Eclipse OpenADx Working Group Charter
Version v1.2. Revision history is at end of document.
Vision and Scope
Autonomous driving (AD) is an extremely complex challenge with a complex development process,
which is slowed at every turn by incompatibility between widely used development tools. The tools
we already use in and of themselves are very good, but they do not work seamlessly with one
another simply because they were never designed to work with each other.
This is an
industry-wide issue. It slows us all down in the race to automated driving. It costs money
and precious resources to reduce the problem to a manageable level. And the thing about it is that
the tool chain itself is not something we can monetize.
All major stakeholders/users have issues associated with tool incompatibility, data conversion and lost time.
We lessen this problem by creating the leading automated driving ecosystem ➢ OpenADx
We leverage open collaboration and open source to
- Accelerate time to market
- Increase efficiency
- Focus on customers
It is the goal of this working group (WG) to deliver
- An industry-wide accepted definition of the AD toolchain
- A reference architecture defining the interoperability of interesting in scope technologies
- Open Source projects for better interoperability and functionality of the established development tools
The working group will:
- Coordinate the development of related Eclipse Foundation projects towards an OpenADx framework.
- Define and manage the specifications for interfaces and functions for the framework.
- Promote the OpenADx framework and its value.
- Provide a vendor neutral marketing and other services to the OpenADx ecosystem.
- Define licensing and intellectual property flows that encourage community participation and tool adoption.
- Drive the funding model that enables this working group and its community to operate on a sustainable basis.
Technical Scope
The OpenADx working group will coordinate the development of Eclipse Foundation projects on the following topics:
- Implementation of interfaces between the development steps
- Implementation of common standards from other working groups (e.g. VDA Leitinitiative)
- Definition of an initial setup for fast implementation
- Ensures interoperability between development stages
Projects hosted by the Eclipse Foundation in the context of the OpenADx working group apply the Eclipse Development Process and best practices of openness, transparency and meritocracy. As such, these projects are open to participation by developers or contributors. They can submit contributions to the project that will be considered for inclusion by the project committers. Committer status is acquired by contributors after election by existing committers as described in the Eclipse Foundation Development Process.
Governance and Precedence
The following governance documents are applicable to this charter, each of which can be found on the Eclipse Foundation Governance Documents page or the Eclipse Foundation Legal Resources page:
Applicable Documents
- Eclipse Foundation Bylaws
- Eclipse Foundation Working Group Process
- Eclipse Foundation Working Group Operations Guide
- Eclipse Foundation Membership Agreement
- Eclipse Foundation Intellectual Property Policy
- Eclipse Foundation Antitrust Policy
- Eclipse Foundation Development Process
- Eclipse Foundation Trademark Usage Guidelines
All Members of the working group must be parties to the Eclipse Foundation Membership Agreement, including the requirement set forth in Section 2.2 to abide by and adhere to the Bylaws and then-current policies of the Eclipse Foundation, including but not limited to the Intellectual Property and Antitrust Policies.
In the event of any conflict between the terms set forth in this working group's charter and the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws, Membership Agreement, Development Process, Working Group Process, or any policies of the Eclipse Foundation, the terms of the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws, Membership Agreement, process, or policy shall take precedence.
Membership
In order to participate in the OpenADx working group, an entity must be at least a Contributing Member of the Eclipse Foundation, have executed the OpenADx Participation Agreement, and adhere to the requirements set forth in this Charter.
The OpenADx working group is open at any time to all new members who meet these conditions.
Classes of OpenADx Membership
The membership classes of the OpenADx WG are established to reflect the different interest situations of the members. The membership class has to be declared by the potential member in his OpenADx WG participation agreement. The membership class of each OpenADx WG member is checked once a year.
- Driver Members
Driver Members are typically organizations that view the OpenADx activities as strategic to their
organization and are willing to invest significant resources to sustain and shape the activities
of this working group as well as maintain the scope of OpenADx.
Driver Members include
industry users and strategic contributors related to the technologies and results provided by the
OpenADx working group.
Driver members will lead the operation of the working group, support
the OpenADx projects and will act as first contact of the working group.
- Development Members
Development Members are organizations that are interested to benefit from the OpenADx community. They will lead or participate in OpenADx projects and investigate the technical questions. They will propose and execute the OpenADx projects according to the processes defined by the OpenADx working group. Development members will invest efforts to the OpenADx projects as defined in the proposal.
- User Members
User Members use the technologies and results provided by the OpenADx WG. They want to keep track
of the OpenADx development but do not want to influence in an essential way.
User Members
are willed and allowed to work on and bring their ideas in this working group, but they have no
voice in the decision process. Typical User Members include industry users of the technologies and
results provided by the OpenADx working group. Most User Members operate testing processes as part
of their core business.
- Guests
Guests are organizations who have been invited for one year by the Steering Committee of OpenADx WG to participate in some aspects of the activities of the Working Group. Typical Guests include all stakeholders in automated driving and beyond, such as R&D partners, academic entities, legislators, consumer protection advocates, insurance companies, and potential future full-fledged members who want to have a closer look before deciding on their strategy. When Guests are invited to an OpenADx WG body for meetings, they have no right to vote. Invitations may be renewed by the Steering Committee. Guests are required to sign the participation agreement.
Guests need to be at least Eclipse Associate Members.
OpenADx WG Participation Fees
The Steering Committee will establish annual participation fees, and these fees will be reviewed and ratified by the Steering Committee on an annual basis. All participants in the working group will be informed of any changes in the participation fees, and this charter will be updated to reflect the established participation fees. The OpenADx Participation Agreement will stipulate that all members agree to pay the participation fees.
