RG Android SDK setup
Audience: 3rd-party developers building Android applications for Renault Group vehicles running Android Automotive OS 15 (Renault Trafic Van E-Tech and beyond).
What this documentation covers
This documentation is the Renault Group–owned setup track for building AAOS applications. It is split into two guides:
| Guide | What you will achieve |
|---|---|
| Installation guide | Install Android Studio, the Android SDK, and the Android Automotive OS 15 platform on Windows, Linux, or macOS. |
| Getting-started guide | Create the default Google Automotive application project, configure it for AAOS 15, and build an APK locally. |
Follow them in that order.
Guiding principles
- Reference-first. Wherever Google already documents standard behavior on https://developer.android.com ↗, we link to it. Renault Group content covers only the choices, versions, and glue that are specific to our vehicle platform.
- Cross-platform. Every step works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. When a step differs by OS, the difference is spelled out inline.
- Verifiable. Every step has an explicit outcome — a command output, a file on disk, or an Android Studio UI state — so a reader (human or AI coding agent) can confirm success before moving on.
- AAOS 15 only. All version choices target Android Automotive OS 15 (API level 35). Older or newer AAOS releases are not covered here.
Supported development environment
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Supported IDE | Android Studio — minimum Koala Feature Drop | 2024.2.1 (AGP 8.6.0, first combination that targets API 35). Recommended: Panda 4 or newer (latest AGP). See AGP & Android Studio compatibility ↗. |
| Target OS | Android Automotive OS 15 |
| Target API level | 35 |
| Host OS | Windows 10/11, supported Linux distributions, macOS |
| Host CPU architecture | x86_64 or ARM (Apple Silicon, Windows-on-ARM) for installing the SDK and building APKs. The Android Automotive emulator distributed later in the developer journey is x86_64-only, so ARM hosts can build the APK but cannot run it locally on that emulator. |
| JDK | Provided by the JDK bundled with your Android Studio release; the exact minimum JDK depends on the AGP version, see AGP & Android Studio compatibility ↗. |
Android Studio is the only supported development environment for AAOS 15 partner development in this documentation set.
Prerequisites
- A Windows, Linux, or macOS workstation matching Google’s Android Studio system requirements ↗.
- Internet access to https://developer.android.com ↗, https://dl.google.com ↗ (Android Studio + SDK downloads), and https://services.gradle.org ↗ (Gradle distribution downloads).
- Local administrator rights on the workstation for the standard Android Studio installer on Windows and macOS. If you don’t have admin rights, Google also publishes a portable ZIP of Android Studio that you can extract into your user directory and launch without elevation — see the Install Android Studio page linked in the installation guide.
What is not covered here
The following pieces of the third-party developer journey are out of scope of this documentation set and will be published separately on the Renault Group developer portal:
- the openR evo emulator (public user variant),
- the vehicle-property test harness for integration testing,
- Renault Group UX/UI constraints for driver-optimized applications,
Running the built APK on an emulator or a vehicle is therefore not covered by this documentation set — the getting started guide stops once the APK is on disk.
Feedback
Issues, gaps, or errors in this documentation should be reported through the feedback channel published on the Renault Group developer portal.
