5 Backward compatibility

ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.8.0 is backwards compatible with ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.7.0.

As a minor version change, it introduces new features and deprecates some unused features, but all existing features from ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.7.0 remain supported. For a full list of changes see Annex D.1, Revision history ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.8.0.

ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.8.0 contains elements that were introduced in version 1.5 but which are not compatible with version 1.4. To ensure compatibility with versions 1.4 and 1.5, these elements are technically defined as optional in the XML schema of version 1.8.0. They are marked as "Optional for backwards compatibility" in the annotations of the UML model.

When developing ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.6.0 and ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.6.1 errors where found in the XSD schemas of version 1.4 and 1.5 with respect to the documentation of these versions. Therefore, backwards compatibility is ensured with the documentation of version 1.4 and 1.5.