Open source vs. proprietary software in vehicles

The automotive industry has often used open source software in vehicle infotainment systems, and in the future it will be a crucial element in software-defined vehicles (SDVs). With a community-driven approach, open source activities are able to move faster and have greater integrity than proprietary solutions. With more eyes on each project, bugs can be found and corrected more efficiently. And with greater transparency than traditional, proprietary software comes better security and faster security responses.

Traditional proprietary systems of software development are typically managed by a single organization and a single team. Any development, modification, and testing of proprietary software can only be done by the company that owns the code. Where open source software is built on the idea of openness and collaboration, proprietary software relies on secrecy and scarcity to create value. This creates a number of areas of friction for automakers who use only proprietary software or attempt to integrate proprietary software with their open source software. Although this friction will be inherent in most projects, embracing open source software is essential for driving progress and raising the competitive bar in a collaborative way.

Since updates to proprietary software must be carried out unilaterally, they can be extremely costly and time-consuming for automakers. Plus, with each new model year created, there is a great deal of duplication of effort, since proprietary software tends to be closely guarded and cannot be easily reused. Development timelines for next-generation vehicles are several years long. This is only exacerbated by the fact that different original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are working independently to build their own proprietary operating systems instead of pooling their resources on non-differentiating functionality.

Though open source software is often seen as faster, more secure, more cost-effective and more flexible than proprietary software, there are obstacles for enterprises who want to adopt the technology, including license compliance, open collaboration, and the adoption of new development methodologies. In adopting open source software for their fleet, automakers who are used to maintaining exclusive control of their software will have to adapt to the collaborative nature of open source.

Other potential pain points for automakers include updates and connectivity. Where proprietary software is kept up to date by rolling out new software from a single author, open source software relies on a more complex system of updates, often from different companies from all over the world, with different standards and different copyright laws. Using licensing to put guardrails on the update system has proven very important to maintaining standards, security, and safety.

In order to take advantage of the benefits of open source software, automakers will need a means to implement it in a safe, standardized way.

Red Hat has a 25 year history of open source leadership, and helping many industries adopt open source technology. Red Hat’s approach to open source has always been to participate, integrate, and stabilize.

• Participate: We contribute code, collaborate on content, steward projects, mentor leaders, and sponsor events.
• Integrate: Red Hat integrates multiple upstream projects, fostering open source community platforms, and works in multi organizational projects.
• Stabilize: We commercialize these platforms and projects together with a rich ecosystem of services and certifications, while continuing to contribute back to the projects we are part of.

Red Hat’s network functions virtualization (NFV) solution and application programming interface (API)-centric integration solutions can help the automotive industry simplify their processes, and deliver services faster when compared to solutions that are not packaged to work together.

By working with Red Hat to include open source software in their next-generation vehicles and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) strategies, automakers can benefit from faster time-to-market, more efficient development, and greater long-term relevancy. Bringing Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® to the automotive industry through the Red Hat in-vehicle operating system means that automakers will be able to speed up development, reduce costs, and create opportunities for new services and revenue streams.  

Red Hat is already working on a number of open source community initiatives within the automotive sector. Red Hat is a founding member of the Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle working group, which seeks to build a scalable architecture for software-defined vehicles. We also are active within the Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE) initiative to develop a scalable open architecture for cloud-native in-vehicle Linux.

Additionally, Red Hat founded an automotive special interest group within CentOS, a form of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, called AutoSD—a direct upstream for what will become the Red Hat in-vehicle operating system. Furthermore, we have undertaken standards initiatives within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to update automotive safety applications, and we are working to improve functional safety within the Linux kernel and ecosystem through the ELISA project. Red Hat is also collaborating with the Automotive Grade Linux project, which provides a platform for members like Toyota, Suzuki, and Mercedes-Benz to develop open source software for their vehicles.

Red Hat is committed to providing long-term value for automakers by providing open source expertise, creating foundations for future developments, and taking the lead in collaborating to bring the SDV to life.

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