Automotive: the next hot mobile platform

Desktop, laptop, phone, tablet … car! Which OS should we run on car “in-vehicle infotainment” systems: Windows, Android, WebOS, MeeGo or a traditional embedded choice like Angstrom? What are the associated opportunities for app developers and systems programmers? Two Chinese companies, Geely and HawTai, sell cars with MeeGo pre-installs. The automotive business model diverges significantly from that of consumer electronics products, giving MeeGo some advantages over Android. Who are the players in the automotive Linux space and what are their plans? What reference hardware is suitable for testing automotive apps? I’ll describe what’s new in IVI and show a simple demo running on the Atom-based ExoPC.

Alison Chaiken is a recovering physicist who has been rendering expensive hardware inoperable in Silicon Valley since 1992, most recently at Nokia. She has recently joined Open Mobile World Wide to work on Android virtualization on Linux. Alison is on the OSCON 2012 Program Committee and solicits suggests for Linuxy presentations and activities.