Running the Demo App

Dev Board

This path assumes the board already has a working Android Automotive image flashed and booted. If you have not done that yet, start with Flash OS.

Prerequisites

You also need:

• the board connected over the USB 3.0 Type-C / OTG port
• the demo-app repository cloned locally
• java and Android SDK installed
  • If you use nix, you can use nix develop to access the packages

Verify the board connection

From the laptop, confirm that Android on the board is visible over adb:

adb devices

If the board does not appear here, stop and fix the USB or board boot state before trying to deploy the app.

Build the debug APK

just demo-app/build

That produces a signed debug APK at:

demo-app/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

Install from the CLI

Use adb to replace any existing debug build on the board:

just demo-app/install

This builds and installs the app.

Run the app from the CLI

The debug build uses the package name com.example.displayapp.debug. Start it with:

just demo-app/run

If you want to restart from a clean app process first:

just demo-app/redeploy

Useful troubleshooting commands

adb logcat
adb shell pm list packages | rg displayapp
adb shell dumpsys package com.example.displayapp.debug

If adb install fails because of signatures or stale state, remove the existing debug package and reinstall:

just demo-app/uninstall
just demo-app/install

Android Studio Emulator

WARNING - Android Studio and the Android Emulator seem to be pretty resource-hungry, especially with RAM. It is recommended that you stop any other virtualization-related things on your machine (virtual machines and docker containers) before attempting to run the app locally on the emulator.

1. Install Android Studio
   • Instructions vary depending on operating system. You can figure this out on your own.
2. Install Android Automotive System Image
   • Docs are here
   • “Android Automotive with Google APIs x86_64 System Image” (API level 34-ext9) is known to work
3. Clone the demo-app repository locally
4. Open the demo-app directory in Android Studio
5. Set up Android Automotive Virtual Device
   • Docs are here
   • “Automotive (1408p landscape)” is known to work
6. Click the “run app” button in the top bar (also can be triggered with Shift + F10)
7. Use the little kebab button in the emulator to open “Extended Controls”
8. Trigger different inputs to the app using the extended controls
   • Car data > Car sensor data gives you access to some high-level data inputs
   • Car data > Vhal properties gives you even more access to data inputs - you can search for things like EV_BATTERY_LEVEL
   • Car rotary gives you a handy rotary knob system as an alternative to the touchscreen