Android Automotive 24Q3 release details

This page summarizes new major features provided in Android Automotive 24Q3.

Features

Car framework

Display and window manager

To learn more, see Instrument Cluster API.

  1. Added UXRE support on multiple displays, including physical and virtual displays. This enables different UXREs to be applied on a per-display basis, whether a physical or a virtual display. Displays can be identified within a car occupant zone in the UXRE config. This allows for passenger-only displays to continue to use NDO apps while driving.

Audio and radio

To learn more, see Radio control implementation.

  1. Min and max volume levels. OEMs can now define minimum and maximum volume levels to prevent sounds from being too quiet or too loud when activated.

  2. Dynamic audio devices. Allows audio configurations with dynamic output devices, such as Bluetooth and USB headphones, to be selected by the user when the devices are connected.

  3. Audio crossover fade configurations. OEMs can now define crossover fade configurations for automotive devices, which can be applied to apps upon audio playback.

  4. Improve support HD and DAB radio. Fully support the HD and DAB radio standards so that OEMs can integrate radio features in automotive devices.

Performance and system health

To learn more, see Collect performance data and Monitor system health.

  1. Richer instrumentation for system performance issues. The CarWatchdog dumpsys proto reports cached metrics in a structured format for easier analysis. CarWatchdog memory profiling is used to better understand the impact of memory pressure on performance.

Power management

To learn more, see Power management.

  1. Serverless remote access. Added the ability to enable other ECUs, such as the TCU, to trigger AAOS activity and for AAOS to schedule its own wake-ups to process a queue of tasks.

  2. Emergency shutdown support. Improves the car power management service to alert system apps that an emergency condition has triggered a shut-down.

  3. Power policy controls. Allows OEM system apps to change power policy according to the situation.

Display safety

To learn more, see the Multi-Display Communications API.

  1. You can now enable driver UI and cluster development outside the Android source tree.

  2. You can now monitor the Driver UI can generate alerts and notifications.

Connectivity

Bluetooth

  1. Bluetooth headsets. Allows users to connect Bluetooth headsets to AAOS, alongside connected phones, and to use headsets as an audio output device. The user can use the new Audio Output Device setting on the Audio Settings pageset to designate their headset as an output device. Only one media or audio stream can be active over Bluetooth at a time, source or sink.

  2. Default Log Level. You can now control the default log level of the Bluetooth stack from Developer Options or on the command line using the new log.tag.bluetooth logging tag.

Networking

To learn more, see Maintain hotspots between driving sessions.

  1. Data and subscription plan messaging. A reference UX to present the option to renew paid connectivity at the user's point of need.

  2. OEM-paid Wi-Fi. A reference UX for showing connections to restricted Wi-Fi networks.

  3. Wi-Fi hotspot persistence. Added a toggle to allow users to retain the vehicle hotspot for every drive.

UWB

  1. Settings update. Added new options to provide more control of UWB devices.

System UI and core apps

  1. Config aware System UI. Broaden the capabilities of AAOS emulators by supporting simulated multiple device configurations using a single system image.

  2. Compatibility improvements. Made improvements to third party app facing compatibility through the inclusion of core Android functionality, such as DocumentsUI and Gallery.

  3. Dock. Allow users to pin favorite apps to the system UI space to more quickly launch apps.

  4. Ambient view. Provide OEMs with a space in which to create differentiated experiences when IVI screens are turned on but not in use

  5. Refreshed profile lock challenge. Added a standardized screen lock challenge across Android Automotive.

Camera

To learn more, see Camera.

  1. Improved support for EVS concurrent multi-camera clients. Improved multi-camera and multi-client support in CarEvsService, allowing clients to manage data streams more efficiently.

  2. Camera2 user0 access. Enable apps running in the headless user to access Camera2.

  3. Camera2 privacy allowlist. OEMs can now designate certain camera apps to be allowlisted to access cameras regardless of the state of camera privacy toggle.

  4. Camera2 early access. Privileged clients with UID AID_AUTOMOTIVE_EVS can now access the camera before an Android boot is completed.

Sensors and VHAL properties

To learn more, see Supported system properties.

  1. Ultrasonic sensors. Added new VHAL properties for ultrasonic parking sensors.

  2. Driver monitoring. Added new VHAL properties for driver attention monitoring systems.

  3. New VHAL properties. Added 10 new VHAL properties.

  4. Car property performance improvements. To reduce CPU load, updated the Continuous and On_Change properties.

  5. Configurable resolution when subscribing to sensor data. Added a new registerCallback API at the CPM level and added logic to the CarPropertyService and VHAL interface.

  6. VHAL: Access module granularity. OEMs can now specify access levels (such as READ-only and READ-WRITE) per propertyId-areaId combinations instead of specifying access levels for an entire property.

Compliance

Android compliance tests were executed on internal reference hardware. Test suites run for this release include CTS, STS, VTS, and CTSonGSI.

Except for the following issues, we discovered no known failures requiring a fix either in Android 15 code (android15-release) or in the Android 15 test branch (android15-tests-dev).

  • CTS-Verifier. Chooser result.

If your device is based on the Car Portrait UI, these tests might fail, in addition to those listed previously.

  • CTS. CtsWindowManagerDeviceWindow
  • CTS. CtsWindowManagerDeviceMultiDisplay
  • CTS-Verifier. Disable the status bar.