Foundational components of RTI Connext Drive certified to ISO 26262 ASIL D

This is a the mosy stringent Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) for road vehicles, claim the company. Connext Drive is already proven-in-use as the underlying software framework for multiple production vehicle models on the road today, leading to more than 64% compound annual revenue growth (CAGR) over the last three years. ASIL D certification provides OEMs with even more assurance of Connext Drive suitability for safety-critical applications, including autonomous driving and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

Software-defined capabilities are a fundamental differentiator in autonomous and electric vehicles. To remain competitive, OEMs must continually innovate, and software development agility is essential. However, it can be stymied by automotive software’s exploding volume and complexity. The need for safety assurance further compounds this challenge. 

Connext Drive accelerates innovation by allowing OEMs to evolve their autonomy applications quickly and cost effectively. Unlike legacy electrical/electronic architectural approaches designed for static vehicle software, Connext Drive employs an agile data-centric integration paradigm. It allows architects to decompose systems software into fine-grained and loosely-coupled 'microservices'.

These services only need knowledge of the types of data they exchange, not of the implementation or even presence of any other service. Thus, developers can add and update services to introduce new capabilities without having to modify or re-certify any other software components. Connext Drive is the first data-centric software framework certified to ASIL D. 

Connext Drive is part of an expansive automotive ecosystem and is compliant with the Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard. It is integrated with the majority of automotive operating systems, technologies and platforms – including AUTOSAR and ROS 2 – providing architects and system engineers with maximum flexibility in developing their full stack solution.

With this announcement, Connext Drive now supports QNX OS for Safety to ISO 26262 ASIL D, the safe RTOS, offering a reliable and low-risk path to safe, production-grade vehicles. 

“Safety, security and reliability are essential in the design of automotive systems,” said Grant Courville, VP, Products and Strategy at BlackBerry QNX.

“With this achievement, RTI joins BlackBerry QNX in offering products certified to the highest level of ISO 26262. Automotive customers can now leverage solutions like the safety-certified Connext Drive and QNX OS for Safety to reduce risk and simplify their overall system certification requirements.”