Building Vehicle-Aware Apps with VHAL, VSS, and Runtime Permissions

Modern automotive software development must balance broad access to vehicle data and functions with OEM governance, safety, privacy, and compatibility across fragmented ecosystems.
This work, developed within COVESA’s AOSP Group, extends Android by combining Android’s VHAL and CarAPI framework with its runtime permission model, optionally enhanced with a standardized semantic model such as VSS. These components create a unified, cross-OEM vehicle capability layer that enables secure and backward-compatible access to vehicle data and functions.
Using Android’s runtime permission model, OEMs can dynamically govern access to vehicle capabilities without requiring application redeployment. Applications become capability-aware and adapt gracefully as permissions, policies, or hardware availability evolve over time.
The result is a scalable and future-ready platform for software-defined vehicles that enables richer applications while preserving OEM control, safety, and compliance.