'Automotive Grade Linux' Will Promote Open Source Program Offices for Automakers

Automotive Grade Linux is a collaborative open source project developing "an open platform from the ground up that can serve as the de facto industry standard" for fast development of new features. Automakers have joined with tech companies and suppliers to speed up development (and adoption) of "a fully open software stack for the connected car" — hosted at the Linux Foundation, and "with Linux at its core..."

And this week they created a new Open Source Program Office expert group, led by Toyota, to promote the establishment of Open Source Program Offices within the automotive industry, "and encourage the sharing of information and best practices between them." Open source software has become more prevalent across the automotive industry as automakers invest more time and resources into software development. Automakers like Toyota and Subaru are using open source software for infotainment and instrument cluster applications. Other open source applications across the automotive industry include R&D, testing, vehicle-to-cloud and fleet management. "Historically, there has been little code contributed back to the open source community," said Dan Cauchy, Executive Director of Automotive Grade Linux. "Often, this was because the internal procedures or IT infrastructure weren't in place to support open source contributions. The rise of software-defined vehicles has led to a growing trend of automakers not just using, but also contributing, to open source software. Many organizations are also establishing Open Source Program Offices to streamline and organize open source activities to better support business goals."

Automakers including Toyota, Honda, and Volvo have already established Open Source Program Offices. The new AGL OSPO Expert Group provides a neutral space for them to share pain points and collaborate on solutions, exchange information, and develop best practices that can help other automakers build their own OSPOs. "Toyota has been participating in AGL and the broader open source community for over a decade," said Masato Endo, Group Manager of Open Source Program Group, Toyota. "We established an OSPO earlier this year to promote the use of open source software internally and to help guide how and where we contribute. We are looking forward to working with other open source leaders to solve common problems, collaborate on best practices, and invigorate open source activities in the automotive industry."

The AGL OSPO EG is led by Toyota with support from Panasonic and AISIN Corporation.

BMW and Rolling releases

[flyingfsck]

A rolling release on a Blik Met Wiele may leave something to be desired

No thanks

[sunderland56]

So we're going to take the questionable engineering skills of people like Jeep/Fiat and Ford, and apply them to open source software??

Pardon me while I go tune up my bicycle.

Re:

[dfghjk]

All bugs are shallow when you apply a bunch of incompetent eyes. Increase the incompetence, you get fewer bugs! Problem solved.

I can't wait to hear all the arguments to apply GPLv3 to cars, those dirty corporations TiVoizing their cars to deny you your freedumbs. Also, a continuous stream of exploits as OSS "Automotive Grade" codebases are compromised and then adopted, kind of like what's been experienced with Tesla already.

All this amounts to is an effort to convert cars to same mile-high pile of shit s

Re:

[radarskiy]

So we're going to take the questionable engineering skills of people like Jeep/Fiat and Ford, and apply them to open source software??

Pardon me while I go tune up my bicycle.

We're going to take an industry where quality management means people don't die and apply Linus Torvald's system of project management by throwing a tantrum?
There will be tears, but they won't be caused by the automotive side.

what's a software-defined vehicle?

[dfghjk]

"The rise of software-defined vehicles has led to a growing trend of automakers not just using, but also contributing, to open source software."

There is no such thing as a software-defined vehicle. Whoever said this doesn't know what that term means.

Cars have been dominated by software for a long, long time. What has changed are only the human interface portions, mostly for the worse. Android is used in a number of cars now, that's already Linux as far as Linux goes. "Automotive Grade" means nothing, it

Re:

[drnb]

Android is used in a number of cars now, that's already Linux as far as Linux goes.

Not really. Linux merely hosts Android. Android itself is a complete OS from the programmer's perspective. Linux a behind the scenes implementation detail.

Re:what's a software-defined vehicle?

[EvilSS]

What has changed are only the human interface portions

That's really not true. The level and sophistication of the backend compute in vehicles has increased drastically in the past decade. Most new cars are running on systems with a hypervisor at their core (such as https://www.visteon.com/produc... [visteon.com] or https://blackberry.qnx.com/en/... [qnx.com]). Control modules have gotten more powerful as more systems go electronic. I bought a new truck in 2022 to replace my 2008 and the differences are startling. Steering, e-brake, 4wd are all electronic or electronic assisted now. The car's computer can control basically everything. It can steer by itself (lane assist), apply brakes (emergency braking, brake hold), apply the ebrake by itself, shift to park by itself (if you open the door when it's stopped and not in park it will set the ebrake and shift into park), change transmission shift points (performance mode/eco mode/tow mode/etc), and on and on. All that on what is one model above base.

There is no such thing as a software-defined vehicle. Whoever said this doesn't know what that term means.

Seems pretty prevalent in the industry. I'm going to assume they know more that you on the subject, unless you can provide some credentials to prove otherwise: https://blackberry.qnx.com/en/... [qnx.com]

https://www.keysight.com/us/en... [keysight.com]

https://www.bosch-mobility.com... [bosch-mobility.com]

https://www.renaultgroup.com/e... [renaultgroup.com]

https://www.ptc.com/en/blogs/a... [ptc.com]

https://www.sw.siemens.com/en-... [siemens.com]

https://www.nxp.com/applicatio... [nxp.com]

Re:

[JBMcB]

Seems pretty prevalent in the industry. I'm going to assume they know more that you on the subject, unless you can provide some credentials to prove otherwise:

I'm in the industry, along with several friends and family members, directly and indirectly.

It's so much of a thing that AIAG is changing how the standardized product procurement and quality guidelines are defined to include software testing and quality assurance.

The tl;dr version of what it means is that car companies can push newly developed features to cars after they are sold via software updates. It may not seem like a big deal, but it's a *radical* departure from the existing product development cycle

Re:

[nikkipolya]

There is no such thing as a software-defined vehicle. Whoever said this doesn't know what that term means.

Here's more if you want to learn about SDV:

https://www.bosch-mobility.com... [bosch-mobility.com]

Finally!

[q_e_t]

We can have proper operating system and car analogies.

This is going to tarnish Linux

[sinij]

I looked into what this group is doing, and they are enabling spying and data collection by automakers. This will tarnish Linux brand.