As the end-consumer requires both safety and convenience, there can be no real progress in autonomous driving without gaining consumers´ trust. To gain the trust, automakers are making enormous efforts to ensure safety throughout a vehicle’s lifecycle. But with safety being an irrefutable argument for any modern car, it’s worth asking whether it’s enough.

If safety comes first, what comes next?

The reality is that times have changed, and end users now expect much more from OEMs. When you can rely on the integrity of a car, the focus is on entertainment, which has a direct impact on the competitiveness of OEMs. To remain competitive, OEMs must provide consumers with an environment similar to the one on their phones. This inevitably brings Android into play as the most widely used entertainment platform.

Read on to learn more about the need for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) in modern cars and why Android, among other solutions, is clearly winning the competition.

The boundary between driver and passenger is becoming blurred

As a vehicle becomes more automated, the driver’s free time also increases, and with it the need for high-quality content. Our driver is gradually becoming a passenger who no longer drives but tries to make the time spent on the journey as useful (and pleasant) as possible.

Future “drivers” will be able to type, watch videos, or even sleep while their car takes them to their desired destination.

The need for high-quality content equals the need for familiar services, which means bringing apps and services from other devices into the car.

Indeed, if it is natural to switch from a laptop to a phone that is familiar in appearance and user experience, then the ability to switch from one of these devices to IVI should make no difference. This only extends the usability of these services to one of the most common means of transportation in modern life – the personal car.

The article from Snapp Automotive confirms this, “Car manufacturers are waking up to the reality that their systems are now being compared to the other devices their customers are using like iPads and smartphones. A 5-year-old custom Linux system without any connection to the rest of the world just won’t do it anymore.”

Most frequently used entertainment services

“We expect a continuum between our devices. The smartphone revolution has ingrained this expectation to us. You expect your mobile browser to know your passwords for all the sites you use on your laptop as well as to know your browsing history and bookmarks. This precedence set by smartphones should be taken seriously in the automotive industry. There’s no reason to believe that the same won’t happen there.”, Snapp Automotive insightfully concludes.
Clearly, the profound impact of the mobile industry on the automotive industry has set new standards and poses certain challenges for car manufacturers.

Differentiation lies in personalization and fun cars

The McKinsey report¹ analyzes the key drivers of the global automotive industry and explores the next horizons for differentiating features and services, particularly in the area of consumer-friendly active safety and infotainment solutions. It states: “Delivering services through the car – internet radio, smartphone capabilities, information/entertainment services, driver-assistance apps, tourism information, and the like – is a promising area for future profits and differentiation. So is the creation of new technical features for safe, comfortable, and eventually, autonomous driving. “
There are different opportunities for OEMs to make their cars desirable to the end consumer. They can benefit tremendously from various in-vehicle services. However, OEMs should be able to do that without compromising their brand identity. As HP Jin, global CEO of Telenav, said for the Reuters report² /ROKU Automotive Global Report, “The auto industry needs new business models for the digital age. The real solution is not CarPlay and Android Auto. The car needs to have native software with deep integration of embedded software and connected services, along with frequent updates of software and the UX. But the cost of that is a hurdle for consumers.”
OEMs need to provide this high level of personalization and rich entertainment experience for the end consumer. Android, the most widely used operating system (OS), which supports numerous entertaining applications and services, is the right way to achieve this.

Challenges of Android in IVI

The question is what the most efficient way is to open up to the Android offering. Most OEMs already have an IVI system in place, usually based on Linux. For them, it is convenient to be compliant with Android services. However, an immediate “switch” to Android OS brings some challenges for OEMs.

The evolution in the automotive industry brings many challenges for OEMs

Losing their unique identity due to a different user interface (UI) and the corresponding user experience (UX) of the Android platform is one of the significant drawbacks when looking at the long-term perspective. OEMs have built their brand and recognizable image over years and are reasonably cautious about compromising the signature of their IVI system. As many OEMs are not ready to make this move overnight, they need to find the formula that solves the win-win equation – to stay competitive while remaining authentic in this transition.

Get Android on board with RT-RK

As a solution to this equation, RT-RK provides the Android Automotive Services that enable OEMs to leverage this versatile and widely used platform

To achieve this, we offer both System Integration Service and Consulting Service, based on more than 10 years of experience and proven track record. RT-RK’s scalable System Integration Services enable Android Automotive to be tailored, optimized, matured, and maintained on different hardware platforms. In addition, customers can set up software development processes for Android Automotive by relying on RT-RK’s extensive expertise.

At RT-RK, we integrate your Android system either natively, with hypervisor, through a container or through an external HW device (cartridge concept). We can also scale your internal teams to integrate Android at the system level, taking into account the connections to the hardware and connecting the platform to ADAS.

Less dependency on Tier-1s

With less reliance on Tier1s and shorter time to market, OEMs can easily leverage Android’s rich offering and update their native infotainment system with the latest Android version available.

Beside flexibility, our service offers a wide range of benefits to our customers, including risk mitigation, third-party component integration, lifecycle management, scalable environment setup, and more.

With years of experience with Android systems as well as safety and real-time expertise, RT-RK is the customers can trust. At RT-RK, we not only enable safe and secure system functionality, but also modern Android-based infotainment systems to provide our customers with a complete set of features for their new generation vehicle.