"The 'European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance' (ECAVA) is an essential building block to secure the competitiveness of the European automotive industry, strengthen technological sovereignty and drive innovation along the entire automotive value chain.

ECAVA addresses key future topics such as software-defined vehicles, the development of AI models, automotive hardware, and automated and autonomous driving. It is therefore all the more important to resolutely pursue the stated goal of rapidly producing solutions ready for serial manufacturing. This should be achieved through a milestone plan that also outlines concrete potential measures. Accompanying funding projects must be efficient and targeted, supporting ongoing activities. Parallel structures would only create additional burdens and must be avoided at all costs.

The VDA is contributing its expertise in a targeted manner—particularly in the further development of automated driving and the establishment of the recently initiated open-source ecosystem for software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The automotive industry is already making its own contribution. With the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on software-defined vehicles, it is pooling resources in Europe to establish common standards and drastically increase the efficiency of developing non-differentiating software. This creates the foundation for high-performance, safe, and globally competitive vehicle software—and simultaneously sends a clear signal for greater technological independence. Collaborative software development based on open source and a 'code first' approach enables cooperation between industry and technology partners. This ensures that software innovations from Europe reach vehicles faster, more efficiently, and safely."