Secure communication and connectivity solution developer Bittium has joined the global GENIVI Alliance, a group with over 50 member organizations operating in the automotive industry whose goal is to develop standard approaches to compatibility, integration and connectivity of different operating systems to improve the time to market and cost-efficiency in the development of vehicles. Bittium says the primary aim of its joining the community is to advance secure connectivity and development of Android Automotive.
The company notes that connected car systems are increasingly becoming one of the decisive purchasing criteria when buying a new vehicle. This opens up opportunities for system designers and original equipment manufacturers, but also increases information security risks. Additionally, open source operating systems, most recently Android, have brought new development opportunities to HMI development, but at the same time integration of the different systems has become more complex.
“We are excited to be able to advance and accelerate vehicle development in cooperation with other members of the GENIVI Alliance. We bring to the community our strong security know-how and experience from both Android and Linux operating systems. With these competencies we contribute to the goal of integrating different vehicle systems in the centralized, digital cockpit,” said Tommi Kangas, senior vice president of Bittium’s connectivity solutions product and service area. “Our objective is that in the future the in-vehicle infotainment and operating systems are more secure, reliable, intelligent and easy to use.”
Within the GENIVI Alliance Bittium will focus on the following development areas:
- Vehicle hardware abstraction layer (VHAL) for integrating Android Automotive: Bittium will take part in defining VHAL and related tools for integrating Android Automotive devices as part of vehicle systems. The development work should enable the development of a standard-based connection layer for different automotive projects by possibly adapting to solutions already used by the industry.
- Hypervisors: One of the automotive industry trends is to combine vehicle systems to the same environment with virtualization technologies. Hypervisors enable for example operation of different operating systems simultaneously in the same equipment. In the GENIVI community Bittium participates in the development of virtualization which helps to facilitate virtualization projects in the automotive industry.
- Android Automotive audio features: Bittium is contributing to the GENIVI community’s standardization efforts related to Android Automotive audio systems.
