Open Source from infotainment to networking

Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) is an initiative of the Linux Foundation that is bringing together automakers, suppliers and technology companies from around the world to accelerate the development and adoption of an open software stack for the connected car.

With Linux at its core, AGL is developing an open platform that can be used as an industry standard for new features and technologies. At embedded world 2018, AGL will demonstrate its new Unified Code Base 5.0 (UCB), an open source infotainment platform. The AGL UCB 5.0 includes an operating system, middleware and an application framework. AGL will be showcasing various applications such as media players, tuners, navigation, web browsers, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HVAC control, audio mixers and vehicle controls. AGL-UCB is already deployed worldwide in Toyota vehicles.

AGL members will also be present at the Booth, showing innovations from open source development for the automotive industry, these include: Renesas (R-Car Gen3, Cloud and Cybersecurity applications), Microchip (telematics and infotainment), Tuxera (data storage for driver assistance systems), Forge­Rock (Authentication in the vehicle) and Igalia (Chromium applications).

Speech recognition

AGL is the initiator of a Speech Recognition Expert Group led by Amazon Alexa, Nuance and VoiceBox Technologies. The group’s objective is to create a standardized set of speech recognition programming interfaces (APIs) which app developers can use independently of the underlying speech engine.

This would make it possible to control all the in-vehicle functions that AGL supports by voice. »We are working to ensure that all functions in the car can be controlled by voice. But the problem today is that developers have to manually integrate the feature into each car manufacturer‘s preferred speech recognition engine,« says Dan Cauchy, Executive Director, Automotive Grade Linux. »We want to provide developers with a standard set of APIs with which they only need to program their applications once. After that, they will Function on the systems of every automaker that uses AGL, regardless of the underlying voice engine,« adds Cauchy. AGL’s expert group plans to complete its work by the summer of 2018.

Vehicle to Cloud

Furthermore, the consortium is working on the topic of Vehicle-to-Cloud (V2C). A specially convened expert group is tasked with defining IoT protocols that can connect vehicles to various cloud platforms. What’s more, the group is working to define location-based services in interaction with AGL as well as topics such as identity management (driver, vehicle and service authentication) and vehicle interactions.