COVESA Member Event Brings Community Together

COVESA wrapped up its fall All Member Meeting in late October with close to 250 in attendance and close to fifty speakers on the program. A big "thank you" goes out to our event sponsors and showcase participants shown in the graphic below.

The first half-day of the program focused on introductory sessions to Vehicle Signal Specification, Vehicle Service Catalog, and how to engage in COVESA expert groups and projects. The day closed with panels and presentations on Data Privacy and In-Vehicle experiences. While not all sessions used slides, the program and many session slides can be found here.

Wednesday was the busiest day with multiple tracks ranging from a business-level track, to a series of meetings of the newly formed Data Expert Group.  Lisa Drake from Ford shared a compelling vision of Ford's future of EVs, followed by a moderated panel of Ford and Stellantis representatives discussing emerging industry opportunities for OEMs. Next up on the business track was a cloud presentation by Alex Oyler from SBD Automotive followed by panels representing Tier 1, Silicon vendor, and Cloud vendor perspectives, as well as perspectives from organizations defining and delivering data-enabled services to the industry. Hyundai Motor presented a case study on their vehicle data architecture and AWS presented how they were using VSS in the context of their Fleetwise product.  The day was bookended with an equally compelling perspective from Visnu Sundaram on Stellantis' view of the future of in-vehicle experiences.

Another highlight on Wednesday was a Talking the Drive podcast recorded live at the AMM. In this episode, People-driven Marketing in the Car, host John MacLeod sat down with CEO of Drive Time Metrics, Rod MacKenzie, and Rivet Chief Engineer, Roy Casino for a great discussion about what marketers want, what’s missing and who can step up to revolutionize programming and marketing in the future car. You can listen to the recorded podcast here.

Wednesday evening was highlighted by a bustling and active showcase and reception during which more than 20 organizations presented their products and services. The Ford F150 Lightning on the floor instantly became the most expensive backdrop for selfies and group photos during the event.

Thursday kicked off with a view from academia with a presentation on the NSF-funded PIVOT project as well as additional working sessions by the Data Expert Group. Next up were working sessions of the EV Charging Event Data Aggregation project and a "pot-pourri" of talks by COVESA members on topics ranging from safe road infrastructure, to evolving UX insights, to the value of vehicle content to behavior AI in connected vehicles.

The event marked a second and definitive return to in-person events for COVESA. It was an invigorating event with an abundance of program content, new faces and great networking opportunities for all.

COVESA is in the planning stages of determining its Spring 2023 location, while actively planning for its CES 2023 showcase and reception in January (use passcode "collaboration" to gain access to site). Early indications show that the CES event will likely be as large and as well-attended as pre-COVID events. Sponsorship opportunities and showcase tables are still available by contacting Mike Nunnery (mikenunnery@comcast.net). We can't wait to see you either at our CES event or during the Spring AMM. 

And another special thanks to our AMM event and showcase sponsors: