OpenSynergy, Google, and Qualcomm to Collaborate on a Virtualized Android Automotive OS

OpenSynergy, today announced its yearlong collaboration with Google and Qualcomm on a reference platform with a virtualized Android Automotive OS instance running on top of OpenSynergy's COQOS Hypervisor SDK and Qualcomm's Snapdragon SA8155 automotive System on Chip (SoC). Google has announced collaborations with several vehicle manufacturers to power in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems with Android Automotive OS, Google's open-source Android platform. The automotive sector is moving towards consolidating increasingly complex and heterogeneous hardware subsystems such as the Instrument Cluster, Infotainment, Head up display etc. onto a single System on Chip (SoC) with mixed-criticality (safety-critical and non-critical) requirements. This enables tighter software integration between the subsystems, and allows for cost and weight savings. Hence, Google is working on virtualization of Android Automotive OS by leveraging and extending VIRTIO, an established virtualization standard maintained by the OASIS consortium, which Google is a member of. Virtualization allows multiple operating systems ("guests") with mixed-criticality requirements to share the same hardware ("host") managed by host software ("hypervisor"). Android Automotive OS will be supported as a guest virtual machine on automotive industry standard based hypervisors.