SANTA CLARA, California, May 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Based on its recent analysis of the global in-vehicle infotainment market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) with the 2018 Global Enabling Technology Leadership Award for In-Vehicle Infotainment. AGL is resolving challenges related to development time, fragmentation, and lack of code reuse; and is quickly becoming the de facto industry standard for in-vehicle infotainment operating systems. Eventually, the company aims to address all the software needs of vehicles, including advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous driving, telematics, and other in-vehicle displays, such as instrument clusters and heads-up displays.More than 133 industry participants, from automakers to suppliers to component producers, are members of the non-profit, open source project that is developing the AGL code base. This breadth of partners will benefit traditional Tier I in-vehicle infotainment suppliers that develop similar products for multiple automakers, and automakers that are striving to keep pace with smartphone and tablet advances. By sharing a common platform, suppliers can reuse the same underlying core functionality while developing new applications and interfaces specific to each automaker. This approach will also bring in-vehicle infotainment systems to market faster and at a lower cost. Some of the major AGL participants include Toyota, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Honda, Mazda, Daimler, Aisin AW, DENSO, Panasonic, Renesas, Amazon, Continental, Pioneer, and Qualcomm.
“By collaborating on non-competitively differentiated technology, automakers can focus on delivering the experiences that consumers truly want from their in-vehicle infotainment solutions,” said Robert Cavin, Industry Analyst. “Though automakers will add their proprietary interface layers and any data collection processes, AGL’s unified code base (UCB) enables developers to generate solutions for other participating automakers. This code sharing allows automakers to accelerate their development process by not having to rewrite underlying code.”
AGL’s UCB 7.0 platform provides 70% of the starting point for a production project, with new features including open source speech recognition APIs and device profiles for telematics and instrument cluster applications, It has reference applications for a media player, tuner, navigation, web browser, Bluetooth, WiFi, HVAC control, audio mixer, and vehicle controls across a range of hardware support from major automotive component manufacturers. Furthermore, it includes over-the-air (OTA) update capabilities, which can future-proof the system through instant updates.
“AGL is a complete software stack comprising the Linux kernel, middleware, application framework and application programming interfaces (APIs), software-development kit (SDK), and reference applications,” noted Robert Cavin. “These tools help foster innovation and decrease time to market for in-vehicle infotainment through reduced software fragmentation, which, in turn, have allowed AGL to position itself as the industry standard for today’s automotive operating system.”
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company or organization that has demonstrated excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
