This week marks two major milestones for OSS-based automotive platform development. First, the GENIVI Alliance, an industry consortium of automotive OEMs and suppliers dedicated to building an open source in-vehicle infotainment platform, has opened three projects to the open source community, and stressed their continued dedication to open source-based IVI standards. The Linux Foundation will host these and all future GENIVI open source projects.
The initial projects are:
- Audio Manager, a framework for managing audio in the IVI context
- Diagnostic Log and Trace, or DLT, a reusable OSS component for standardized logging and tracing in infotainment devices
- IVI Layer Manager, a common API and a reference implementation for the IVI Layer Management to run applications like navigation, reverse view camera and other parts of the human interface in head units
This move by the “OSS Super Community” was initially recommended at the 2012 Open Source Think Tank in Napa (at which GENIVI was a case study), and was designed to increase the rate of innovation in the developer community, as well as to expand the adoption of its platform beyond the automotive industry. After all, there are many similarities across some of the IVI subsystems in autos and planes, for example. So why not help passengers enjoy their time whether they’re on the plane, car or even a train?
Second, the Linux Foundation announced Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) Workgroup with support and active participation from Harman, Intel, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Nissan, Samsung, Toyota and other top-tier players to collaborate and broadly support open source technology in the automotive industry. This is a major step in advancing the development and adoption of OSS/Linux-based systems across many subsystems in cars, not unlike the carrier-grade Linux initiative propelled Linux in the Telecom space over a decade ago.
Notably, both Harman and JLR are joining Toyota and other automotive OEMs in the ranks of key members of the Linux Foundation, demonstrating their commitment to OSS. The collaboration of this Workgroup with the Tizen OSS project, and strong ties with the GENIVI community, are expected to result in the creation of a hardened OSS stack that will include O/S and middleware that can run safety-critical systems with unique requirements for minimal code footprints, power consumption and other requirements found in embedded and consumer electronics devices.
With these exciting developments, it’s no wonder that when car-shopping, it’s time to start asking about the software cars run on, in addition to questions about horsepower and leather seats!
