Delivering the OS for Software-Defined Vehicles

What you’ll learn:

• How is Red Hat addressing software-defined vehicles (SDVs)?
• What is the Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System?

Red Hat, part of IBM, is well known for its Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The company has made significant contributions to open source, and its Linux operating system also targets software-defined vehicles (SDVs). I talked with Francis Chow, Vice President and General Manager for In-Vehicle Operating System and Edge at Red Hat, about SDV challenges and Red Hat’s offerings.

What do you see as the biggest challenges for SDVs?

Vehicles are inherently complex, so let's break this into three parts: an overall shift in the system design approach for the automotive industry, security, and safety. First, I want to look at this shift in the system design approach that will be required to fully take the leap toward software-defined vehicles.

The automotive industry has struggled to break free from their custom-made, hardware-oriented and proprietary subsystems or electronic control units (ECUs) that have worked for them in the past. And it makes sense—change is costly, can be risky, and requires trust on the consumer side.

But this change is possible and inevitable. A few decades ago, people would never have believed that we could use our phones to turn on our house security cameras or login to an app to throw treats to our dogs at home alone. But now these technologies are part of our everyday lives. If automakers can embrace a software-defined approach in the automotive development process, the possibilities will be endless.

However, this requires not only a technology shift, but also a process and organizational culture—SDV means the vehicles will increase in capabilities and value after production.

Another big challenge is security. SDVs are connected to the cloud or more generally the infrastructure, as well as the back-end operations of automakers. Therefore, secure communications, signed software updates, and security in safety-critical applications, such as autonomous driving and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), are all of paramount importance.

Security is particularly challenging for SDVs due to their high dependency on complex software systems and connectivity. These vehicles require robust cybersecurity measures to protect against hacking, data breaches, interception attacks on connections, and malicious software attacks that can compromise vehicle control and passenger safety.

In addition, the integration of various sensors, communication networks, and cloud-based services introduces multiple potential vulnerabilities that need continuous monitoring and updating. And this brings me to my last point—safety, specifically functional safety.

One of the challenges of getting a functional-safety certification for vehicles is that the ISO 26262 standard was adapted from IEC 61508, which was published in the late 1990s. In the past 25+ years, a lot of advancement has been made in software development, but automotive electronic systems have not been able to take much advantage of these progresses in safety-critical systems.

Under the existing standard, for a complex framework such as a modern and advanced automotive operating system, it can take more than 10 years for the entire system to be certified. And if there’s a small change to the configuration, it can take a significant period of time for that change to get certified, sometimes the better part of a year.

The entire process can become incredibly resource intensive as a new certification process starts when small components of the overall system change. Thus, for a true, software-defined vehicle operating system to succeed, and specifically Linux-based ones (where Red Hat is focused), there needs to be a new paradigm for certification: a continuous functional-safety certification process.

How is Red Hat addressing these challenges?

Red Hat is teaming up with key industry players to help automakers tackle the complexity that often gets in the way of the necessary shift in the system design approach required by SDVs. We have pre-tested, pre-integrated software solutions with ETAS, Qualcomm, Luxoft, Deloitte, Renesas, and more to make it easier than ever to get vehicles of the future to the road faster, and we’re going to do this all with an open-source methodology.

Adopting open-source software in lieu of proprietary operating systems can introduce an avenue for establishing common standards and foster a readily available, vast talent pool of Linux-savvy automotive developers. By utilizing open-source software, the automotive industry can help alleviate many of the current system design challenges and as a result, modernize their software strategies while meeting customers’ present-day and future needs. We’re also working to address the rising concern of security.

As SDVs become increasingly interconnected and reliant on complex software ecosystems, the vulnerability to cyberthreats escalates exponentially. With the Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, which naturally inherits all of the native security features from our enterprise Linux version, we employ SELinux extensions to bolster access rights and policy-driven isolation between applications for greater security protections.

Also, we have relationships with numerous third-party security partners, such as VicOne to detect anomalies on in-vehicles intra networks, and ETAS, which is providing FUZZ testing to ferret out vulnerabilities to enhance the security of automotive systems.

Moreover, regulatory bodies and industry standards demand stringent adherence to compliance frameworks to safeguard user privacy, data integrity, and overall road safety. Multiple automotive applications, including digital cockpit and ADAS, typically require functional-safety certification using ISO 26262. 

With the advent of modern in-car compute architectures leveraging central compute and zonal controllers, automakers are consolidating multiple functions on a single SoC. As a result, Linux becomes an attractive option for more automotive applications employing modern architectures, but the lack of compliance to functional-safety standards presents adoption challenges.

Previously, safety certification has strongly favored a traditional waterfall-like development paradigm (referred to as the “V-model” in ISO 26262), whereas Linux employs a community-based, agile, and continuous development and improvement model. Red Hat has been working with exida to develop a tailored approach to functional safety, one that emphasizes Linux strengths while still achieving the risk management objectives of ISO 26262.

In our work with exida, we have been able to make significant progress and are on track to meet our goal of achieving ISO 26262 v2 certification of the Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System at ASIL B as a Safety Element out of Context (SEooC). This enables broad adoption of Linux to host safety-critical workloads along with non-safety workloads on the same OS.

What is the Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System?

The Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System is derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform. By extending RHEL to the automotive industry with the Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, automakers are better poised to adopt rapid, open-source innovation in the present and in the future.

The In-Vehicle Operating System can help enable and accelerate many of the current trends in the automotive space in ways that traditional proprietary systems cannot, moving the auto industry into a more scalable way of system design. The need for accelerated innovation of software-centric in-vehicle architectures and lower development cost has made open-source, Linux-based platforms and cloud-native development even more pivotal parts of the automotive value chain.

Since announcing its intended creation, Red Hat has announced collaborations with GM, ETAS, Qualcomm, Luxoft, Deloitte, Renesas, and more to ensure we have the best solution possible. Furthermore, Red Hat is pursuing functional-safety certification for Linux in collaboration with exida and through our involvement in the ELISA Project.

What tools and software are available from Red Hat for developers?

Linux sits at the heart of Red Hat’s automotive strategy. With SDVs and an open-source model, embracing open toolchains and Linux, with a universal knowledge base already instilled in the global developer base, they’ll be able to jump right in and focus on exciting features and connected services that will lead to new business opportunities and models. Red Hat also has the Red Hat Developer Hub that can be used as the developer framework to help standardize toolchains and workflows to greatly improve developer productivity.

How will AI play a role in the future of SDVs?

In the realm of SDVs, a multitude of sensors tirelessly gather extensive data from the vehicle's environment, encompassing road conditions, traffic dynamics, pedestrian activity, and the vehicle’s own performance metrics. Advanced AI algorithms, strategically deployed at the edge, process this influx of data in real-time.

These sophisticated systems generate actionable insights, enabling autonomous-driving decisions, bolstering safety features, optimizing vehicle performance, and delivering tailored in-car experiences for passengers.

Recently, at the Red Hat Summit, Red Hat and Qualcomm Technologies showcased a complete end-to-end development and deployment of microservices-based ADAS applications with a demo. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride Flex SoCs support the digital cockpit, ADAS, and automated-driving capabilities on a single platform. As such, automakers can feature generative AI capabilities, high-end graphics, gaming displays, and rear entertainment screens concurrently with latency-critical audio experiences.

Equipped with that capability, AI chatbots in the car can help interact with drivers through voice, local mapping, predictive maintenance, ADAS, traffic management, and more.