Building an open-source co-construction ecosystem for automotive operating systems is not only an intrinsic demand for industrial technological change, but also an important opportunity that the mainland must seize to build an automobile power.
At present, with the rapid development of the global automotive industry, intelligent networked vehicles have become an important force to promote the transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry. Among them, the operating system, as the cornerstone of automotive hardware resource management and application operation, has become one of the core technologies of intelligent vehicles. In 2023, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) launched the "China Automotive Operating System Open Source Co-construction Plan", which has received positive response and support from the government, industry organizations, upstream and downstream vehicles, parts, chips, software and other enterprises, universities and scientific research institutes, marking a solid step forward for the mainland automotive industry in building an independent, controllable, open source and open software industry ecology. From June 17th to 18th, the 2024 First China (Chongqing) Intelligent Vehicle Basic Software Ecology Conference and the 3rd China Automotive Chip Summit Forum with the theme of "Building a Foundation and Setting Sail for Open Source" were held in Chongqing. The event was hosted by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, co-sponsored by China Electronics Technology Group Co., Ltd., co-organized by Puhua Basic Software Co., Ltd., China Electronics Technology Chip Technology Research Institute, and Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center of Western Science City, and undertaken by the Management Committee of Chongqing High-tech Zone of Western Science City.
On the afternoon of June 18, the "Automotive Operating System Open Source Co-construction Forum" was held. At the meeting, Fu Xiao, Chief Economist of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, He Yonghua, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department of China Electronics Technology Group Co., Ltd., Zheng Sifa, Professor of Tsinghua University and Executive Vice President of Suzhou Automobile Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Rao Zhihong, Chief Engineer Convener and Chief Scientist of China Electronics Technology Group Co., Ltd., Jing Zhe, Representative of AUTOSAR China, Luo Lei, Professor of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Xu Zhigang, Chief Engineer of Intelligent Driving of Beijing Automotive Research Institute Co., Ltd., Zhou Dongsheng, Assistant General Manager of PwC Basic Software Co., Ltd., Zhang Zhiyong, Deputy Director of Information Software Laboratory of China Merchants Testing Vehicle Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd., Sheng Jinggang, Chief Engineer of Unisplendour Tongxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd., Cheng Jianxing, Development Function Director of Zerobeam Software Branch of SAIC Motor Group Co., Ltd., and other guests at the meeting focused on how to build an open ecosystem of China's intelligent vehicle software through open source, build a safe and reliable automotive digital foundation, and help the transformation, upgrading and high-quality development of China's intelligent networked vehicle industry. Promote the technological innovation and industrial development of the automotive operating system, in-depth discussion and provide suggestions. Yang Zhongping, Deputy Secretary-General of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, presided over the theme forum.
Yang Zhongping, Deputy Secretary-General of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers
It is imperative to build an open source system
Open source software has penetrated into all fields of software development, bringing a new ecology to the software industry. In the automotive industry, open-source software plays a key role in connecting hardware, software, and users. Therefore, the joint construction of an open-source automotive operating system ecosystem is crucial for the high-quality development of the intelligent vehicle industry. He Yonghua introduced the planning and practice of CETC Group in promoting the open source co-construction of automotive operating systems. He said that in order to accelerate the construction of an open source co-construction ecology of automotive operating systems, CETC is embarking on three steps of "planning top-level strategies, breaking through core technologies, and jointly building an open source ecology", and at the same time, it is also actively combining external forces to carry out open source co-construction cooperation with 21 units such as the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, forming a strong joint force to promote the development of open source, and creating an open and cooperative open source ecology of operating systems.
China Electronics Technology Group Co., Ltd
He Yonghua, deputy director of the Ministry of Science and Technology
In Zheng Sifa's view, there are still many topics to be explored in the aspects of vehicle control operating system, autonomous driving algorithm, and data standardization. At present, Suzhou Automotive Research Institute of Tsinghua University, together with Puhua Basic Software and other companies, has completed the key technology research project on the reliability and functional safety of the vehicle control operating system of the National Key R&D Program, and has initially realized the independence, safety, controllability and availability of the vehicle control operating system. In terms of autonomous driving algorithms, scenario libraries, and data standardization, Tsinghua Automotive Research Institute also implements a precise field of view alignment strategy for existing sensors, carries out data generalization, and adopts new ecological data closed-loop and large model technology to enrich autonomous driving scenarios, realize intelligent and connected upgrades, and promote the rapid evolution of on-board operating systems and autonomous driving capabilities.
