News, 4 June 2025
Red Hat’s In-Vehicle Operating System has obtained functional safety certification as a Safety Element out-of-Context (SEooC) according to the ISO 26262 Edition 2, 2018 standard, achieving ASIL-B safety integrity.
Red Hat asserts that leveraging open source technology will drive significant change in the automotive sector, enabling companies to effectively address the intricate requirements of software-defined vehicles. In line with this perspective, Red Hat has introduced a cloud-native, software-centric approach for automotive design. This allows car manufacturers to begin software development in a cloud environment, smoothly transition to virtual testing, and then implement the software on physical hardware without needing to rewrite code.
The platform is built to support a diverse range of in-car functions, such as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), digital dashboards, body control modules, telematics, infotainment systems, and even the integration of advanced AI technologies.
In terms of safety certification, the Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System is a Linux-based system that has received safety certification and is made especially for crucial automotive operations. It features rapid boot capabilities, dependable real-time performance, and strong freedom from interference (FFI) features. This FFI capability ensures that non-critical systems like infotainment or GPS do not interfere with or compromise crucial safety functionalities.
Customers utilizing the Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System will receive a detailed Safety Guidance document, which includes important Assumptions of Use (AoUs) and related safety materials. Additionally, Red Hat plans to provide a customized software development kit (SDK). This SDK will draw upon Red Hat’s extensive offerings in hybrid cloud and application development, facilitating customers’ ability to easily transfer innovations developed in the cloud into in-vehicle experiences, which is a core aspect of the move towards software-defined vehicles.
Additionally, Red Hat is collaborating with important firms in the automotive silicon hardware industry, including Texas Instruments, Arm, Intel, NXP, Qualcomm, and Renesas. The goal of these collaborations is to pre-qualify the operating system on relevant hardware platforms and integrate the necessary drivers. Red Hat intends to regularly release a list of specific qualified hardware platforms covered by the safety certification, starting with a Renesas device upon launch, soon followed by a Qualcomm device.
Moreover, Red Hat said at Red Hat Summit 2025 that it is expanding its partner ecosystem to accommodate the In-Vehicle Operating System. This broadened ecosystem includes silicon providers, middleware vendors, software developers, and system integrators, all working together to speed up the development of software-defined vehicles. By pre-integrating important technologies, Red Hat assists auto makers in more efficiently designing and deploying advanced in-vehicle systems, thereby promoting faster innovation, greater flexibility, and improved user experiences.
