On Friday, October 2, 2020, several Autoware.Auto contributors successfully demonstrated the Autoware.Auto open source stack executing Autonomous Valet Parking (AVP). This marks a major milestone for open-source self-driving technology, showing the results of two years of work coming together nicely on an autonomous-ready Lexus RX450H in a pre-mapped parking lot in San Jose, CA.

The demonstration itself was the culmination of a week of intense effort from contributors around the world, working around the clock to put the finishing touches on the low-speed maneuvers needed to accomplish the park and retrieve functions. The flawless performance highlights the engineering quality built into the ground-up design of the open-source Autoware.Auto software stack, intended to serve as a strong starting point for companies developing autonomous systems for commercial, mission-critical, or safety-critical uses.

The Autoware Foundation wishes to thank all the individuals and companies involved in making this happen. We hope to share more details on the effort soon through the Autoware Foundation blog. Meanwhile, you can see the community posting and celebratory reactions through ROS Discourse here!

We believe that open standards and open-source reference implementations will significantly accelerate autonomy. We hope that this important milestone will draw more developers interest in contributing to future milestones on the road to full autonomous driving!