Collaboration delivers a memory-safe, ISO 26262-qualified Rust toolchain on Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System to accelerate software-defined vehicle innovation
Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, and Ferrous Systems GmbH, the leading provider of Rust consulting, tooling and training services, announced a strategic collaboration to use Ferrocene, a quality-managed, safety-qualified Rust toolchain to build applications for Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System. With this collaboration, Red Hat and Ferrous Systems aim to equip automakers, Tier 1 suppliers and automotive software engineering teams with a streamlined, reliable path to develop safety-critical applications.
As the automotive industry transitions to software-defined vehicles (SDVs), engineering teams increasingly seek memory-safe programming languages to replace legacy codebases. Rust is gaining interest across the automotive industry as OEMs and suppliers look to improve memory safety, software robustness and developer productivity while retaining the performance required for embedded and safety-related systems. However, deploying Rust in safety-critical electronic control units (ECUs) requires strict functional safety qualifications, rigorous toolchain verification and end-to-end traceability.
Red Hat and Ferrous Systems are addressing these requirements by enabling the integration of Ferrocene’s qualified Rust tooling with Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, bridging open source language innovation with enterprise-grade automotive functional safety standards.
Initial use cases include safety-related applications and mixed Rust and C/C++ environments, giving development teams a way to introduce Rust into existing automotive software architectures.
Aligning Rust with automotive functional safety:
By integrating Ferrocene directly with Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, Red Hat and Ferrous Systems provide automotive software engineering teams with a streamlined path to develop and deploy memory-safe code. Key benefits of this joint solution include:
- ISO 26262 functional safety qualification: Ferrocene provides a safety-qualified Rust toolchain certified under ISO 26262 up to ASIL D, alongside a certified subset of Rust’s core library for ISO 26262 ASIL B workloads.
- Reduced qualification and integration overhead: Pre-aligning Ferrocene with Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System helps reduce cost, complexity and custom validation effort typically required by individual OEMs. As teams progress toward functional safety certification, they can continue using the same toolchain, with qualification materials available directly from Ferrous Systems.
- Day 1 application development: Developers can write, test and validate Rust-based workloads on Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System today, establishing a certified application pipeline as platform certification completes.
- Support for mixed C/C++ architectures: Enables gradual migration paths by allowing safety-critical Rust components to interoperate with existing C and C++ automotive software stacks.
- Upstream-first open source commitment: Ferrocene is developed downstream of the community Rust project and contributes bug fixes and enhancements back upstream, ensuring both community ecosystems and production deployments benefit from joint innovation.
Availability:
Ferrocene 26.05 currently supports Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System with a qualified aarch64-rhivos2-linux-gnu target, allowing software engineering teams to begin developing and testing applications immediately. Full general availability of the joint solution is planned for the second half of 2027, aligned with safety-certified Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System releases.
Detailed guidance for using Ferrocene with Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, including qualification requirements and target-specific usage instructions, is available in the publicly accessible Ferrocene Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System Manual.
Organizations interested in using Ferrocene with Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System can contact the Ferrous Systems sales team to discuss their project requirements and available support.
Supporting Quotes:
Francis Chow, vice president and general manager, In-Vehicle Operating System and Edge, Red Hat
“Software-defined vehicles demand an evolution in how automotive applications are written, deployed, and certified. By working with Ferrous Systems to enable safety-qualified Rust on Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, we are providing automakers and Tier 1 suppliers with a hardened, memory-safe development foundation. This collaboration streamlines compliance, lowers integration barriers, and helps the automotive industry innovate faster without compromising safety.”
Florian Gilcher, managing director, Ferrous Systems GmbH
“Rust brings real advantages to automotive software, particularly memory safety, but safety-critical development requires more than the right language. You also need a qualified toolchain and the evidence that goes with it. Ferrocene provides that qualification work, reducing the effort customers would otherwise have to take on themselves. Our work with Red Hat helps make Rust a viable choice for safety-critical automotive software.”
