Android Automotive SDV Testbed
A full software-defined-vehicle cockpit running Android Automotive OS on Raspberry Pi 5, with navigation, instrument cluster and media across multiple displays.
Stack
The problem
Automotive Android development normally requires expensive reference hardware. The goal was a low-cost, fully functional SDV testbed that exercises the real AAOS platform stack rather than an emulator, so cockpit software could be developed and validated against physical displays and inputs.
The approach
- 01
Built and maintained an AAOS device tree for Raspberry Pi 5, forked from raspberry-vanilla, with board-specific configuration for displays and peripherals.
- 02
Patched AOSP CarService to fix headless system user mode (HSUM) cluster-user handling so the instrument cluster starts under the correct user.
- 03
Modified drm_hwcomposer to derive stable display ports from connectors, making multi-display assignment deterministic across boots.
- 04
Patched Car LocalMediaPlayer for the READ_MEDIA_AUDIO permission model so in-car media browsing works on modern Android.
- 05
Developed the sdvmaps navigation app and instrument cluster on top of the MapLibre Android Auto sample, using open map tiles instead of a licensed provider.
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