Mike said it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to set up the Automotive Working Group Mailing List.

Little does he know how long it can take me. I really had a long discussion with the mailman admin interface, but now it seems to work.

Now what is this mailing list good for?

As some of you already know, a group of people from auto makers, T1 suppliers and a few member companies have gathered for 2 meetings at Bosch in Stuttgart, Germany. The first one took place just after Eclipse Summit last year, and the second took place just 2 weeks ago.

What is it all about? Its about a platform for E/E tools. E/E stands for electrics and electronics. And pretty much every car maker and every supplier in the industry needs to have a dedicated tool chain to architect and develop the in-car electrics, electronics and the related software. You might not know it, but nowadays mid-size cars have about 30-50 ECUs (that's an electronic control unit – you can also call it a computer if you want) and high-end cars might have up to 90 ECUs.

So this is a considerable network to plan and manage, and as these units need to collaborate more and more, things become quite interesting. And trust me : It's not just about a UML tool. Its actually a pretty complex tool chain, spanning from requirements management to testing and validation of the complete system. Now just imagine how difficult it is to manage such a variety of tools that have nothing in common.

So the idea is to use the Eclipse platform to mutually define and implement a common layer for the auto industry. Obviously, the group tries to respect existing efforts such as artop and Edona and other programs. And we also want to steal (or should I say re-use?) from other programs such as Topcased.

Are you getting interested? Then check out the mailing list. And we hope to have a wiki up any time soon now.

If you want to know more about it, let's talk. If you come to Eclipse Con, just grab me for a coffee (or a beer). If not, just send an email to me or to the mailing list.

Ralph