Schaeffler and Qorix Join Forces on Vehicle Software, With Robots Next in Line

Schaeffler and Qorix Join Forces to Advance Software-Defined Vehicles

Schaeffler and Qorix have formed a strategic partnership to build software platforms for future vehicle architectures and intelligent machines. The two companies will develop these platforms together, integrate them and take them to market. The deal was announced on 12 October 2026 from Regensburg and Munich. Cars come first, and robotics and industrial automation are planned as the next step.

Schaeffler brings hardware platforms, cross-domain controllers and many years of system-integration work. It also has expertise in safety-critical driving and comfort functions. Qorix brings middleware that is ready for series production, along with the work of fitting it onto central computing platforms. Its Qorix Performance software handles deterministic communication and manages software across the whole product lifecycle. It also supports functional safety in line with ISO 26262.

For carmakers, the pitch is less integration work and shorter development cycles. The partners also say they can get software-defined vehicle architectures into industrial production faster. Both see the deal as a way to push integrated hardware and software for central vehicle computers and software-defined architectures. The first joint solutions are due to go into customer projects.

Both companies take part in Eclipse S-CORE, an open-source software framework for software-defined vehicles. They expect their joint work there to make development quicker and more consistent and to reduce integration effort. It should also let customers reuse software across vehicle generations and across different customer programmes.

As there is a change in how vehicle electronics are built, functions are moving from many distributed control units to central high-performance computers. That change, it says, means vehicle makers need middleware and software platforms that are standardised, scalable, secure and ready for production. The partners are pitching their combined hardware and software as an answer to that need.

The industrial angle rests on Schaeffler’s strategic focus on robotics and industrial automation. The companies say this fits Qorix’s scalable platform strategy. Both plan to apply their experience in that field and support software-defined system architectures there too. For manufacturers, that points to the same central-computing and middleware approach being carried from vehicles to machines.