Success-Plan Services
Niheer Patel
As the automotive landscape continues to evolve, Connext Drive helps accelerate the move towards software-defined vehicles (SDVs) by abstracting applications from the underlying architecture. In order to support this, Connext Drive’s functionality is expanding to meet the increasing demand for rapid, reliable data exchange over diverse automotive platforms.
As the industry’s pioneering platform-independent, certified communications framework, Connext Drive is currently running in production environments around the world, providing enhanced data delivery, dynamic configuration, seamless integration with sensor networks, and meeting advanced fleet management needs. These Connext Drive capabilities enable distributed teams to balance functional safety and flexibility in next-gen vehicle development.
Connext Drive 3.0, released in November 2023, provided additional support for SDV development through platform independent ASIL-D safety certification and streamlined AUTOSAR integration. Today, we build upon that foundation in our latest product release.
Introducing Connext Drive 3.1
Connext Drive 3.1 provides enhanced DDS™-based productivity and security capabilities that are supported under the RTI Long-Term Support (LTS) model, helping distributed development teams streamline and accelerate production. These capabilities elevate your SDV projects to new heights. Some of the highlights include:
- Observability Framework: Enhanced system visibility and diagnostic capabilities, gives developers a tool to gain deep insights into the inner workings of their distributed systems. The Observability Framework seamlessly integrates real-time monitoring, metrics collection, and streamlined debugging into the workflow for optimal performance and reliability.
- Python API: Recognizing the growing popularity of Python for SDV projects, Connext Drive now includes a Python API. This provides developers with a more accessible and intuitive interface to build and integrate different aspects of autonomous systems. Python developers can now leverage the full potential of Connext Drive with ease, opening up new possibilities for rapid prototyping, simulation, and testing.
Connext Drive 3.1 also rolls out enhanced security features that help to safeguard vehicle data and communications without compromising system efficiency. New features include:
- Dynamic Certificate Management: RTI is the first DDS implementation to support complete certificate lifecycle management with built-in security plugins, from initial issuance through renewal and revocation. Any changes take effect immediately without the need to restart the applications, avoiding service disruption or vulnerability.
- Lightweight Security: Complementing RTI’s built-in security plugins, Connext leverages pre-shared keys to enable a lightweight security framework that provides robust protection with minimal performance overhead.
Ready to experience a game-changing approach to building and securing SDVs? We’re inviting customers currently in the development stage to take Connext Drive 3.1 for a free test drive today. For a quick overview of our solution, you can also watch the Connext Drive video trailer.
About the author:
Niheer Patel, Director of Product Management, RTI
Niheer Patel brings a decade and half of experience in embedded safety and security to RTI. Niheer oversees the product management team and entire product suite. In the past he has launched market leading products, Connext Drive (Automotive) and Connext TSS (Aviation) and played a central role in delivering safety certified products to market.