aosp_device_covesa_emulator

Configuration for building COVESA car emulator within AOSP.

COVESA emulator is a common platform for third-party application developers targeting cars running Android Automotive OS (AAOS) without Google Automotive Services (GAS).

Import to Android Studio

1. "Tools" -> "SDK Manager" -> "SDK Update Sites" -> "+"
   • Name: COVESA
   • URL: https://emulator.covesa.global/sdk/emulators/covesa-sys-img2-1.xml
2. "OK" -> "Apply"
3. "Tools" -> "Device Manager" -> "+" -> "Create Virtual Device" -> Choose any Automotive variant without Google Play or create your own "New Hardware Profile" -> "Next"
4. COVESA Emulator image should appear in the list of "Recommended" images. Make sure you are choosing correct ABI. Currently COVESA only provides Android 12 (API 31) emulator images for arm64-v8a and x86_64. -> "Next"
5. AVD Name: "COVESA Android 12 (API 31)" or any other -> "Finish"

Known issues

• "Runnning Devices" does not show emulator screen starting from Android Studio Meerkat.

  emulator version (34 or 35) does not make a difference, something changed in Android Studio itself.

  We could not identify the exact reason, but there is a workaround. Disable the "Launch in the Running Devices tool window" setting:

How to build

Refer to https://github.com/COVESA/aosp_platform-manifest

For official releases use workflows in https://github.com/COVESA/aosp_platform-manifest/actions

How to deploy

To test before distribution, simply run emulator in your build environment (after source, lunch, and m).

For distribution directly to Android Studio we use these references:

• https://source.android.com/docs/automotive/start/avd/android_virtual_device#create-the-avd-image-xml-file
• device/generic/car/tools/README.md

We need to rename and host the zip files generated by m emu_img_zip command with respective lunch targets, along with covesa-sys-img2-1.xml description of all emulator system images we provide.

covesa-sys-img2-1.xml has to be adjusted to provide correct file information, for example:

<size>687795924</size>
<checksum type="sha1">072c11989d183c4de9f6f778cb4add27e6d6d7c6</checksum>
<url>covesa-avd-arm64-v8a-31_r34.zip</url>

Do not leave any TODOs in there, otherwise Android Studio would fail to parse it.

To Consider

• Consider providing prebuilt AVD configurations for easy import in Android Studio. This means we need some information about different display configurations from different OEMs. Developers could then have OEM-specific screen sizes which all run the same emulator image. See device/generic/car/tools/README.md, device/generic/car/tools/x86_64/devices.xml, and https://source.android.com/docs/automotive/start/avd/android_virtual_device#create-the-avd-image-xml-file
• Consider cuttlefish instead of (or in parallel to) goldfish