Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) are increasingly expected to include a range of advanced safety, driver assistance, self-driving, and infotainment features. Importantly for electric vehicles, all of these functions will need to work harmoniously while consuming as little power as possible. More than ever, automakers need the skills and knowledge to act like tech companies.
Operating system (OS) innovation will become an essential for creating the vehicles of the future. The global automotive OS market was valued at US$11.83bn in 2023, according to Grand View Research, rising to around US$30bn by 2030. To date, this growing demand has been fulfilled through a multitude of closed-source proprietary solutions specifically tailored for the automotive industry. This may not continue for much longer.
“When you factor in safety and compliance rules for automotive-specific OS, both the entry barrier and cost for developers is really high, and turnaround times for new updates are long,” states Moritz Neukirchner, Strategic Product Manager, SDV, at automotive software company Elektrobit. If automakers want to eventually iterate their cars at a comparable speed to smartphones, they will need to change their approach.
Bridging the gap
Neukirchner tells Automotive World that SDVs are motivating a consolidation in the automotive OS market. The need for constant software innovation that also meets safety and compliance regulations means as many developers as possible must be empowered to take part. “This requires an open-source OS, and perhaps the most established is Linux, the developer’s OS of choice.”
However, Linux’s huge global community does not strictly adhere to automotive development processes and generates around 500 kernal updates—a programme that prevent conflicts between different computer processes—each year. “That makes it impossible to qualify its safety for use in vehicles,” states Neukirchner. It took Elektrobit around seven years to resolve these issues. Finally, in April 2024, the company announced EB corbos Linux for Safety Applications—the first open-source OS that meets automotive safety compliance standards.
The solution has been positively assessed according to ISO 26262 ASIL B and IEC 61508 SIL 2 standards. “We run an off-the-shelf Linux but make it usable in an automotive context,” he explains. A hypervisor enables multiple virtual machines to operate on a single piece of hardware, so although the OS can now be used in high-performance computer domains relating to features like driver-assistance or autonomous driving, it is supervised to prevent interference with safety-related functions. “This means we can participate in the development community without infringing on industry requirements.” In effect, EB corbos helps bridge the gap between automotive and tech. But what does this mean for SDV development?
Updateability becomes value
For Neukirchner, the promise of SDVs is an inversion of how vehicles are typically valued. “When you drove a car away from the dealership, that was the best it was ever going to be; everything went downhill from there.” By opening up programming interfaces and development environments, he believes SDVs can enable innovation that wouldn’t have been conceivable in the hardware manufacturer’s original business plan. According to this idea, vehicles could actually become more valuable over time. “It will be equivalent to the leap from regular cell phones to smartphones and the App Store.”
The sensor hardware increasingly incorporated in vehicles for a range of connected and autonomous functions offer a rich seam of untapped potential. For example, while some automakers might initially want to include biometric sensors for secure payments inside the vehicle, the open-source OS developer community might expand their functionality to include speed restriction for younger drivers. LiDAR and parking sensors could also be used for highly accurate weather and road condition monitoring programmes. “Without changing any of the hardware, companies can add value purely through software,” says Neukirchner.
In much the same way that removing the ability to update smartphone software would ruin the market, he believes new SDV ecosystems will become inextricable from the future of automotive. “Cars might remain mobility devices, but updateability will become the value proposition.” Elektrobit is positioning itself to be the facilitator of this industry inflection point through streamlined software development with Linux.
Creating a developer community
The importance of pursuing an open-source OS approach, Neukirchner continues, is that creating a de facto standard for vehicle software will necessarily be a joint effort; no automaker can achieve the portability required by itself. “Harmonising some aspects of software across every automaker and creating a less fragmented market will be a big future trend.” This is not to say that individual brands will lose the opportunity for differentiation: ADAS functionality, for example, could vary according to each OEM’s investment. However, he states that establishing an open language and framework for development will accelerate updates.
Proprietary OS solutions [. . .] cannot compete with the speed, efficacy, and affordability of open-source OS
Elektrobit estimates that EB corbos can shorten product development cycles by up to 50% and subsequently save significant R&D costs. Looking ahead, Neukirchner envisages the solution joining a tapestry of open-source automotive hard/software initiatives—such as Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA) and Eclipse SDV—that prioritise collaborative, community-based solutions. However, the industry will need to address the current dearth of auto-specific IT qualifications and skills holding back this movement’s full potential.
The wider importance of expanding the software development and testing ecosystem is already clear. In early 2024, Porsche was forced to discontinue the Macan in Europe, as UN Regulation No. 155 (R155) cyber security compliance would have been prohibitively expensive. Proprietary OS solutions, states Neukirchner, cannot compete with the speed, efficacy, and affordability of open-source OS. By bringing together developer communities and automotive standards, he concludes that EB corbos could help prevent future product recalls on the basis of cyber security and safety. The ultimate result will be SDV systems that are more durable, remain market-viable for longer, and subsequently create a fresh business paradigm for the automotive industry based on new residual value.
