Last month the big open-source software company, Red Hat, Inc., announced its collaboration with General Motors (NYSE:GM) to trailblaze the future of their software-defined vehicles. GM’s as a automotive industry leader in U.S market decide to expand their software technology with a certified, continuously, functionaly and safety Linux-based in vehicle operating system. General Motors aims to expand their ecosystem and technology innovation of its Ultifi software platform.
That’s why General Motors working with Red Hat since mid of last month to build Linux-based open-source ecosystem for their car products. They prefer open source solutions to give the friendly software platform in the automotive industry. It become good moment for Red Hat and General Motor to gets most benefit in the transporation and technology industries. So, customers will gets more valuable features responsibly in a fraction of the typical development time.
Linux-based operating system as the open-source solutions provide many benefits in most of the technology-based industry. Since it free to use on almost all type of devices and anyone can modify its source code as they want without restrictions. However, it require high-level of cyber security protection since In-vehicle software system are complex and need stringent certifications due to critical safety priorities for the drivers along with its passenggers.
“With millions of lines of code sustaining critical systems like driver assistance, fuel economy and more, modern vehicles are more like mobile high performance computers than the cars of the past. The time to innovate is now. These new vehicles give our industries a chance to create a common open platform without sacrificing functional safety. By collaborating with GM on the Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, we intend to bring the era of open source to the automotive world, benefiting automakers, ecosystem partners and consumers”, said Francis Chow, vice president and general manager, In-Vehicle Operating System and Edge at Red Hat, Inc.
In the current GM’s vehicle system need robuts requirenments which make development proccess become longer, and vehicle software updates more difficult, where all software update required re-certification. Well, in-collaboration between General Motors and Red Hat aims to create simple way in vehicle system or software update from the complex way previously. They also implement continuous functional-safety certification more frequently for the GM’s Ultifi platform with RHEL in vechicle based operating-system and become pioneer for the continuous certification approach since announce by the company last year.
The integrated open-source software is expected to support various of in-vehicle safety and non-safety based applications, which include infotainment or multimedia system, advanced driver assitance system, connectivity and body control. In addition, the transporation indutry can gets many benefits from the faster, better, and sustainability technology innovation with standardication with open-source Linux based system and cloud-native technologies. It aims to achieve a more scalable design process with common standard is expected to help increase software reuse in GM’s development products.
Scott Miller, vice president of Software Defined Vehicle and Operating System at General Motors says, “General Motors is now a platform company and working with Red Hat is a critical element in advancing our Ultifi software development. Incorporating the company’s expertise in open source solutions and enterprise networks will pay dividends as we aim to provide the most developer-friendly software platform in the industry. With Red Hat’s operating system as a core enabler of Ultifi’s capabilities, the opportunity for innovation becomes limitless”.
The engineering team behind GM is expected to give the ability to dedicated more software resource with a new personalized in-cabin experiences, vechiles modes, and other software features which can enjoy the customers. By the integration of the Red Hat In-Vehicle operating system into the Ultifi platform, GM and Red Hat looking to achieve the following benefits:
* Minimize the costs from the software re-use and its consolidation accross a common platform.
* Improvement in development cycle for faster time-to-market with new customer features and software improvements.
* Continuous functionaly safety-in-based certification for systems related to the safety applications.
* Create a new services, business models and revenue streams.
Moroever, Red Hat will still continue to contribute to the phased rollout of Ultifi platform, where the GM’s end-to-end vehicle software platform which is scheduled to be launched in 2023. The GM Ultifi platform will enable a frequent and more seamless delivery of its software-defined features, multimedia applications, and services to customers over-the-air. To achieve this, the platform will separates the application software from the hardware to offer application program interfaces for software development. It will also create a more flexible architecture to unlocks the potential benefits for more cloud-based services, faster software development, and new values for customers without affects the basic hardware controls.
Ultifi platform in most future GM’s vehicles is actually a Linux-based operating system with RHEL that is specially designed become universally usable for all GM developers, their supplier and the community of developer at a large scale. By using Linux-based distros it also allow the skilled talents from many industries to faster get up to speed and bolster innovation in using computational thingking or non-traditional thingking. In-software vehicles can provide a unique exciting opportunity for the developer to work beyond the limits of typical consumer smart devices, thank to the availability of many sensors and anonymized data. In addition, authorized third-party developers that meet srict security, safety, and privacy standards can get access into the innovate on Ultifi platform to benefit GM customers directly.
Alex Oyler as director of North American SBD Automotive say, “While the automotive industry has been trying to find ways to leverage the open-source community for the past decade, the rise of the software-defined vehicle signifies their conjunction. The massive addressable domain of in-vehicle and edge software in modern vehicles necessitates an ecosystem-driven approach to reduce software development costs for automakers, nearly half of which is dedicated towards maintenance and triage. At the same time, maintaining strict compliance with safety standards mandates high levels of assurance in the underlying software. This partnership typifies the type of innovation possible when tech and automotive stalwarts combine their core experiences to create novel solutions that form the foundation of the software-defined vehicle”.
Moroever, the automotive industry will be in inflection point at all where the consumers begin to asses what the future of their driving experience could look like. As leaders in open-source and automotive industries, Red Hat and GM will help to define and connect the automotive environment that will give solutions for the next-generation vehicles. It also bring Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System for the transporation industry more better to equips automakers and addopt rapid and open-source innovation from the current until the future.