In the era of software-defined vehicles, software, AI and high-performance computing are increasingly shaping vehicle capabilities. As end-to-end AI models and automotive computing platforms evolve, production-ready autonomous driving requires closer integration between AI software, system software and vehicle processors.
Tier IV is collaborating with Renesas Electronics Corporation to build an open AI-native computing platform for software-defined vehicles. The partnership combines Tier IV’s autonomous driving software technologies such as its reference AI models as well as Autoware, the world’s leading open-source software for autonomous driving, with Renesas’s next-generation R-Car automotive system-on-chips (SoCs) to deliver scalable solutions spanning Level 2+/2++ advanced driver assistance through Level 4 autonomous driving. This collaboration aims to establish an open hardware and software platform that enables the continuous evolution of AI-powered vehicles.
As the key developer of Autoware, Tier IV initiated the collaboration with Renesas to further expand the open ecosystem and advance safer, more intelligent and continuously evolving mobility.
Scope of the collaboration
Tier IV will adopt Renesas’s R-Car Gen 5 as one of the primary reference computing platforms for Autoware and future AI-native autonomous driving technologies.
The two companies will jointly optimize and promote this integrated hardware and software platform for auto makers and Tier 1 suppliers worldwide, enabling faster development and deployment of SDVs.
Tier IV will port and optimize Autoware on Renesas’s R-Car Gen 5 automotive SoCs. Building on this software foundation, Tier IV also plans to deploy its reference AI models – E2E autonomous driving AI models – on R-Car Gen 5.
By combining conventional autonomous driving software with AI-native driving models on a common computing platform, the joint development aims to deliver highly scalable autonomous driving solutions covering both today’s production advanced driver-assistance systems and future Level 4 autonomous driving systems.
Looking beyond current-generation automotive SoCs, Tier IV is developing AI accelerators optimized for transformer-based autonomous driving AI as well as next-generation sensing technologies including lidar and 4D radar.
Initial demonstration
Tier IV plans to demonstrate Autoware and its reference AI models running on Renesas’s R-Car X5H at Automotive World 2026, which is taking place September 9-11 at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, Japan. The demonstration will showcase the integration of open autonomous driving software, AI-native driving models and automotive-grade computing on a unified platform.
“SDVs require more than just powerful AI models,” said Shinpei Kato, founder and CEO of Tier IV. “They also require computing platforms that allow those models to run efficiently, safely and at scale in production vehicles. We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Renesas to build an open AI-native computing platform by combining Autoware, our reference AI models and Renesas’s next-generation R-Car automotive SoCs. We will continue expanding the open-source ecosystem centered on Autoware while accelerating the deployment of scalable autonomous driving solutions from Level 2+/2++ to Level 4.”
“R-Car Gen 5 represents our vision for a new generation of automotive computing, where software, AI and vehicle intelligence must work together on a common platform,” said Aish Dubey, VP and head of SoC division at Renesas Electronics Corporation. “With our collaboration with Tier IV, we are helping bring that vision to life.”
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