Toyota Adopts Open Source Automotive Grade Linux for the 2018 Camry

author: Eric Walz   

The 2018 Toyota Camry will be the first Toyota vehicle on the market with a Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) based system in the United States. For the first time ever, the code and application framework for Toyota's in-vehicle platform will be open source.

Toyota made the announcement on May 30th at the Automotive Linux Summit held in Tokyo this week. Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative cross-industry effort developing an open-source platform for the connected car, today announced that Toyota has adopted the AGL platform for Toyota's next-generation infotainment system.  The first AGL-based Toyota infotainment system will debut on the 2018 Toyota Camry in the U.S. late this summer, and it will roll out to most Toyota and Lexus vehicles in North America. The move with give Toyota's customers another option besides Android Auto and Apple's Carplay for in-car infotainment.

"Toyota is an early adopter of Linux and open source and has been an active member and contributor to AGL for several years," said Dan Cauchy, Executive Director of Automotive Grade Linux. "They have been a driving force behind the development of the AGL infotainment platform, and we are excited to see the traction that it's gaining across the industry."

With the Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) system Toyota will have the flexibility to customise its software, while it would also keep user data that could otherwise be captured by CarPlay from Apple Inc or Android Auto from Alphabet Inc's Google. Both applications enable users to access smartphone data through vehicle infotainment systems.

The 2018 Toyota Camry

AGL is an open source, non-profit project hosted by The Linux Foundation that is changing the way automotive manufacturers build software. More than 100 members are working together to develop a common platform that can serve as the de facto industry standard. Sharing an open platform allows for code reuse and a more efficient and faster development process, as developers and suppliers can build once and have a product work for multiple OEMs. This ultimately reduces development costs, decreases time-to-market for new products and reduces fragmentation across the industry.

"The flexibility of the AGL platform allows us to quickly roll-out Toyota's infotainment system across our vehicle line-up, providing customers with greater connectivity and new functionalities at a pace that is more consistent with consumer technology," said Keiji Yamamoto, Executive Vice President, Connected Company of Toyota Motor Corporation. "Adopting an open source development approach has enabled us to focus resources on developing innovative new features and bringing them to market faster."

Catching up to Consumer Technology

For years, consumer technology has rapidly outpaced automotive technology. Google Maps is a recent example. For some drivers, Google's turn-by-turn navigation works better on an Android phone than it does in many automakers infotainment systems. AGL wants to change this, by opening up the automotive industry to innovation, using the combined knowledge of the open source community.

The AGL infotainment platform Toyota is using was built from the ground up by hundreds of engineers across the industry who contributed open-source code to develop a robust, Linux-based operating system and application framework with increased security and capabilities in today's vehicles.

The AGL platform consists of about 75% of a base layer. From there, automakers and suppliers can customize the platform with features, services and OEM branding to meet their product and customer needs. Toyota actively contributes code back to the AGL platform and will be sharing its additional code as their next-generation infotainment system is rolled out.

About Automotive Grade Linux (AGL)

Automotive Grade Linux is a collaborative open source project that is bringing together automakers, suppliers and technology companies to accelerate the development and adoption of a fully open software stack for the connected car.

With Linux at its core, AGL is developing an open platform from the ground up that can serve as the de facto industry standard to enable rapid development of new features and technologies. Although initially focused on In-Vehicle-Infotainment (IVI), AGL is the only organization planning to address all software in the vehicle, including instrument cluster, heads up display, telematics, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. The AGL platform is available to all, and anyone can participate in its development.

Automotive Grade Linux is a Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.