Chris Simmonds

Looking after the inner penguin

Chris Simmonds is a software consultant and professional geek living in Northern England. He has more than two decades of experience in designing and building open-source embedded systems. He is a big believer in Open Source and the importance of community. He is the author of the book “Mastering Embedded Linux Programming”, and is the moving force behind the AOSP and AAOS Meetup group (aospandaaos.github.io/). He is a frequent presenter at open source and embedded conferences, including OSS and FOSDEM. You can see some of his work on the “Inner Penguin” blog at 2net.co.uk.

It's time to develop apps for Android cars

* The automotive world is going Android Automotive OS (AAOS) across leading brands like Volvo, Ford, GM, BMW, Honda, Nissan and more, the in-car app ecosystem is growing fast. In this session, we’ll kick off with a snapshot of the Android Automotive market: who's using it, how it varies across OEMs, and why now is the perfect time to start building for it. * We’ll dive into how to build AAOS apps using official templates, walk through the distribution options, and discuss one of the platform’s biggest challenges — fragmentation. * You'll also get a look at how COVESA, the leading open alliance in the automotive software space, is tackling fragmentation with the Automotive AOSP initiative. * Finally, we’ll show a real-world developer demo: implementing push notifications in Android Automotive — yes, notifications for cars! See how this works under the hood, and how you can bring similar innovations into your apps.

Open source and Android Automotive OS

Like all Android products, Android Automotive OS (AAOS) is based on the Android Open Source Project. So, is everything open source, or do you need to add some proprietary code? What about Google Automotive Services (GAS)? How much effort is it to create a complete product? In this talk I start with the basic architecture of AAOS, highlighting the parts that are open and those that are not. I describe the strategies used by various manufacturers, some of which license GAS and some don't. One potential side effect is a divergence of APIs implemented by the vehicle OEMs and consequential fragmentation of the car app market. I talk about the importance of standardization and cooperation between implementers, and the work of COVESA in particular.