The Linux Foundation’s Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) project is hosting a free webinar called “Open Source Automotive: How Shared Development Will Drive the Industry Forward.” The hour-long event, which starts at 11am on Wednesday, November 9, will be led by Dan Cauchy, Executive Director of the Automotive Grade Linux project at The Linux Foundation.
The webinar will reveal how AGL’s Unified Code Base (UCB) 2.0, which was released in July, is bringing together automotive manufacturers and suppliers to develop an open connected car platform that can serve as a de facto standard for automotive computing. The current focus is on in-vehicle infotainment, but this is quickly moving toward more comprehensive digital cockpit and assisted driving technology.
AGL’s UCB is necessary, says Cauchy, because the traditional automotive supply chain model has failed to keep up with digital technology.
“Consumers have come to expect their personal devices to be intuitive and user-friendly, and they want that experience to extend into the vehicle,” Cauchy told Linux.com. “In-car connectivity and infotainment systems have not kept pace with smartphone technology primarily because automotive software is fragmented.
“AGL’s goal is to eliminate this fragmentation by building a single software platform for the entire industry,” he said. “Adopting an open platform will lead to more software reuse, enabling shorter production cycles and more rapid innovation.”
The webinar is a warm-up for a larger AGL Demonstration Showcase to be held January 4-7 at the CES show in Las Vegas. The showcase will include an AGL Demo Suite held on January 5-6 that will showcase a broader range of application developers who use the AGL/UCB codebase.
AGL announced a new round of members in September, including AutoIO Technology (instrument clusters), Irdeto (security technology), Link Motion (IVI), Pocket Soft (RTPatch software updating tools), sdtech (HMI and system design), and Synopsys (automotive-specific IC design and verification tools, and security software). Automotive security is a common theme among all the new members’ solutions.
More than 40 new companies have joined AGL in the past year, bringing the member total to more than 80. Automotive manufacturers like Ford, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota, have been joined by technology companies including Aisin AW, Codethink, Continental, DENSO, Fujitsu Ten, Harman, Mitsubishi Electric, NTT DATA MSE, Panasonic, Pioneer, Qualcomm, Renesas Electronics, Wind River, and others.
UCB 2.0 shipped with new rear seat display, video playback, and audio routing support, as well as a comprehensive application framework. At CES, we’ll see more information on UCB 3.0, which is expected to be released later this year.
“UCB 3.0 is the version we expect to see members put into production,” says Cauchy. “UCB 3.0 will also be the basis for the work we are starting on telematics, instrument cluster, heads up display (HUD), and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which are on our roadmap for 2017.”
Learn more about how AGL and shared development are driving the auto industry forward. Join us Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016 at 11 a.m. Pacific for this free webinar presented by Dan Cauchy. Register Now >>