GENIVI has always closely monitored trends affecting vehicle software architectures and aligned its internal projects to those trends.  Several trends are driving GENIVI to pursue integration of multiple in-vehicle operating systems including ECU consolidation, centralization, domain fusion, centralized vehicle computing and vehicle-cloud computing.  The following diagram shows a disruptive shift from a distributed architecture to a cross-domain, centralized architecture that is prevalent in product development today.

Future Vehicle EE and Software Architecture
(Image courtesy of Robert Bosch Multimedia)

This shift to a centralized cockpit was a driving factor in the GENIVI decision to expand scope to include integration of multiple operating systems present in the centralized and connected cockpit.

Also seen in the diagram and into the future, trends suggest that vehicle architecture will transition from a single, on-board vehicle computer to a vehicle computer in the cloud model. In parallel to the multi-OS integration work, GENIVI is also exploring this cloud-based model of computing for future vehicles.