The Qt Company launches Automotive Suite v1.0

As the world is converging cross pollination is crucial as the same connectivity and cloud driven innovations are taking place in parallel industries. Qt, being used widely across more than 70 industries, makes it the natural standard platform choice for such innovation. The Qt Company develops and delivers the Qt development framework under commercial and open source licenses. The Qt framework has its roots in open source. One of the key benefits of being open is the extensive ecosystem of developers and partners reaping benefits of joint innovation. Qt will provide both the technology and services for this industry shift together with our expanding ecosystem partners.

According to Tero Marjamäki, Head of Automotive at The Qt Company, “Rather than delivering separate tools and capabilities, we have built platform elements enabling fast ramp-ups for any automotive program. Basically, you can utilise the pre-built automotive suite on the selected hardware and start your differentiating development from day one as all the preparatory development is done for you”.

Today, the automotive industry needs a platform on which products can be built fast, which provides an unbroken tool chain from prototyping to production to allow incredibly rapid development, deployment, debugging and testing.

“The Qt Automotive Suite delivers a modern multi-process architecture enabling stunning fluid 2D and photo-realistic 3D user experiences in combination with secure cloud services. The dual licensing scheme enables car makers to develop an eco-system of innovation around their IVI offerings – from concept to production. We are proud to be a key contributor to Qt Automotive Suite.” says Alwin Bakkenes, CEO of Pelagicore.

For the Qt Automotive Suite, being cross-platform doesn't only mean flexibility in choosing the target operation system. Qt applications also build and run on desktop systems, enabling design and development teams to be productive already long before target hardware becomes widely available. Qt code can also be re-used for mobile companion apps, reducing development cost while providing a more consistent user experience across the board.

"In order to deliver IVI projects quickly and efficiently, development tools that understand the used framework are essential. The Qt Automotive Suite not only includes high-level inspection tools for Qt that allow diagnostics on target or in a fully or partially simulated environment, but it also provides building blocks to easily create custom tools for your own frameworks. These tools have proven their usefulness in our daily work on many automotive projects", says KDAB's Director Automotive Volker Krause.

Delivering the very latest in IVI technology, Qt is set to be the platform and toolkit of choice for OEMs building connected cars and for companies seeking to establish new innovative business in the evolving automotive industry.