01Intermediate
Create your own lunch target
Your own product flavour that builds, boots in the emulator, and gives every later tutorial somewhere to put its files.
1–2 hours (plus one full build)
Tutorials
What you can customise in AAOS, and how
Android Automotive is built to be modified — but the modification points are spread across partitions, build files and policy languages that are documented separately, if at all. This is the map, followed by step-by-step tutorials for each one.
14 tutorials · 5 tracks22 customisation surfaces mapped
Start with Create your own lunch targetEvery customisation surface
15 of these have a full tutorial below. The rest are listed so the map is complete — knowing a surface exists is most of the problem.
| Surface | What it changes | Where it lives | Tutorial |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product / lunch target | A build flavour of your own | device/<oem>/<product>/ | Open |
| Board configuration | Partitions, architecture, AVB | BoardConfig.mk | Open |
| SELinux policy | Domains, types, allow rules | device/<oem>/<product>/sepolicy/ | Open |
| init service | A native daemon started at boot | *.rc + cc_binary | Open |
| Vehicle HAL | The vehicle network bridge | hardware/<oem>/automotive/vehicle/ | Open |
| Vehicle properties | Vendor-defined vehicle state | VHAL config + car-lib | Open |
| AIDL HAL | Your own vendor interface | hardware/interfaces/ or vendor/ | Open |
| Car subservice | A service inside Car Service | packages/services/Car/ | Open |
| System service | A service inside system_server | frameworks/base/services/ | Open |
| Permissions | OEM permissions and allowlists | framework overlay + privapp XML | Open |
| System app | Privileged, platform-signed APK | packages/apps/ or vendor/ | Open |
| RRO | Runtime theming without forking | An overlay APK | Open |
| CarSystemUI | System bars, HVAC panel, keyguard | packages/apps/Car/SystemUI + RRO | Open |
| Audio topology | Zones, buses, volume groups | car_audio_configuration.xml | Open |
| Boot animation | What the driver sees first | bootanimation.zip | Open |
| Framework resources | Build-time config overrides | DEVICE_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS | — |
| Launcher | The app grid and home screen | packages/apps/Car/Launcher | — |
| Car Settings | Settings entries and preferences | packages/apps/Car/Settings | — |
| Key layout / input | Steering wheel and rotary mapping | *.kl and *.idc files | — |
| Locale & region | Languages, units, regional behaviour | Product config + resources | — |
| Kernel & device tree | Drivers, display ports, CAN interfaces | kernel/ — outside AOSP | — |
| OTA packaging | How updates are built and signed | ota_from_target_files | — |
Platform foundations
Your own product target, your own SELinux domain, your own native daemon — the base everything else is built on.
- 02Intermediate
Add a native daemon started by init
A vendor service written in C++, built with Soong, started by init at boot — and the SELinux denial you will hit immediately.
1–2 hours
- 03Advanced
Write SELinux policy for your own service
Give your daemon a domain, label its files, and grant exactly what it needs — then prove the denial is gone.
1–2 hours
Vehicle integration
A vendor VHAL from an empty directory, custom properties end to end, and your own AIDL HAL when properties are the wrong shape.
- 04Advanced
Build your own Vehicle HAL
A vendor VHAL that registers as IVehicle, serves its own property configs, and publishes changes — reusing AOSP's binder plumbing instead of reimplementing it.
3–5 hours
- 05Advanced
Add a custom vehicle property end to end
A vendor property from ID allocation to an app reading it — config, permission, SEPolicy, car-lib constant and the six places it fails silently.
2–4 hours
- 06Advanced
Define your own AIDL HAL
When vehicle properties are the wrong shape — a versioned vendor interface with real RPC, its own VINTF entry and its own SELinux domain.
2–3 hours
Framework services
Add a subservice to Car Service, a service to system_server, and the permission that guards it.
- 07Advanced
Add a subservice to Car Service
An OEM service inside com.android.car, with its own AIDL, its own manager class in car-lib, and the threading rules that keep the platform booting.
3–4 hours
- 08Advanced
Add a service to system_server
A framework service outside Car Service — SystemService lifecycle, boot phases, and when this is the right layer rather than a Car subservice.
2–3 hours
- 09Intermediate
Define and enforce an OEM permission
A signature-level permission of your own — declared in the framework, allowlisted for a privileged app, enforced at every entry point, and verified on device.
1–2 hours
Apps & UI
A privileged system app, runtime resource overlays, and modifying CarSystemUI without forking it.
- 10Intermediate
Build a privileged system app
An APK built into the image, signed with the platform key, holding a signature permission and using hidden APIs — and how to iterate on it without reflashing.
2–3 hours
- 11Intermediate
Theme the platform with an RRO
Restyle CarSystemUI and the Car UI Library from a separate APK — no forking, no rebuild, and a thirty-second iteration loop.
1–2 hours
- 12Advanced
Modify CarSystemUI
Add a button to the system bar, change which bars exist, and know exactly when an overlay stops being enough and a fork begins.
2–3 hours
Product configuration
Audio topology, boot animation and the settings surface — the configuration that makes a build an OEM’s.
- 13Advanced
Configure car audio zones and buses
Declare output devices in the audio HAL, group them into zones and volume groups, and prove every context routes somewhere.
2–3 hours
- 14Beginner
Build a custom boot animation
The OEM's first impression — a correctly packaged bootanimation.zip, sized for the real display, that does not add a second to boot.
1 hour