Professor of Tsinghua University, Suzhou Automobile Research Institute of Tsinghua University
Executive Vice President Zheng Sifa
From the perspective of the development of automotive electronic and electrical architecture technology, Luo Lei said that in the stage of software-defined vehicles, the traditional automotive electronic and electrical architecture and software and hardware platform architecture can no longer meet the needs. "With the volume of automotive software code exceeding 300 million lines, the software system is becoming more and more complex, so it is an inevitable trend to collaborate on software and hardware, decoupling at different levels, standardize and build an ecosystem." Luo Lei believes that the R&D focus of the reference architecture of the on-board intelligent computing platform in the next 3 to 5 years should be in four aspects: first, software and hardware collaboration and hierarchical decoupling; The second is interconnected communication, which is oriented to the new mode and new scenario of human-machine-object fusion ubiquitous computing, and realizes ubiquitous perception and ubiquitous interconnection; The third is to integrate security and jointly promote a full-stack security approach based on scenarios; Fourth, the AI large model, further research on the collaboration of AI+OS and the optimization and adaptation technology of computing power, and strengthen the construction of the underlying and application ecology.
Luo Lei, a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Rao Zhihong shared his thoughts on the application of networked security technology for intelligent networked vehicles, and put forward corresponding development suggestions. "Nowadays, there are four risks in the security of automotive networking: first, the network heterogeneity leads to weak communication security protection; Second, with the length of the shared data chain, data privacy leakage intensifies; Third, the application of new technologies has expanded, and the network boundary is blurred and unpredictable. Fourth, there are various types of network entities, and the problem of mutual trust and coordination is severe. Therefore, Rao Zhihong suggested that while paying attention to the research and application of data security technology for intelligent networked vehicles, the data should be graded, such as cleaning the data when conducting end-to-end training algorithms, so as to avoid data pollution affecting the model. At the same time, attention should be paid to the construction of systematic cryptographic applications for intelligent networked vehicles, and promote the integration and innovation of cryptographic applications.
China Electronics Technology Group Co., Ltd
Rao Zhihong, Chief Engineer Convener and Chief Scientist
As a representative of the standards organization, Jing Zhe introduced the China strategy of AUTOSAR, and said that AUTOSAR will continue to cooperate with other organizations to promote standardization with an open attitude, and hope that open source standards can be used by more people, so as to enhance their vitality and reduce the burden on participants.
AUTOSAR China Representative Jing Zhe
As the host, Fu Xiao expressed in his speech that Chongqing attaches great importance to the software industry. He said that Chongqing will seize the opportunity of digital Chongqing and the construction of the "33618" modern manufacturing cluster system, deeply implement the "full of stars" action plan for the software industry, accelerate the cultivation of open source software ecology, build new advantages in the software industry, and help the construction of a world-class intelligent networked new energy vehicle industry cluster. Promote the creation of China's famous software cities and parks, accelerate the construction of national Internet of Vehicles pilot areas, national smart city infrastructure and intelligent networked vehicles coordinated development pilot cities, and accelerate the construction of a "vehicle, road, cloud, network, map" whole industry chain ecosystem.
Fu Xiao, Chief Economist of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology
How can all parties find the role positioning of the new ecosystem?
At present, car companies are playing multiple roles in the development of operating systems. In Xu Zhigang's view, first of all, car companies are the definitors of requirements, based on a deep understanding of vehicle functions, user experience and needs, to clarify the functions and features of the operating system. Second, car companies are cooperating and leading, working with algorithm companies, software partners and suppliers to improve the level of system intelligence. At the same time, for the development of the industry, Xu Zhigang also put forward several suggestions: first, build an open source co-creation industry system, accelerate the establishment of an open source co-creation automotive computing platform, and guide government funds, social capital and fiscal and tax subsidies to help the development of the entire industry chain of the computing platform and cultivate talents in the basic software development tool chain. Second, promote the tripartite co-research mechanism of industry-university-research integration to form an industrial ecological co-construction. Third, focus on the core of software research and development, build a generalized open source operating system and middleware software platform, software and hardware collaboration, meet real-time and security requirements, and realize the integration of on-board computing units and the sharing of computing power.
Beijing Automotive Research Institute Co., Ltd
Xu Zhigang, chief engineer of intelligent driving
Zhou Dongsheng shared his views on the open source co-construction of automotive operating systems from the perspective of software companies. He believes that with the increasing challenges of adaptation efficiency and security, the international automotive operating system and chips have formed a relatively stable combination, but domestic chips still need a lot of investment to solve the adaptation problem in the early stage of development. Turning to open source can help address these challenges and reduce the amount of adaptation. At the same time, open source can also promote technological innovation, improve system security, reduce development costs, and help car companies achieve platform strategies and improve R&D efficiency for future automotive operating system challenges such as high security, high performance, openness, efficiency, and lightweight.
PwC Basic Software Co., Ltd
Zhou Dongsheng, assistant to the general manager
In fact, with the evolution of electrical architecture, the demand for automotive chips is increasing, and the evolution from distributed to centralized control has put forward new requirements for MCUs. Sheng Jinggang shared some thoughts in the field of automotive chips, and said that the good matching of operating systems and chips is the cornerstone of future development. He believes that "high security requirements are an eternal topic, and functional safety and information security are complementary to each other. High-end MCUs face the requirements of functional safety, process management and other standards. "Domestic MCU chips are mainly concentrated in the middle and low end, with fierce competition and serious homogenization, and the development of high-end MCUs is still facing challenges, requiring higher reliability, security and performance, as well as a complete ecosystem. Sheng Jinggang called on chip companies to make more efforts in technology exploration and industrial chain collaboration to promote the promotion of products and real applications.
