Customer Success Story
Toyota’s Woven Planet
Toyota creates a visionary vehicle OS, Arene
James Kuffner,
CEO of the Woven Planet Group
Board of Directors, Toyota Motor Corporation
“Arene is our vision for the most programmable vehicle on the planet. Apex.OS embodies our vision of open APIs for developers to weave mobility and autonomy into our daily lives.
It enables agile development and deployment for engineers, shortening the time from concept to deployment, and making rapid innovations in autonomous driving possible at the scale of Toyota.”
Apex.AI and Woven design vehicle-independent APIs
Arene OS provides a real-time, deterministic software platform bridging the core, ADAS, and Cockpit capabilities. The Arene OS team partners with Apex.AI, leveraging Apex.OS ® for its initial product development cycle. The Arene ecosystem has a developer-friendly suite of tools and features to rapidly develop and prototype advanced capabilities like highly autonomous driving. The stack also needs to seamlessly transition from a desktop or cloud machine running simulated scenarios to an automotive ECU for on-road testing in safety-critical situations.
Nikos Michalakis
VP of Software Platform
“We collaborate with Apex.AI to design vehicle-independent Arene APIs for developers using a modular, open-source architecture without compromising critical aspects of safety. Apex.AI’s deep knowledge of how to combine modern, scalable C++ with automotive functional safety standards and requirements helps us execute quickly and successfully. Apex.AI’s excellent product support and engineering services make it a pleasure to work with them.”
Modern C++ with automotive-grade performance and safety
The Functional Safety team at Apex.AI collaborates with the Arene engineering team to analyze the hazards associated with the use cases covered by an Arene-based autonomous vehicle. The Apex.OS Safety Manual, Technical Safety Concept, Safety Analysis, Requirements Traceability Matrix, and other documents such as the AUTOSAR C++14 Compliance Report can be used in order to satisfy ISO 26262 ASIL D requirements.
Implementing a mixed-criticality stack requires mechanisms to ensure Freedom from Interference and predictable fault handling, where Apex.OS features, plugins, and tools are important resources. A detailed security threat analysis and modeling help construct defenses against malicious attacks, which are important to the Woven goal of serving customers as a trusted partner in their daily lives.
In January 2021, Woven Planet Group was formed to expand and improve operations of Toyota Research Institute - Advanced Development (TRI-AD). Woven is responsible for Arene, Toyota’s vehicle development platform to enable modern software development tools and best practices in the automotive industry.
To a production-grade autonomy stack in record time
This approach allows Woven to accelerate the development and testing of a production-ready autonomy stack. With a visionary approach to software development, and benefiting from years of advanced R&D in robotics, Toyota and Woven Planet have achieved far more than other automotive companies. Innovative projects such as the Toyota battery-electric e-Palette Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform show how software can connect autonomous vehicles and connected cities in smart and creative ways.
Jan Becker,
CEO and Co-Founder Apex.AI
“We are thrilled to support Toyota’s Woven Planet Group in pioneering autonomous mobility.
Our partnership illustrates how our customers are creating production-grade prototypes in months, rather than years, and saving billions of dollars in software development — the single largest R&D expense in autonomous system development.
We are grateful to have Toyota as an investor and a partner in making safe autonomous connected vehicles a reality.”