Software defined vehicle

Android Automotive OS (AAOS) Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) supports a broad range of automotive compute domains beyond infotainment, such as instrument clusters, body controls, and driver assistance.

AAOS overview

Infotainment (IVI)

AAOS IVI delivers compelling and useful in-car entertainment and navigation experiences.

Unified Cockpit (IVI / SDV)

AAOS provides a unified cockpit solution that incorporates cluster data to create a full cabin solution for Infotainment and Cockpit.

Beyond the Cockpit (IVI / SDV)

AAOS powers multiple domains in the car such as chassis and body as well as ADAS integration (QM) to create personalized experiences.

Figure 1. Key SDV areas.

The SDV platform addresses the core challenges of modern vehicle development. It provides a compact, high-performance, and scalable software foundation based on a headless, built-in Android stack. This stack extends deep into the vehicle architecture to power components throughout the vehicle, including seat actuators, instrument clusters, climate control, lighting, cameras, mirrors, and telemetry.

The AAOS SDV core is a lightweight Android-based operating system that incorporates low-level, automotive-specific frameworks for communications, diagnostics, and software updates. These frameworks let AAOS SDV power different vehicle controllers, such as core compute, body controls, and cluster domains.

The AAOS SDV platform also includes the Display Safety framework for implementing instrument cluster applications, such as audible chimes, regulatory cameras, and sophisticated graphics that blend seamlessly with AAOS IVI content. Display Safety includes a safety design toolchain and a reference safety monitor, which lets OEMs meet functional safety requirements by using the diverse platform safety mechanisms of automotive SoCs.

Introduction to AAOS SDV

AAOS SDV runs in a multi-VM environment on an automotive system-on-a-chip (SoC), typically alongside an IVI system. AAOS SDV is a headless Android instance that leverages virtualization with VirtIO drivers. This architecture lets the same system image run in cloud-based virtual environments like Cuttlefish, or on any VirtIO-compliant hypervisor on target hardware. AAOS SDV provides a standardized, updatable, and secure platform for vehicle functions.

AAOS environment

Figure 2. AAOS environment.

Key capabilities

The key capabilities of the AAOS SDV are described in this section.

Cloud-based development (digital twin)

AAOS SDV is designed to run on the Cuttlefish virtual device, letting you create a digital twin of vehicle compute environments in the cloud or on local machines. This digital twin lets you develop and test vehicle software—from individual services to multi-VM interactions—before physical hardware is available, accelerating time to market.

Key components:

  • Cuttlefish: Emulates the multi-VM SDV environment.
  • Android Studio for Platform (ASfP): Provides tooling for Rust-based service development and deployment to Cuttlefish.

Instrument cluster and mixed-criticality rendering

AAOS SDV supports use cases, such as digital instrument clusters, that require mixed-criticality rendering, which displays safety-critical information like warning lights (telltales) alongside rich graphical content. This rendering needs to be available early in the vehicle boot sequence.

Key components:

  • SDV Media: Enables graphics and media capabilities in a non-IVI VM.
  • Display Safety: Provides functionally safe, early-boot rendering paths for critical cluster information and telltales.

Automotive service integration and communication

The platform facilitates integration with existing vehicle network architectures using a service-oriented architecture (SOA). This includes inter-VM communication, service lifecycle management, and communication with services on other ECUs.

Key components:

  • SDV Core OS: Provides a headless Android instance for core services:
    • Inter-VM communication
    • Service discovery and management
    • System updates and power management
    • Integration points for diagnostics, configuration, and calibration services
  • SOME/IP broker: Enables communication between SDV services and external ECU services using scalable service-oriented middleware over IP (SOME/IP).

On-device data processing

AAOS SDV includes frameworks for on-device data collection and edge processing.

Key components:

  • SDV Telemetry: Facilitates on-device data collection and edge processing for vehicle-to-cloud services, with support for dynamic configuration.

Get started

See Get started for environment setup and usage instructions.