensive experience in telematics and CAN communications. “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,” he said.

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Cummins first announced the Open Telematics Framework initiative in 2023 to allow companies to accelerate time to market and reduce costs. The framework would allow each company to write its telematics application once and deploy it to any telematics hardware running the Open Telematics Framework.

This “write once, run anywhere” approach would eliminate the complex customization and reprogramming efforts that have historically burdened telematics application developers. It also incorporates the latest cybersecurity capabilities.

“We believe there is a better way for the industry to advance digital technologies by removing much of the costly and time-consuming development efforts that most companies experience when bringing new telematics applications and features to market,” said Sherry Aaholm, Cummins VP and chief digital officer, said last October. “We are contributing this open telematics infrastructure through a non-commercial license because we believe having a common telematics environment will enable the industry to develop customer-facing applications more quickly and easily, bringing the value to our customers sooner.”

How the Eclipse CANought will work in commercial vehicles

The Eclipse CANought can reduce the time and cost required to develop connectivity applications that access and update vehicle ECUs, according to the global vehicle power and technology company. This greatly simplifies software integration work for OEMs 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.

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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 at Bosch. 

Sven Kappel, VP of product portfolio and architecture for ETAS, explained that the collaboration will empower customers to deploy software updates to all vehicle systems simultaneously. “By establishing standard interfaces, our update systems can easily connect with OEM and Tier 1 ECU software update mechanisms,” he said.

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.

“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” Anup Sable, CTO for KPIT Technologies, said.

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