ChromeOS Embedded Controller sensor hub
Exposes the motion and ambient sensors that hang off the embedded controller in ChromeOS devices, including accelerometers, gyroscopes, light sensors, and the lid-angle calculation that convertible Chromebooks use to switch between laptop and tablet modes. It covers Chromebooks from roughly the mid-2010s through models still shipping new in 2025.
recommendation
It should stay because Chromebooks still ship in 2025 with their accelerometers, gyroscopes, light sensors, and lid-angle detection routed through the ChromeOS embedded controller, and the driver family was actively patched as recently as January 2026. Google's own documentation says the EC code supports more than 200 Chromebook variants, and there is no other kernel interface that exposes these EC-managed sensors.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent functional upstream work touched this driver family in January 2026 ('iio: cros_ec: Allow enabling/disabling calibration mode').
- chromeos.dev
Google states the ChromeOS embedded controller handles sensors including accelerometer/gyroscope/light, uses two accelerometers for lid angle on convertible Chromebooks, and the EC code supports more than 200 Chromebook variants.
- chromeos.dev
ChromeOS developer docs list accelerometer and gyroscope as hardware features that may be available on some Chromebooks, indicating ongoing deployed Chromebook sensor support.
- news.acer.com
Acer announced the Chromebook Plus Spin 514 in September 2025, a new convertible ChromeOS laptop shipping in North America in October 2025, showing this hardware class is still sold new.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Shell inspection of local Kconfig/Makefile showed this is the ChromeOS EC sensor-hub driver family (core, contiguous sensors, lid-angle, activity). `lore_file_timeline` on cros_ec_sensors_core.c and cros_ec_sensors.c showed active 2026 maintenance and a functional January 2026 patch; sampled recent lore activity did not show removal traffic. Web search + `open` on chromeos.dev provided current deployment evidence for EC-managed Chromebook sensors and >200 Chromebook variants; web search + `open` on Acer's 2025 launch page showed new convertible Chromebooks still shipping. No natural upstream replacement covers the same ChromeOS EC sensor-hub interface, so removal/deprecation is not justified.