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AutomotiveMCP

How the standard is governed.

A standard is only as trustworthy as the process behind it — so here is exactly who runs this one, how it stays neutral, and how the specification changes.

The founders

Alex Oleynik

Alex Oleynik

Co-founder · Specification

Leads the technical direction of the specification and the working-group process. Focused on making conformance objective and the protocol genuinely interchangeable across dealer systems.

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David Ortiz

David Ortiz

Co-founder · Dealer adoption

Leads dealer adoption and the retail operations perspective. Brings three decades in automotive sales and dealership operations to keep the standard grounded in how stores actually run.

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Elijah Surratt

Elijah Surratt

Co-founder · Partnerships & certification

Leads partnership and the certification program. Works with DMS, CRM, website and AI-agent vendors to align the standard with the realities of retail automotive.

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How it’s organized

The council — its founders and founding members — maintains the specification and ratifies releases. Around them, participation is open to the whole industry.

THE COUNCILFOUNDERS + FOUNDING MEMBERS · GOVERNS & RATIFIESWorking groupsDRAFTEditorsMAINTAINContributorsPROPOSE
The councilFounders and founding members. Governs the standard and ratifies releases.Working groupsOne per domain, plus a cross-cutting Security & Privacy group. They draft and review; anyone with relevant expertise can join.EditorsMaintain the spec text and versioning, and merge accepted changes. They execute decisions, not make them.ContributorsAnyone can propose a change or join a working group, without membership.

How a change is made

Every change to the specification moves through the same open path, from proposal to ratified release.

  1. 01

    Propose

    Anyone can submit a change to a spec section; working groups and members raise proposals directly.

  2. 02

    Working-group review

    The relevant group reviews it for correctness, interoperability, and compliance impact.

  3. 03

    Public comment

    Substantive changes open for comment so implementers and dealers can weigh in before adoption.

  4. 04

    Adopt & version

    Accepted changes merge under semantic versioning; breaking changes need a MAJOR bump and a deprecation window.

  5. 05

    Ratify

    Once feature-frozen and reviewed, the council ratifies the release. Ratified versions change only by the rules above.

The full lifecycle and versioning rules live in Conformance & Versioning §2.

Staying neutral

Neutrality has to be built into the rules, not just promised. These rules are non-negotiable.

No favorites
No vendor gets preferential treatment in the spec or in certification.
Recusal
Members recuse from any decision touching their own commercial interests.
Open certification
Criteria are public and identical for everyone; there is no pay-to-pass tier.
Worked in the open
Proposals, working-group membership, and decisions are recorded publicly.

Partners & endorsers

The standard earns its name as the industry attaches to it. We’re assembling a founding cohort across DMS, CRM, website platforms, AI-agent vendors, dealer groups, and agencies. Partners and endorsers are listed here as they sign — never before they’re real. To put your name forward, apply to the founding cohort.

Want a seat at the table?

Founding partners shape the spec and the certification program before ratification. Anyone can propose revisions in the open today.

Become a Founding PartnerSuggest a revision