At Code­lab, we own rich auto­mo­ti­ve expe­rien­ce with vario­us embed­ded plat­forms, but we con­stan­tly track new tech­no­lo­gies that will dri­ve auto­mo­ti­ve indu­stry in the futu­re. We see that Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve has poten­tial in futu­re deve­lop­ment of auto­mo­ti­ve indu­stry as an alter­na­ti­ve OS offe­red by Google. As engi­ne­ers who know Andro­id as mobi­le OS and how it can con­nect to car info­ta­in­ment sys­tems, we are inte­re­sted to see how the new OS will work on dif­fe­rent types of har­dwa­re. We are also curio­us to see how it works with exter­nal devi­ces and what the dif­fe­ren­ces betwe­en Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve and the other tech­no­lo­gies used in the indu­stry are.

Wha­t’s Andro­id Automotive?
It’s an Ope­ra­ting Sys­tem cra­fted for use in vehic­le dash­bo­ards intro­du­ced in 2017 by Google and Intel in coope­ra­tion with Volvo and Audi. Cre­ators cla­im not only it could be used as an info­ta­in­ment sys­tem but also it could con­trol some car func­tions. Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve OS based on AOSP (Andro­id Open Sour­ce Pro­ject) might be a use­ful code­ba­se for car manu­fac­tu­rers who may want to use it as a base for the­ir own ver­sion of ope­ra­ting sys­tem. Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve is Andro­id, it sha­res the same repo­si­to­ry as Andro­id ship­ped on pho­nes, tablets, car radios, wat­ches, hel­mets etc. Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve extends Andro­id with featu­res, requ­ire­ments and tech­no­lo­gies which are spe­ci­fic to auto­mo­ti­ve industry.

Is this alre­ady used?
It’s alre­ady used in Pole­star — brand of Volvo­’s elec­tric cars. Pole­star 2 is the first car using Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve OS. As this tech­no­lo­gy is new and as eve­ry new thing, it needs time for deve­lop­ment and testing. All bugs and errors need to be fixed to pro­vi­de safe­ty for its users – that’s a key part of auto­mo­ti­ve indu­stry – cars need to meet very high stan­dards of safe­ty for custo­mers. As we watch the indu­stry evo­lve, we see that Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve OS might be an inte­re­sting alter­na­ti­ve. Espe­cial­ly that Google is ste­adi­ly incre­asing its invo­lve­ment in car tech­no­lo­gies: self-dri­ving car (WAY­MO), navi­ga­tion, pho­ne con­nec­ti­vi­ty etc.

Who from auto­mo­ti­ve indu­stry is inte­re­sted in using Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve software?
The first was Volvo and Audi, then in Sep­tem­ber 2018 Renault-Nis­san-Mit­su­bi­shi Allian­ce, Gene­ral Motors in Sep­tem­ber 2019 and the PSA Gro­up in July 2020. As Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve is new for this indu­stry and we alre­ady see well-known brands using it, we can only sup­po­se that in the futu­re other auto­mo­ti­ve com­pa­nies could be inte­re­sted in using this tech­no­lo­gy in the­ir cars.

Did you know?
We are looking for Andro­id Auto­mo­ti­ve Developers!