In addition to annual participation fees, member organizations participating in OpenADx are expected to contribute employee service days to the benefit of the working group. Results for employee service days can be delivered as:
- result packages or
- service packages.
The corresponding packages or services have to be offered in advance to and accepted by the steering committee.
The Steering Committee shall establish an annual budget, and in conjunction with Eclipse Foundation staff, shall administer that budget on behalf of the working group.
All members are welcome to make voluntary donations of both additional funding and employee service days to the benefit of the working group.
Case of Violation
All members of OpenADx agree to adhere to the Eclipse Bylaws and this charter, including to meet their financial and employee service day commitments. The Steering Committee is responsible for auditing the employee service day contributions of members, and will inform Eclipse Management Organization (EMO) of any member failing to meet its commitments.
Governance
This OpenADx working group is designed as:
- a member driven organization,
- a means to foster a vibrant and sustainable ecosystem of components and service providers,
- a means to organize the community of each project or component so that users and developers define the roadmap collaboratively.
In order to implement these principles, the “Steering Committee” as the sole governance body for the working group during the incubation phase has been defined.
In addition, a general meeting of the working group, open to all members, shall be held at least once annually.
Steering Committee
Powers and Duties
Steering Committee members are required to:
- Define and manage the strategy of the working group.
- Define and manage specification work packages and other non-implementation related activities within the scope of this working group.
- Define and manage which Eclipse Foundation projects are included within the scope of this working group.
- Define and manage the roadmap of the working group.
- Review and ratify this charter.
- Define the annual fees and employee service days for all classes of working group membership.
- Approve the annual budget based upon funds received through fees.
- Contribute to the acquisition of new working group members by actively engaging in community development and evangelism
Composition
- Each Driver Member of the working group has one seat on the Steering Committee.
- Two seats are allocated to Development Members. Development Member seats are allocated following the Eclipse "Single Transferable Vote", as defined in the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws. Elected Development Members have the right to participate in every Steering Committee meeting.
- One seat is allocated to User Members. User Member seats are allocated following the Eclipse "Single Transferable Vote", as defined in the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws. Elected User Members have the right to participate in every Steering Committee meeting.
The Steering Committee elects among its Driver Members a chair who will serve as their chair for a 12 month period or until their successor is elected or as otherwise provided for in this Charter.
Meeting Management
- The Steering Committee meets at least twice a year.
Common Dispositions
- The dispositions below apply to all governance bodies for this working group, unless otherwise specified. For all matters related to membership action, including without limitation: meetings, quorum, voting, electronic voting action without meeting, vacancy, resignation or removal, the respective terms set forth in the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws apply.
Voting
- For actions (i) approving specifications for adoption; (ii) approving or changing the name of the working group; and (iii) approving changes to annual Member contribution requirements; any such actions must be approved by no less than two-thirds (2/3) of the representatives present at a committee meeting.
Term and Dates of Elections
- This section only applies to the Steering Committee. All representatives shall hold office until their respective successors are appointed or elected, as applicable. There shall be no prohibition on re-election or re-designation of any representative following the completion of that representative’s term of office.
- Elected representatives shall each serve one-year terms and shall be elected to serve from July 1 to June 30 of each calendar year, or until their respective successors are elected and qualified.
Meetings Management
- All meetings may be held at any place that has been designated by resolution of the corresponding body. All meetings may be held remotely using phone calls, video calls or any other means as designated by resolution of the corresponding body.
Infrastructure
- The OpenADx Working Group uses the normal infrastructure provided to Eclipse projects, including, among others, mailing lists, forums, bug trackers, source code repositories, continuous integration servers, build servers, and web sites.
Community Building
- The Eclipse Foundation will provide access to its network of developers to facilitate the community building and the dissemination of the OpenADx innovations. The Eclipse Foundation will use its communication channels such as its Newsletter, Twitter, or LinkedIn channels to promote key OpenADx events and encourage its members to join and participate in the OpenADx working group.
Membership Fee Structure
The following table lists the OpenADx working group fees payable to the Eclipse Foundation. Fee structure to be in place by January 1, 2021. Note these fees are in addition to the fees for membership in the Eclipse Foundation; these fees are listed in the Eclipse Foundation membership fee table.
Annual Corporate Revenue | WG Fees Driver Member | WG Fees Development Member | WG Fees User Member |
---|---|---|---|
> $250 million | TBD | TBD | TBD |
> $100 million <= $250 million | TBD | TBD | TBD |
> $50 million <= $100 million | TBD | TBD | TBD |
> $10 million <= $50 million | TBD | TBD | TBD |
< $10 million | TBD | TBD | TBD |
< $1 million < 10 employees | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Membership Privileges
Privilege | Driver Member | Development Member | User Member | Guests |
---|---|---|---|---|
Steering Committee | Appointed | Elected | Elected | - |
Charter Version History
- v1.2 Updates in support of the Eclipse Foundation corporate restructuring and to remove references to the incubation period
- v1.1 update June 24, 2020 - to reflect post-incubation period changes related to steering committee composition and fee structure
- v1.0 update June 25, 2019 - added election of a steering committee chairman
- v0.2 update May 17, 2019 - clarified participation fees and incubation period
- v0.1.1 update May 16, 2019 - added reference to OpenADx Participation Agreement
- v0.1 created April 28, 2019