Wind River, Horizon Robotics partner to advance smart driving systems

Listen to this article

Wind River, a developer of software for mission-critical intelligent systems and a subsidiary of Aptiv, has announced a strategic collaboration with Horizon Robotics, a Chinese developer of computing systems for advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) for consumer vehicles. 

The collaboration was formed with the goal of advancing smart driving systems. The companies plan to allow OEMs to leverage a fully integrated ADAS hardware and software system based on Horizon’s Journey series computing systems and the Wind River cloud-to-edge portfolio. 

The two companies also hope to reduce time-to-market and cost by simplifying development and integration. 

“Our collaboration with Horizon is an important step in building an open, innovative, and collaborative ecosystem, which is paramount to the development of the smart mobility industry,” Avijit Sinha, chief product officer of Wind River, said. “The combination of Wind River software and Horizon hardware will allow OEMs to better leverage the advantages of localized development and delivery for next-generation automotive solutions. Together, we look forward to further advancing the software-defined vehicle and smart driving.”

The system that could someday result from the collaboration will combine high-performance and cost-effective technologies that are suited to next-generation applications, like automated driving and powering the software-defined vehicle. 

“The auto industry in China is transforming tremendously, and Horizon continues to create the computational foundation for the era of smart vehicles,” Dr. Kai Yu, Founder and CEO of Horizon, said. “We are committed to improving the efficiency and enhancement of automated driving by collaborating with upstream and downstream partners and are honored to establish this collaboration with Wind River. By leveraging the core capabilities of Horizon and Wind River, we will provide differentiated integrated solutions for OEMs, resulting in safer and optimized mobility for consumers.”

Horizon’s Journey series of computing systems cover all scenarios of automated driving. With the partnership, the two companies will enable the use of Wind River software, including VxWorks, a real-time operation system (RTOS), the Helix Virtualization Platform, a safety-certified Type 1 hypervisor-based multi-tenet platform, Linus, and Study, on Horizon’s Journey series product. 

Aptiv acquired Wind River at the beginning of 2022 for $4.3 billion. Wind River generated approximately $400 million in revenue in 2021. The company has passed through several different hands in its lifetime, Intel acquired the company in 2008 for $884 million. Then, Intel sold it to TPG Capital in 2018 for an undisclosed amount.

Horizon was founded in 2015, and is best known for its vehicle chip Journey series, a line of automotive-grade smart chips. The company also offers its Horizon Hobot Platform, a hardware and software robotics development platform.  The Horizon Hobot Platform gives developers a set of services, ranging from underlying computing, to development tools to algorithm cases, that aim to accelerate the robot development process.