The Eclipse S‑CORE project explores how an open source project can provide a code base suitable for safety‑critical automotive use cases by combining open collaboration with traceable alignment to standards such as ISO 26262, ISO/SAE 21434, and ASPICE.

This talk examines how these standards are applied in practice. It outlines the project’s process model, explains how development activities are linked to traceability artifacts, and reflects on experiences from safety-related audits, including initial gaps and the adaptations required to address them.

It highlights where established open source practices align naturally with automotive expectations, and where additional structure or constraints are needed. In some areas, this leads to processes that are closer to traditional automotive development than to typical open source workflows. The talk also addresses the impact on the community, including friction introduced by safety and compliance requirements, and how the project balances these with collaborative development.

Based on these experiences, the session provides a pragmatic perspective on how safety‑critical requirements can be addressed in an open source setting. It also discusses which elements—such as traceability concepts, docs‑as‑code approaches, and the use of modern languages like C++ and Rust—can be selectively reused in other contexts.

By sharing both effective approaches and encountered limitations, the talk aims to support a realistic understanding of what it takes to align open source development with safety and security standards.

Short Bio:

Philipp Ahmann is an Automotive OSS Process Manager at ETAS GmbH (a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH), specializing in safety-critical open source software and processes in the automotive domain. With more than 15 years of experience in Linux-based automotive platforms, he has held various roles ranging from software engineer to project and line manager. In addition, he has experience in technical business development and product management for embedded open source software products.

He currently serves as Chair of the Technical Steering Committee of the Linux Foundation’s ELISA project, which focuses on enabling the use of Linux in functional safety applications. Furthermore, he is a member of the Advisory Board of Linux Foundation Europe and regularly contributes to the Eclipse Safe Open Vehicle Core project for Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV) as an official committer.