Automotive Grade Linux Momentum Continues with Membership Growth, Unified Code Base 4.0 and New Technical Projects

AGL passes 100 members and kicks off work around virtualization, cockpit architecture and telematics

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Aug 02, 2017, 10:00 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative cross-industry effort developing an open platform for the connected car, has released the latest version of the AGL infotainment platform, Unified Code Base (UCB) 4.0, which includes support for SmartDeviceLink integration, Speech Recognition APIs, secure Over-the-Air Updates (SOTA) and improvements to the App Framework and Software Development Kit (SDK).

The UCB 4.0 release follows recent news that Toyota has adopted the AGL platform for its next-generation infotainment system, debuting in the 2018 Toyota Camry in the United States.

"We are quickly gaining momentum across the industry, and Toyota's AGL-based infotainment system puts the AGL platform a step closer towards becoming the de facto industry standard," said Dan Cauchy, Executive Director of Automotive Grade Linux at The Linux Foundation. "The industry is starting to understand the advantages of open source and the impact that AGL can have on product development."

Unifying the industry around a shared platform
Developed through a joint effort by dozens of member companies, the AGL Unified Code Base (UCB) 4.0 is an open source infotainment platform that can serve as the de facto industry standard. The goal of the UCB infotainment platform is to provide 70-80% of the starting point for a production infotainment system. Automakers and suppliers customize the other 20-30% by adding features and modifying the user interface to meet their unique product needs.

Sharing a single software platform across the industry reduces fragmentation and accelerates time-to-market by encouraging the growth of a global ecosystem of developers that can build a product once and have it work for multiple automakers.

New features in the AGL UCB 4.0 include:

Update to Yocto 2.2
Application Framework improvements
Application Services APIs for Bluetooth, Audio, Tuner and CAN signaling
AGL API version 2 using OpenAPI Specification format
CAN signaling, secure signaling and notifications
SDK improvements with new Application templates
SmartDeviceLink ready, ease of integration with SDL
Default board support tunings across Intel, ARM32 and ARM64 architectures
Added board support for the Renesas R-Car 3 and Qualcomm SnapDragon 820

The complete UCB 4.0 release notes are available on the AGL wiki.

Expanding beyond infotainment
As the UCB evolves into a mature, robust platform, AGL is expanding beyond infotainment to develop software profiles using the UCB for telematics, instrument cluster and heads-up-display (HUD). To support these new projects, AGL has formed a new Virtualization Expert Group (EG-VIRT) to identify a hypervisor and develop an AGL virtualization architecture that will help accelerate time-to-market, reduce costs and increase security.

An open virtualization solution could allow for the consolidation of multiple applications such as infotainment, instrument cluster, heads-up-display and rear-seat entertainment, on a single multicore CPU through resource partitioning. This can potentially reduce development costs by enabling OEMs to run independent operating systems simultaneously from a single hardware board. Virtualization can also add another layer of security by isolating safety critical functions from the rest of the operating system, so that the software can't access critical controls like the vehicle CAN bus.

Virtualization will also play a key role in the AGL Cockpit Architecture work which launched in early 2017 and expands AGL throughout the entire cockpit to reduce the lead time for integrating commercial applications.

AGL passes 100 members
AGL has also announced that seven new companies have joined AGL and The Linux Foundation: Brison, Karamba Security, Lear Corporation, Luxoft, Thundersoft, SafeRide Cyber Security and Wipro Ltd.

"We are very excited to see interest in AGL growing at such a rapid pace, passing 100 members is a significant milestone for us," said Cauchy. "We look forward to working with our new members as we continue to strengthen the AGL platform and expand our work to encompass all software in the vehicle."

The AGL community will come together for their bi-annual All Member Meeting on October 18-19 in Dresden, Germany. The All Member Meeting allows the AGL community to learn about the latest developments, share best practices and collaborate to drive rapid innovation across the industry. Details and member registration can be found here.

