How to upgrade the digital cockpit of existing vehicles?

Elektrobit has proposed an interesting solution to address the challenges of upgrading the in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems of foreign car companies. The lack of update capabilities of overseas car companies has become a bottleneck that hinders car companies from providing a modern in-vehicle experience.

As a scalable digital cockpit solution, Android Companion Device provides a new perspective on addressing the challenges of updating existing solutions.

01

In today’s market, users expect in-car infotainment systems to be updated and iterated similarly to smartphones. However, vehicles have a longer life cycle and higher hardware complexity than smartphones.

The report mentioned that the demands of automakers (OEMs), dealers and end users have driven the demand for vehicle system updates. These updates are not limited to functional improvements, but also include security patches and new service experiences.

Although projection solutions such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto can provide some modern functions, due to their low level of deep integration and customization, automakers cannot control the management of data and the expansion of services.

In addition, the issue of updating the digital cockpit operating system (OS) has not yet been fully resolved through software or hardware.

There are still a large number of old IVI systems that have not been updated worldwide. Since there was not enough hardware performance redundancy reserved in the initial design, they are already unable to cope with the rapidly developing processor technologies (such as AI accelerators, NPUs, and GPUs). Existing solutions on the market, especially those that are not customized by OEMs, often lack deep integration.

This situation not only limits the improvement of user experience, but also makes it difficult for automakers to get a share of the digital cockpit service market.

To solve the above problems, Elektrobit has come up with the concept of an Android companion device, which is separate from the central cockpit controller and is specifically designed to handle updates to the Android Automotive OS.

● Extended system life: The vehicle's basic settings can be maintained longer, and the companion device can continue to bring new features to the vehicle as the Android version is updated.

● Flexible hardware upgrade: The companion device can be upgraded independently without touching other interfaces of the vehicle. This separation design not only makes hardware updates more economical, but also ensures that safety-related parts are not affected.

● Retention of OEM control: Through companion devices, automakers can still fully control the user experience and HMI (Human-Machine Interface) system, while also being able to deeply customize services and manage user data.

The companion device is designed with high flexibility at the system level, and the software architecture enables the application to run on the central cockpit controller or the companion device without additional modifications.

This transparent bridging solution is implemented through the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and service coordination mechanism, allowing companion devices to be seamlessly integrated into existing cockpit systems.

The typical architecture of a companion device includes basic hardware configurations such as SoC (system-on-chip), RAM, Flash storage, and USB interface, which can support high-bandwidth data transmission and provide efficient UI/UX processing capabilities.

Through this hardware architecture, car companies can concentrate non-safety functions on companion devices, thereby accelerating the iteration of the infotainment part without having to develop IVI main units with strict safety standards multiple times.

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Elektrobit proposed several application scenarios in the report. Automakers may need to launch Android car systems in a key market or update existing Android Automotive OS systems, but old hardware cannot support new software versions. In these scenarios, companion devices provide automakers with flexible solutions.

Take Audi as an example. Elektrobit helped it successfully upgrade its infotainment system through an Android companion device.

Audi faces the challenge of ensuring a long lifecycle for its cockpit systems while also integrating third-party applications. With Elektrobit’s companion device and software stack, Audi is able to extend the user experience with the rich functionality of Android on top of its legacy systems.

This not only solves the complexity of product lifecycle management, but also provides technical support for its subsequent OTA updates. With the rapid development of vehicle-to-everything (V2X), autonomous driving and AI technologies, vehicle infotainment system updates will become the core of automakers' competition in the future service market.

Elektrobit's companion device solutions not only provide automakers with effective tools to meet current market demands, but also provide a sustainable path for future hardware upgrades and software updates.

Through this flexible hardware-software decoupled architecture, automakers can more easily deal with the contradiction between hardware performance improvements and changes in user expectations.

The application of Android companion devices has brought profound changes to car companies in the field of digital cockpits, especially in improving update capabilities, reducing development costs and enhancing user experience, it has shown great potential.

In the future, as more automakers adopt this technology, companion devices are expected to become an important part of the smart cockpit architecture, helping automakers gain a leading position in the fierce market competition.

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