Cloud Emulators
Null Autos runs Android Automotive emulators in the cloud and streams them to your browser. They are high-fidelity virtual devices that behave like real Android Automotive head units, not a stripped-down simulator, so what you test matches what ships.
Why it matters
Testing automotive software traditionally means physical head units: expensive, scarce, and hard to share across a team or a CI pipeline. Cloud emulators replace that with virtual devices you can launch on demand, connect to from anywhere, and script from automation.
| Without Null Autos | With Null Autos |
|---|---|
| Physical head units on desks | Virtual devices in the cloud |
| One device per engineer | Launch as many as you need |
| Manual flashing and setup | Boot from a snapshot in moments |
| Hard to use in CI | Full API and CLI access |
| Specialized hardware required | Any browser |
What you can do with an emulator
- Interactive screen: full pointer, touch, and keyboard input over a live WebRTC video stream, including multiple displays such as center stack plus instrument cluster.
- ADB: run
adb shell,adb logcat, install APKs, and use the full debug bridge, either from the in-browser ADB panel or your local terminal. - VHAL (Vehicle HAL): read and write vehicle properties such as speed, gear, fuel and battery level, HVAC, doors, and lights to simulate vehicle states. See the VHAL guide.
- Peripherals: microphone, Bluetooth, and GPS location simulation.
- Live logs: stream device logs in real time.
Lifecycle
Every emulator is created from a snapshot, a pre-built Android Automotive disk image published by your team's builds. This is what makes boot fast and reproducible.
- Create: pick a snapshot, plus an optional name and groups. The platform clones the snapshot to a fresh volume, schedules the device on a virtualization-capable node, and waits for it to boot and get a name.
- Operate: connect, run ADB, drive VHAL, view logs.
- Restart: roll the device for a clean state.
- Swap snapshot: re-point a running emulator at a different snapshot.
- Delete: tear down the device and reclaim storage.
You can manage all of this from the portal,
the nullctl CLI, or the API.
How you connect
| Channel | Protocol | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Screen & input | WebRTC (relayed) | Interactive use in the browser |
| ADB | Authenticated proxy | Debugging, automation |
| Logs | Server-Sent Events (SSE) | Live log viewing |
| VHAL | gRPC | Reading and writing vehicle data |
Because media is relayed through a secure gateway, emulators work from restrictive networks without exposing the device directly to the internet. See Connecting to Emulators for details.
Limits & capacity
Each user can run a bounded number of concurrent emulators to keep capacity fair across a team, so delete devices you are done with to free space. Your tenant admin can advise on your organization's limits.