| Dear Friends, Q1 2026 has been a busy and encouraging quarter for the Alliance. We launched our new affiliate program and are pleased to have GitLab as the first affiliate of the eSync Alliance. Our whitepapers and blogs have been finding their way to broader audiences, and one of our founding member companies has shown how eSync contributes to the deployment of a software-defined vehicle. There is also growing external recognition that the questions the Alliance has been raising for years are now very much part of the mainstream conversation on vehicle software security. OTA security has had an unusually high public profile in recent months. Incidents involving Yutong buses and Airbus aircraft have put the topic in front of politicians, regulators and the general press in a way that would have been hard to imagine a few years ago. This is, in its own way, a good thing. The more clearly the risks of fragmented, proprietary update systems are understood outside technical circles, the stronger the case for what we are building together. As always, none of this happens without the time and effort our members put in. Thank you, and please keep it coming. |
 Warm Regards,Shrikant AcharyaChair eSync Alliance |
| eSync as foundation for SDVs: Excelfore delivers platform for Tata Motors and the new Sierra |
| Charter member, Excelfore, has announced the deployment of a standards-based OTA software update and remote diagnostics platform for Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, launching with the new Tata Sierra. It is a significant step forward in bringing software-defined vehicle capabilities to market at scale.The Tata Sierra was designed from the outset as a software-defined vehicle, intended to evolve continuously through updates rather than being fixed at the point of manufacture. Built on the eSync standard and integrating SOVD (Service Oriented Vehicle Diagnostics) as pioneered in our seminal collaboration with ASAM, the platformshows what the Alliance has always maintained is achievable: a major OEM, a production model, and a standardized update and diagnostics pipeline working together from day one.For the wider supply chain, deployments like this are the evidence base that moves the broader adoption conversation forward. Click here to read the full announcement. |
 Make or break for OTA security Security industry publication, BankInfoSecurity, ran a piece in January examining the cybersecurity risks associated with OTA software updates in vehicles, speaking to eSync Alliance Chair, Shrikant Acharya, as part of the feature. The article is a useful marker of how far this conversation has travelled. Coverage of automotive OTA risk in financial and information security media, rather than automotive trade press, reflects just how seriously the connected vehicle threat landscape is now being taken outside the industry.The concerns raised are ones the eSync Alliance has been addressing directly through its standardization work: the risks that arise when OTA update pipelines are fragmented, proprietary, or inadequately secured. A common, auditable framework removes the weak points that make vehicle update systems attractive targets. It also gives OEMs the ability to demonstrate to regulators and customers that their processes meet a verifiable standard, rather than asking them to take it on trust. Read the article here. |
| Why a software fix for 6,000 aircraft is a wake-up call for automotive OTA |
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| At the end of 2025, around 6,000 Airbus A320 family aircraft needed emergency software updates, after engineers found a critical vulnerability in flight-control systems. The response was quick and well-co-ordinated, because aviation operates on shared maintenance frameworks and common standards. Most aircraft were back in service within days.Consider the equivalent scenario in automotive. Major OEMs have tens of millions of vehicles on the road. Without robust OTA capabilities built on a common standard, a comparably serious software vulnerability affecting braking or battery management would mean a traditional recall, with every affected vehicle needing a service center visit. Centers would be overwhelmed. Waits would run into months. Many vehicles would simply stay on the road with known problems.The Airbus incident shows what good standardization makes possible, and it makes a strong case for automotive getting there before a crisis forces the issue. Read more here. |
| GitLab becomes the first Affiliate of the eSync Alliance |
| We are pleased to welcome GitLab as the Alliance’s first affiliate. Collaboration with the web-based DevOps platform will help tackle a problem familiar to most in the industry: software build pipelines and OTA update systems that operate in silos, with manual steps between them that slow things down and introduce risk.As vehicles require more frequent updates for features, security patches and safety fixes, getting finished software into vehicles quickly and reliably matters more than ever. GitLab’s involvement with the Alliance will support the development of tooling that automates the step from completed build to over-the-air delivery, cutting the time between development and deployment while keeping full documentation and compliance intact. The solution is being developed to meet ISO 26262 and ASPICE requirements. |
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| Important member updates Newsletter archiveIf you’ve missed one of our recent bulletins you can now go back and read them any time, since they are all being hosted on the eSync website. You can search for previous versions going back a number of years by clicking here. |
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