OYSTER BAY, NY -- The number of OEM-installed connected car infotainment systems with multiple OS architectures shipped globally will reach 34.2 million units at the end of 2018 with secure container-type units accounting for 57.3% of shipments and virtual machine-type units accounting for the remaining 42.7%,
ABI Research forecasts.

So called “secure container" shipments will hit 19.6 million units, while 14.6 million “virtual machine”-based connected car infotainment systems will leave shelves, the research firm predicts.

Multimedia sophistication is growing rapidly in cars with in-car infotainment systems running incredibly sophisticated software stacks. This, coupled with the increasing complexity of other electronic systems such as ADAS technologies, is driving the need for electronic processor consolidation. As a result, the automotive world is moving inexorably towards mixed criticality systems in which real-time safety and security components must co-exist with other less critical components on the same platform.

Linking vehicles to the Internet and allowing software to be downloaded to an infotainment system can make vehicles susceptible to security breaches. Malicious software could be installed that causes infotainment systems to crash, or more seriously, affect other parts of the vehicle such as the safety systems.