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Welcome to AutoSD - Automotive Stream Distribution

AutoSD is the upstream binary distribution that serves as the public, in-development preview of Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System. Built on CentOS Stream with automotive-specific optimizations, AutoSD enables mixed-criticality workloads for modern Software-Defined Vehicles.

Quick Start - choose your path

Ready to create an AutoSD image in 15 minutes?

Perfect for developers who learn by doing.

Start building →

Deploying to automotive hardware?

Hardware engineers and system integrators start here.

Hardware guide →

Working with functional safety requirements?

Understand mixed criticality and safety concepts.

Safety overview →

New to automotive Linux or containerization?

Start with fundamental concepts and architecture.

Core concepts →

What makes AutoSD different?

AutoSD addresses the unique challenges of automotive computing:

Mixed criticality architecture
Run safety-critical and non-critical workloads on the same platform with proven isolation using containers and partitioning.
Real-time performance
Optimized kernel-automotive with Real-Time Linux, deterministic scheduling, and minimal latency for time-critical applications.
Reliable updates
OSTree-based immutable images with atomic A/B updates, rollback capabilities, and bandwidth-efficient delta updates.
Container-native
Built for containerized applications with Quadlet, systemd integration, and seamless orchestration with BlueChi.
Developer-friendly
Complete toolchain with Automotive Image Builder, comprehensive manifests, and configurations for various hardware platforms.

  • Connected vehicle applications

    Build infotainment systems, telematics, and connectivity applications with container isolation and real-time guarantees.

    ➤ Container guide

  • Mixed-criticality systems

    Deploy both safety-critical and non-critical applications on shared hardware with Freedom from Interference.

    ➤ Safety architecture

  • Over-the-air updates

    Implement secure, reliable OTA updates with OSTree’s atomic operations and efficient delta compression.

    ➤ Update strategy

  • Hardware enablement

    Enable support for automotive SoCs, ECUs, and reference platforms with upstream driver integration.

    ➤ Hardware support

The Automotive SIG ecosystem

The CentOS Automotive SIG manages and delivers the following:

AutoSD distribution

The primary deliverable. A binary distribution with automotive-specific packages, kernel optimizations, and mixed-criticality support. AutoSD serves as the upstream preview of Red Hat In-Vehicle OS.

Sample images & manifests

Pre-built images and Automotive Image Builder manifests for common scenarios. Download nightly builds or use demo manifests as starting points for custom images.

Browse sample images →

RPM repositories

Enhanced package repositories with automotive-specific software, drivers, and applications that extend AutoSD capabilities.

Contribute packages →

Tools & documentation

Complete toolchain including automotive-image-builder, comprehensive documentation, and community support.

Ready to get started?

  1. Install Automotive Image Builder →
  2. Follow the Quick Start Guide →
  3. Join the community →

Important safety information

Functional Safety Disclaimer

AutoSD is the public preview of the Red Hat In-Vehicle OS product and contains all of the technology and tools necessary to run a mixed-criticality workload on that safety certified product. The documentation on this page presents the technology underlying and available in the product, but all safety requirements and documents are not covered here and are available only to Red Hat In-Vehicle OS customers. These safety documents impose some limitations and additional activities necessary for safety workloads.

Technical deep dive

For those ready to explore AutoSD’s technical foundation:

Architecture & design
AutoSD uses containers as the foundation for Software-Defined Vehicle architecture, enabling isolation of critical and non-critical workloads. Learn More →
Build system
Based on OSBuild with YAML manifests, AutoSD provides reproducible, customizable image generation. Explore →
Package management
RPM-based distribution provides automotive-specific packages and dependency management. Details →
Update mechanism
OSTree provides image-based updates with atomic operations, rollback capabilities, and composefs tamperproofing. Understand →

AutoSD is developed by the CentOS Automotive SIG in collaboration with the automotive industry and open source communities.

© Red Hat