autoware

Autoware is an open-source software stack for self-driving vehicles. It provides all the software components a vehicle needs to drive itself: figuring out where it is on a map (localization), detecting other cars, pedestrians, and obstacles (object detection), planning a route, and sending the right commands to the steering and brakes (control). The project is built on ROS 2, a widely used framework for robotics software that handles communication between the different software components.

This particular repository is the top-level entry point for Autoware. It is mainly a configuration file that tells a build tool which other Autoware repositories to download and assemble into a working workspace. The actual code lives across several companion repositories: autoware_core contains stable, production-quality packages; autoware_universe contains newer experimental packages that researchers and developers use to extend the system; and autoware_launch contains the configuration files needed to start everything up.

The project is governed by the Autoware Foundation, a non-profit that coordinates contributions from companies and research groups around the world. There is no formal barrier to contributing: anyone can comment on issues or submit pull requests to any of the Autoware repositories. The foundation maintains working groups for different areas of the system, and a Discord server for real-time discussion.

If you are evaluating Autoware: it targets real vehicles and simulation environments, not hobby robots. It requires significant hardware and expertise to deploy in a vehicle. The documentation site at autowarefoundation.github.io is the starting point for learning how to set up a development environment and run Autoware in a simulator. The older version built on ROS 1 (Autoware.AI) reached end-of-life in 2022 and is no longer recommended.