How vSkipGen works: Virtualizing the cockpit with Cuttlefish

Panasonic Automotive’s vSkipGen acts as a digital twin for physical CDC hardware. To provide a hardware-agnostic environment for Android virtual machines, vSkipGen uses components of Android Cuttlefish. At its core, vSkipGen leverages a cloud-optimized Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) built on crosvm (the open-source, security-focused VMM originally developed for Chrome OS) which utilizes Linux KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for hardware-assisted virtualization. The VMM backend is implemented in Rust for enhanced security, scalability, and performance. By running the full stack on C4A-metal (see Figure 2), Panasonic lets developers boot a full AAOS image in the cloud, which behaves exactly like the software running in a physical vehicle.

The platform virtualizes all essential peripherals, such as the audio, GPU, sensors, cameras, Controller Area Network (CAN), Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, using the VirtIO standard. This VirtIO-native approach allows developers to interact with the virtual devices exactly as they would with the physical hardware. Furthermore, vSkipGen seamlessly connects with automotive simulators and software-in-the-loop (SiL) environments for comprehensive scenario and edge-case validation, enabling teams to conduct software validation and run automated test suites without needing early access to physical prototypes.