Overview

The Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS) platform offers two distinct camera APIs:

  • Extended View System (EVS) and CarEvsService API is exclusive to automotive platforms with minimal dependency on Android system services to provide early camera access. This API is available only to system and first-party (1P) apps that provide critical automotive camera experiences, such as rear visibility.

  • Android Camera Service uses the Android Camera API. The Android Camera API v2, known as the Camera2 API, uses the Android Camera Service to interact with the camera hardware. Camera2 is tightly coupled with other Android services and requires Android to be completely booted before the camera can be accessed (except early camera access by a privileged client). The Camera2 API can be used by the system and 1P apps as well as by third-party (3P) apps that implement conventional camera experiences, such as video conferencing.