Li Auto has formally introduced the open-sourcing of its self-developed Halo OS automobile working system. The announcement by founder and CEO Li Xiang on the 2025 Zhongguancun Discussion board in Beijing on March 27 positions Li Auto as the primary world automaker to make its complete automobile working system freely out there to the broader {industry}.
“We’re prepared to push automobile working programs to new efficiency heights by means of open-source,” Li said throughout his presentation. “Open-sourcing isn’t nearly offering builders worldwide with a brand new technical platform and growth instruments—it’s about opening up our worth system. Behind open-source is our confidence in our expertise and humanity’s means to construct an ‘innovation neighborhood.’ We perceive that closed programs can solely amplify coefficients, however open-source can amplify the bottom.”
The Halo OS undertaking started in 2021 as a direct response to the worldwide chip scarcity and challenges of adapting closed-source programs to new {hardware}. Li Auto invested over one billion yuan (138 million USD) and deployed a 200-person growth staff to create the system, which entered manufacturing autos in 2024.
Li Auto says Halo OS considerably outperforms industry-leading closed-source AUTOSAR programs throughout key metrics, together with core efficiency, safety, value effectivity, adaptability, and suppleness. By means of progressive cross-system architectural design, Halo OS optimizes the complete “perception-decision-execution” chain, doubling response pace and enhancing response stability by an element of 5 in comparison with AUTOSAR programs.
These efficiency benefits translate to tangible security advantages, akin to decreasing computerized emergency braking (AEB) stopping distances by seven meters at 120 km/h freeway speeds. The system additionally enhances Li Auto’s air suspension system by enhancing physique posture management precision by 73% by means of clever coordination between cameras, central processing items, and the suspension system.
Concerning {hardware} compatibility, Halo OS dramatically reduces the time required to adapt to new chipsets. Whereas closed-source programs usually require 3-6 months to regulate to new chips, Halo OS can full chip adaptation and verification in 4 weeks. The system helps all automotive chip architectures, together with Infineon and Nvidia, and rising Chinese language chips from Horizon Robotics and SemiDrive.
“At present, there isn’t a vehicle-oriented working system within the open-source ecosystem that spans the horizontal domains of cockpit, clever driving, and chassis, in addition to the vertical layers of functions, programs, and {hardware},” defined Huang Zhen, Li Auto’s automobile working system structure lead. “The technical boundaries are extraordinarily excessive.”
Li Auto’s transfer comes as the corporate accelerates its AI growth. It not too long ago rolled out end-to-end imaginative and prescient language fashions for clever driving and plans to launch its next-generation autonomous driving structure, MindVLA robotic massive mannequin, later this 12 months. Halo OS is designed to function the technical basis for these superior AI functions, successfully addressing the core battle between computing energy calls for and provide.
The corporate plans to steadily launch Halo OS to the open-source neighborhood in late April. Its core parts embrace the automobile management working system, clever driving working system, communication middleware, and virtualization platform. Li Auto estimates that open-sourcing these applied sciences may assist the automotive {industry} save 10-20 billion yuan ($1.4-2.8 billion USD) yearly in redundant analysis and growth assets.
By making Halo OS open-source, Li Auto goals to interrupt down the “black field” technical boundaries of closed programs and reconstruct the technological monopoly panorama presently dominated by worldwide suppliers. The corporate’s imaginative and prescient parallels how Android remodeled the cell phone {industry}, making a common platform that accelerated innovation and diminished prices throughout the ecosystem.
As autos turn into more and more software-defined, Li Auto’s daring transfer positions the Chinese language automaker on the forefront of automotive working system growth. It doubtlessly creates an “Android of vehicles” that might turn into the inspiration for clever autos worldwide within the coming AI period.
