Engineering and Technology
| Open Access | Reliability and Recovery Design for OTA Software Updates in Automotive Embedded Systems
Srikanth Puram , General Motors Warren Michigan USAAbstract
Over-the-air (OTA) software updates have become increasingly important in connected and software-intensive vehicles, enabling remote maintenance, security patching, feature updates, and post-deployment system optimization [1], [2], [8]. However, automotive OTA workflows face reliability challenges caused by intermittent connectivity, ignition-cycle interruptions, power-state transitions, limited embedded resources, and cybersecurity governance requirements [2], [6], [7], [8]. This paper presents a reliability-focused design for OTA software update systems in Android-based automotive embedded platforms, emphasizing staged orchestration, checkpoint-based recovery, artifact validation, and controlled failure handling [8], [10], [12], [13]. The proposed architecture incorporates checkpoint-based progress tracking, modular update delivery, cryptographic verification, and deterministic recovery workflows to reduce the risk of incomplete, inconsistent, or unverifiable software update states [3], [5], [8], [9]. The design specifically addresses interruptions such as network disruptions, process restarts, reboot events, and suspend/resume transitions that can disrupt long-running update workflows in embedded automotive environments [2], [8], [13], [14]. The framework provides a practical approach to constructing resilient OTA workflows by combining platform-level update support with application-layer recovery logic, while aligning the update process with expectations in automotive software update engineering, cybersecurity, and software update management [6], [7], [8].
Keywords
Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates, Automotive Embedded Systems, Android Automotive, Software Update Reliability, Checkpoint-Based Recovery, Recovery Mechanisms, Connected Vehicles
References
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Copyright (c) 2025 Srikanth Puram
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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