SOAFEE APAC Seminar Tokyo 2025 – Blueprints in Motion
By Tobias McBride – SOAFEE Member and Blueprint Manager
SOAFEE in bloom
Auto minds and layers align
Blueprints light the way
My first time in Tokyo was more than a trip—it was a turning point. On May 15th, 2025, the SOAFEE community gathered for the 4th APAC Seminar; this time in Tokyo. A new energy pulsed through the room. We weren’t just talking concepts. We were discussing execution— real deployments, real demos, real SOAFEE Blueprints. SOAFEE really in action. In short; SOAFEE really is operating at full speed!
Like the Haiku, the day unfolded in three acts: growth, alignment, and action.
Growth: SOAFEE Expands and Connects
The morning opened with Robert Day (MSC Chair), who set the stage for the day, and highlighted just how far SOAFEE has come. He underscored that 40% of SOAFEE members are now APAC-based and celebrated Panasonic Automotive Systems joining the SOAFEE Governing Body. He also encouraged new Blueprint ideas, spotlighting the importance of community contributions, multi-member Blueprints and the promotion opportunities.
John Penn (TSC Chair) followed with a focused message on execution of SOAFEE.next: “We’re done—but not done done,” he said, acknowledging that while the architectural groundwork is complete and with initial features added, the mission now is to scale, standardize, and deliver the broader focus. His call to action: bring technologies and standards together through Blueprints and drive forward the SOAFEE API Layers—an effort to define a consistent interface model for automotive software.
Jerry Zhao rounded out the opening with a passionate update on the SOAFEE APAC Hub, which he leads. With APAC taking a major share of active members and many of the most dynamic member Blueprints, the hub has become a focal point for momentum, collaboration, and innovation across the region.
Alignment: Blueprints and the API Future
Blueprints were not just a buzzword. They were the organizing, foundational principle of the day.
- John Penn outlined how SOAFEE API Layers are guiding community alignment.
- Robert Day emphasized the importance of turning Blueprints into real-world tools.
- Jerry Zhao showed how the APAC community is leading that transformation.
The consistent message: Blueprints are how SOAFEE builds, shares, and scales. Solving real- world problems, together.
Action: OEMs, Demos, and Deployment
The voice of the OEMs was loud and clear.
Hyundai detailed their chip-to-factory virtual platform pipeline, accelerating software development without waiting on hardware.
GAC shared a practical model for deploying SOAFEE at scale, leveraging containerization, service orchestration, and flexible compute allocation.
Determinism emerged as a recurring theme—across middleware, architecture, and behavior. With input from DENSO, eSOL, and Autocore, it’s clear that reliable, predictable systems will define success for the software-defined vehicle (SDV).
Demo Showcase: Blueprints in Action
The demo area featured some of the most dynamic and concrete implementations of SOAFEE to date:
AutoCore: Showcased a flexible, SOAFEE-aligned SDV solution supporting multiple chipsets and functional domains.
AWS: Demonstrated the RD1-AE stack integrating Arm Safety Island and cloud- based workloads running on Graviton.
Cadence: Introduced the Helium Multisimulate platform for fast, virtualized SDV development.
DENSO: Highlighted deterministic middleware and a Lingua Franca-enabled ADAS stack for real-time scheduling.
EPAM: Showed multi-node orchestration using AosEdge with unikernel architecture for mixed-criticality control.
eSOL: Focused on building deterministic SDV platforms using real-time OS, partitioned hypervisors, and safety frameworks.
Hitachi Astemo: Presented their SOAFEE-aligned IoV platform and virtual development environment.
LeddarTech: Brought LeddarVision’s raw data fusion for ADAS integration into the SOAFEE ecosystem.
Lenovo: Demonstrated the CASP platform, a cloud-native NVIDIA-based development system for ADAS.
- Panasonic Automotive Systems:
vSkipGen: A virtualized development platform for cockpit and ECU software.
Unified HMI: Demonstrated VirtIO-based multi-display cockpit UI/UX consolidation.
Red Hat: Showed a cloud-to-car pipeline using OpenShift and Podman for SOAFEE workload lifecycle management.
Siemens: Demonstrated PAVE360’s integration of virtual ECUs for early SDV validation.
Thundersoft: Deployed an end-to-end SDV reference stack atop EWAOL with infotainment and orchestration tools.
Autoware Foundation: Ran Autoware’s autonomous driving stack on a SOAFEE-compatible platform, illustrating open-source mobility.
These weren’t static posters. These were live, working examples of SOAFEE in motion— Blueprints you could touch, test, and learn from.
Validation and Community Confidence
The SOAFEE Integration Lab, led by Linaro, continues to provide the bedrock for quality assurance. With nightly CI, compliance testing, and support for both EWAOL and non- EWAOL platforms, the lab ensures Blueprints don’t just look good—they run reliably across vendors.
So, What’s Next?
- Scale the Blueprints—take working stacks and turn them into shared solutions.
- Standardize the layers—via SOAFEE APIs, defined and validated through collaboration.
- Deepen the hub model—build on the APAC momentum.
- Use the Integration Lab—validate your work, accelerate the community.
Let the Blueprints Bloom
We began with a Haiku—a small poetic shape capturing a big movement. And we end with that same spirit:
Growth: 40% APAC members. New governing body member. Broader Blueprints.
Alignment: API layers. Collaborative Blueprints. OEM alignment.
Action: Real deployments. Tested solutions. The road ahead.
Tokyo 2025 reminded us that SOAFEE isn’t just a spec or initiative. It’s a collaborative cycle, where open standards meet working code. The Blueprints are here. The builders are ready.
Let’s light the way forward—together.