Enhancing automotive businesses through open source – Part 2

Jul 12, 2018 by Jeremiah Foster

How is the automotive industry responding to digitalization?

Where we last left off, we began talking about the strengths of open source in the automotive industry, and why it’s so important for OEMs to “become software companies” and leverage it for themselves. (To read the previous blog, click here!) Now, let’s continue and see what else open source has to offer, and how you can use it for your own business needs.

Some things are just meant to stay the same

When it comes to car features, there are some things that make sense to keep standard and some where OEMs can be a little more creative. For instance, including a radio is standard fare – there’s no reason to change it from what buyers expect. But on the other hand, mobility services and vehicle diagnostics applications could differ between models. So to save on development time and costs, why not already have the radio app be part of a pre-prepared software package that every car manufacturer can use?

Open source makes this possible.

In the past, OEMs had to complete a time-consuming specification process, defining how to operate and handle every aspect of their software for buyers. But by using open source, the software’s foundation is a working product that has already been successfully used by many. The OEM doesn’t need to explain the specifics – saving money, time, and enabling the buyer to integrate the software quickly.

Open source also supports continuous innovation, allowing developers to change the source code whenever necessary to add new features or perform rapid bug fixes. As a result, open source products can enter the market very quickly, since they don’t necessarily need new code or performance tests.

When using open source, the software quality is also higher. Check out Coverity’s report from 2014, which lists Linux as a quality benchmark. Since many companies are all working on the same foundation code in hopes of making it better, users get a much more effective program in the long run.

So what’s next? How do I successfully utilize open source?

As technology trends constantly change, OEMs must have a vehicle platform system that’s scalable and flexible – making it easily integrated into new models and systems. It’s also important to have experts that understand open source and how to use the network, so you can optimize and profit from commodity software.

Open source is great, but it still needs to be incorporated successfully to benefit – and that can take tremendous amounts of work.

We can help

Luxoft has built a fully customizable automotive platform and provides software blueprints to minimize integration time. It’s compatible with popular platforms like BMW’s, and is optimized through GENIVI, an automotive open source alliance where OEMs and vendors come together to set platform specifications, standards, and implementation protocols. To optimize vehicles, the OEM can then pick and choose which open source solutions are best depending on brand strategy. In addition, Luxoft develops safety-critical software that meets rigorous safety requirements.

Luxoft’s experience with open source includes:

Safe Renderer – A safe and secure Hypervisor solution

PELUX ARP – A flexible, scalable and futureproof reference platform for high-performance IVI systems, from application frameworks (Pixel) to converging clusters (Silicon)