Apex.AI aims to make the Robot Operating System (ROS) more robust and failproof so that it can be deployed in commercial self-driving vehicles.

Palo Alto, California-based Apex.AI, a company which strives to make open-source self-driving software reliable enough to be commercially viable has hired Karl-Thomas Neumann, an industry veteran who has been the CEO of Continental AG and led Volkswagen AG’s China business, to its board.

“Karl-Thomas is a great fit for us as we’re trying to learn off what worked in the past and reach out to more industry players,” said Apex.AI’s co-founder Jan Becker.

The U.S. firm is expanding to Europe, opening an office in Munich, Germany in July.

Founded by Becker and Dejan Pangercic, two longtime self-driving car engineers formerly at automotive technology supplier Bosch Corp, Apex.AI plans to make a safer and more reliable version of the so-called Robot Operating System (ROS).

ROS is used by a large number of labs and companies, which include Intel Corp, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc, in their self-driving vehicle and robotics efforts.

ROS, an open source software, which can be freely used by anyone has so far been deployed in mostly research-oriented settings.

Apex.AI aims to create a robust version that can be deployed by carmakers in later stage commercial applications to guarantee fail safe safety-critical driving functions.

It hopes to finish the software by the end of the year and submit it to German inspection firm TÜV for approval in early 2020.

Once certified, the software could then be deployed by carmakers worldwide, said Becker.

According to Neumann, ApexAI aims to license the software and charge for support services; the exact pricing model is currently under discussion.

To date, Apex.AI has raised $15.5 million in venture capital funding, including from the venture arms of Airbus SA and Toyota Motor Corp.

According to Becker, the company was well-funded into 2020.