Sheng Jinggang, chief engineer of Unisplendour Tongxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd
Talking about the development trend of intelligent vehicle software quality and safety evaluation technology, Zhang Zhiyong believes that with the development of intelligent networked vehicles, users will pay special attention to software quality and data security, which also makes automotive software quality and functional safety evaluation technology face challenges. Therefore, it faces various problems such as increasing software complexity, difficulty in quality management caused by agile development, heavy standards and difficult implementation, chaotic version management, increased real-time and reliability requirements, insufficient test coverage, software and hardware integration challenges, and cross-team collaboration difficulties. Testing institutions need to update methodologies, simplify standards, strengthen version management, improve test coverage, strengthen software and hardware collaborative testing, and increase investment in talents and resources. At the same time, the software industry needs to be aware of the importance of software quality and security, and take effective measures to ensure the quality and safety of automotive software.
China Merchants Testing Vehicle Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd
Zhang Zhiyong, deputy director of the Information Software Laboratory
In Cheng Jianxing's view, with the transformation from domain centralization to centralized centralization, the operating system will not only be a control domain, but a vehicle-level integration, and the complexity will increase significantly. As AI+ has become a new trend in the industry, AI+ cars will reshape the entire industry chain and operating system. AI+ operating systems will bring changes to the software development process, cockpit implementation, and software architecture development paradigm, but they are still in the exploratory stage and there is no clear answer yet. The AI+ operating system needs to support large cloud models and vehicle-side small models to meet task processing and information security, and at the same time support autonomous driving or intelligent interaction in the cockpit. Explorations in this area, including the use of AI to generate code, testing, documentation, and architectural design, will also be a game-changer for productivity.
SAIC Motor Group Co., Ltd
Cheng Jianxing, Director of Development Function of ZeroBeam Software Branch
Open source automotive operating systems present both challenges and opportunities
In the roundtable dialogue session of "Challenges and Opportunities of Open Source Automotive Operating System", Luo Lei, Zhou Dongsheng, Professor Huang Han of South China University of Technology, Li Yan, Leader of China FAW Basic Software Group, Gu Jun, Developer Operation Director of Hangzhou Yingyun Technology Co., Ltd., and other dialogue guests expressed their opinions on the technical, industrial, ecological, and security issues faced by open source automotive operating systems. You Qiang, Director of the Technical Department of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and Executive Deputy Secretary-General of the Software Branch, presided over the session.
On the topic of "Ecological Construction of Automotive Operating System", the interlocutors agreed that the future automotive operating system ecosystem should continue to innovate and maintain a competitive and cooperative relationship. Zhou Dongsheng mentioned that the ecology will be divided into three parts: users, developers and car manufacturers, forming a circular structure, user scenarios to promote changes in the technology ecology, and developers to build an open source platform to improve the added value of vehicles. Gu Jun talked about the challenges faced by open source operating systems, emphasizing the open governance model and co-construction ecology to reconcile different interests and achieve technological innovation and open cooperation. Li Yan pointed out that the automotive operating system needs technology iteration and ecological promotion, and design a win-win business model to form industry consensus and sustainable services. In response to the topic of "Challenges of Cyber Security and Functional Safety for Open Source Automotive Operating Systems", Luo Lei mentioned that automotive software functional safety requires hierarchical decoupling and modular design, and emphasized the close relationship between architecture design and network security, and the operating system needs to provide security protection and full-stack capabilities. Huang Han supplemented that security issues can be divided into two categories: unauthorized operation and system intrusion, and it is necessary to pay attention to the physical security of the system intrusion channel and the vehicle side. The three panelists agreed that both network security and functional safety need to be solved by system architecture planning and design, and more security problems from the outside are faced. Finally, in the topic of "The Importance of Software and Hardware Collaboration in Domestic Vehicle Operating Systems", the guests agreed that with the advent of the era of intelligent driving, the common development of software and hardware is very important. Luo Lei said that in the face of the challenges of power consumption caused by new computing architectures and large computing power, software and hardware teams need to work together to solve problems. Li Yan and Huang Han also emphasized that software and hardware collaboration is an inevitable need for future development, and the operating system needs to provide more advanced integration capabilities. The joint construction of open source operating systems is in line with this trend, but it also requires a focus on system stability and security to ensure overall performance.
"Basic Software Ecology Conference Special Topic" series of articles:
The integration of "core" and "soft" will build a foundation together, and open source and openness will set sail on a new journey
Note: This article was first published in the July 2024 issue of Auto Magazine in the column "Basic Software Ecology Conference Topic", so stay tuned.
Image: From the forum
Article: Car Vertical
Typesetting: Car vertical