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You know Activities, Services and Gradle. You have never seen a VHAL.

Starts from what is familiar and works outwards to the parts of the platform that have no phone equivalent — vehicle data, driving state, and the fact that you no longer own the whole screen.

1. 1Android Automotive OS vs Android AutoLearn AAOSWhat AAOS is, and what it is not — before anything else.
2. 2The AAOS stack, layer by layerLearn AAOSWhere your app sits relative to the vehicle.
3. 3The android.car API mapLearn AAOSThe API surface you actually get, and what needs privilege.
4. 4Vehicle HAL fundamentalsLearn AAOSThe interface every vehicle value arrives through.
5. 5CarPropertyManager and Car ServiceLearn AAOSHow you read and write those values from an app.
6. 6Subscriptions, sample rates and update filteringLearn AAOSWhy the rate you ask for is everyone else’s problem too.
7. 7Driver distraction and UX restrictionsLearn AAOSThe platform decides what you may show while driving.
8. 8Car UI Library and RRO themingLearn AAOSWhy you theme through overlays instead of forking.
9. 9The headless system user modelLearn AAOSThe headless system user breaks phone assumptions about storage and accounts.
10. 10Occupant zones and multi-displayLearn AAOSThere is no such thing as “the” display.
11. 11Building a media app for AAOSLearn AAOSThe template model — the car draws your UI, not you.
12. 12Getting an app onto a vehicleLearn AAOSHow your app actually reaches a vehicle.

You know CAN, C++ and an RTOS. Android is the unfamiliar half.

Comes at the platform from below — the HAL boundary, the build system, SEPolicy and the process model — rather than from the app layer you will not be working in.

1. 1The AAOS stack, layer by layerLearn AAOSThe layer map, so the vocabulary lands.
2. 2Getting an AAOS build runningLearn AAOSGet a build running before reading more about it.
3. 3Soong, Android.bp and the AOSP buildLearn AAOSHow anything gets compiled and into the image.
4. 4Creating a device targetLearn AAOSProduct, board and overlays — where a setting belongs.
5. 5How Binder and AIDL actually workLearn AAOSThe IPC everything above the HAL is built on.
6. 6Vehicle HAL fundamentalsLearn AAOSThe boundary your work will sit on.
7. 7Adding a vendor property end to endLearn AAOSEnd to end, including the two steps that fail silently.
8. 8SELinux for vehicle HALsLearn AAOSThe reason your correct service will not start.
9. 9Car permissions and the Treble boundaryLearn AAOSThe vendor boundary, and why it constrains you.
10. 10What happens when you turn the car onLearn AAOSWhat runs when, and what the camera deadline forces.
11. 11Power states and Garage ModeLearn AAOSSuspend, resume and Garage Mode — “off” is not off.
12. 12The automotive debugging toolkitLearn AAOSTriage in the order that saves the most time.

You need the concepts an interviewer actually probes, in one pass.

The topics that come up repeatedly — the property model, the boundaries, the failure modes people have actually debugged — rather than a complete tour.

1. 1The AAOS stack, layer by layerLearn AAOS“Walk me through the stack” is question one.
2. 2Anatomy of a vehicle property IDLearn AAOSBe able to decompose a property ID on a whiteboard.
3. 3From sensor to pixel: the complete pathLearn AAOSSensor to pixel, named layer by layer.
4. 4Inside Car ServiceLearn AAOSWhat Car Service is, and what happens when it dies.
5. 5How Binder and AIDL actually workLearn AAOSExpect to be asked how the IPC works.
6. 6SELinux for vehicle HALsLearn AAOSReading an AVC denial out loud is a common exercise.
7. 7Car permissions and the Treble boundaryLearn AAOSSignature vs privileged, and why the allowlist exists.
8. 8The headless system user modelLearn AAOSThe headless user model separates people who have shipped from people who have read.
9. 9Boot time optimisationLearn AAOSWhere the seconds really go.
10. 10Functional safety and ASIL for Android engineersLearn AAOSKnow why Android is QM and what that implies.
11. 11Memory pressure and the low-memory killerLearn AAOSConstrained hardware and long uptime.
12. 12What a software-defined vehicle actually isSDVYou will be asked what SDV means. Have a real answer.

You want the industry shift, not just the Android part.

The whole-vehicle view — architecture, communication, platforms and delivery — for anyone who needs to hold a conversation outside the cockpit team.

1. 1What a software-defined vehicle actually isSDVA definition that survives contact with a sceptic.
2. 2Why the industry is changingSDVThe pressures behind the money.
3. 3How vehicle electronics evolvedSDVHow the electronics got here.
4. 4Zonal wiring and central computeSDVThe hardware change that makes the software claim possible.
5. 5Service-oriented architecture in a vehicleSDVWhy services replace broadcast signals.
6. 6SOME/IP in depthSDVThe protocol your VHAL is increasingly a client of.
7. 7VSS — the shared vocabularySDVThe shared vocabulary the whole industry is converging on.
8. 8Data brokersSDVThe component that makes desk testing possible.
9. 9Android Automotive as an SDV platformSDVWhere Android fits, honestly.
10. 10Virtual ECUs and software-in-the-loopSDVThe change with the largest effect on your week.
11. 11OTA updates in a software-defined vehicleSDVNothing else matters if you cannot ship an update.
12. 12End to end: one feature, all the way throughSDVOne feature, the whole way through.