In ZF software-defined automotive solutions, high-performance computers and software play a core role. In the electronic and electrical architecture of the next generation of travel vehicles, they will control all important functions and play a role in connecting the automobile system with the outside world.
ZF middleware is an open software platform, which plays a "bridge" role between the operating system of vehicle-mounted computers and their software applications. The key function of middleware is the communication between software applications and them, which is independent of computer hardware. Actual software functions, such as autopilot, can be built on middleware.
Vertex OS is a meta-operating system derived from the robot operating system (ROS), which was originally developed for robot applications. Vertex Ai company further developed this system for the automobile industry, and obtained ASIL D certification according to ISO 26262 automobile functional safety standard. Therefore, this kind of core software for high-performance on-board computers, including related software development kits, is ready-made, which enables automobile manufacturers to choose to deploy their limited manpower in other fields and provide significantly differentiated products for end customers. Vertex OS can be applied to all types of vehicles, such as passenger cars, self-driving taxis, feeder cars and commercial vehicles, regardless of the degree of automation of vehicles.
Vertex OS is written in the new C++ programming language standard, which makes each component highly reusable. This method is an alternative communication framework of Adaptive Autosar standard, which is widely used in automobile industry. According to the preferences of different automobile manufacturers, ZF can offer these two options to its customers.