New Member Quotes:

Brison
"At Brison, we have developed platforms with Tier 1 supplier and automotive manufacturers focused on in-vehicle infotainment conforming to the 'Phone Bring in' style standard," said Shiro, Hashimitsu, CEO of Brison. "Joining Automotive Grade Linux will expand our experience working with the data communications module (DCM) and embedded systems and will help us take the next step in expanding our development as we look to the future of connected cars."

Karamba Security
"As an industry-leading autonomous cybersecurity solutions provider for connected and autonomous vehicles, we are committed to furthering the development of prevention methods against cyber attacks with zero false positives, without connectivity requirements, and negligible performance impact," said Assaf Harel, CTO & Co-Founder of Karamba Security. "We are excited to collaborate across disciplines as a member of Automotive Grade Linux. Together, we look forward to future contributions and sharing our cyber security expertise."

Lear Corporation
"As one of the global leaders in automotive seating and E-Systems, Lear Corporation has delivered first-to-market innovations, including our Lear ConnexUs^TM automotive connectivity suite," said Frank Orsini, Senior Vice President and President of the E-Systems Business Segment of Lear. "In our expanding success in vehicle-to-vehicle and V2X communications, we are pleased to participate in Automotive Grade Linux and The Linux Foundation. In providing a complete integrated automotive connectivity solution, Lear uses Linux as the connectivity operating system in our world-class products."

Luxoft
"We believe a world with sustainable mobility as a service would be a better place," said Mikael Soderberg, IVI Platforms Director, Luxoft. "We feel confident that working with the Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) community to develop an open automotive platform will advance the unique user experience of future driving. We look forward to collaborating with the community and driving the automotive industry forward together."

Thundersoft
"Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) is gaining an increasing influence across the automotive industry. As one of the world's leading smart device operating system and platform technology provider, Thundersoft can provide OEMs and Tier1 suppliers with our advanced smart cockpit solutions to improve driving experience," said Larry Geng, CEO of Thundersoft, "We believe that Thundersoft joining AGL will be a win-win choice. Thundersoft will contribute to the AGL ecosystem and further leverage the automotive industry technology with our leading solutions and services."

SafeRide Cyber Security
"As one of the leaders in the domain of integrated intelligence-based cybersecurity solutions providing early detection and advanced containment of threats for connected and autonomous vehicles, SafeRide believes that AGL plays a key role in accelerating the transformation of the automotive industry for vehicles and commercial fleets," said Hilik Stein, CTO of SafeRide Cyber Security. "We are very excited to collaborate with the open source community and enable advanced automotive applications to meet both security and rigid business demands. Together, we will provide automotive vendors with a unique, secure platform for innovation."

Wipro
"Wipro has two decades of experience working with leading tier-1 suppliers and automakers from across the globe, in the infotainment, telematics and instrument cluster domains," said John Slosar, Vice President and Practice Head, Automotive & Aerospace, Product Engineering Services, Wipro Limited. "The use of Linux for developing infotainment products is now widely accepted and Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) represents the next generation of technology - a fully open-source and unified code base that can serve multiple domains. We look forward to working with industry leaders to help shape the future of AGL."

The full list of AGL members is available here.

About Automotive Grade Linux (AGL)
Automotive Grade Linux is a collaborative open source project that is bringing together automakers, suppliers and technology companies to accelerate the development and adoption of a fully open software stack for the connected car. With Linux at its core, AGL is developing an open platform from the ground up that can serve as the de facto industry standard to enable rapid development of new features and technologies. Although initially focused on In-Vehicle-Infotainment (IVI), AGL is the only organization planning to address all software in the vehicle, including instrument cluster, heads up display, telematics, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. The AGL platform is available to all, and anyone can participate in its development. Learn more: https://www.automotivelinux.org/

Automotive Grade Linux is a Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. www.linuxfoundation.org

Additional Resources

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Media Inquiries
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Automotive Grade Linux
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SOURCE Automotive Grade Linux