Blog from December, 2023

With all that happened in COVESA this year, my only solution is to do my best to summarize succinctly some of my personal highlights from COVESA’s activities during 2023 and thank each of you and your organizations for making this year the best year ever for COVESA!!

In a rough, chronological list, here are some of the many highlights:

Kicked Off 2023 with CES and New Board Members

With 65 tables/booths and around 1,800 attendees, the COVESA hosted yet another successful CES Showcase and Reception (see pix) … and the CES 2024 Showcase is on track to exceed those numbers! During the show, VSS adoption was indicated by AWS Fleetwise, Blackberry IVY, remotiveLabs, Ricardo, Sonatus and several others.  What a great start to the year!

COVESA welcomed Aptiv, RTI, and Stellantis to serve on the Board of Directors during its March Annual Board Meeting.

Another New Group, A Successful Member Meeting and A New VSS Release

Automotive AOSP App Framework Standardization Expert Group launched in April and has consistently made progress on a set of early milestones.

COVESA gathered in Porto, Portugal for what became the most enjoyable reception (see pix) in our history (World of Wine terrace) and over 200 participants heard the impressive story of an EV journey from Cologne to Porto, with all the accompanying range anxiety.

The Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) released version 4.0 in May. VSS continues to see adoption across the industry as evidenced by the spotlight series of adoption stories told by several members.

Highlights from June included another excellent Showcase and Reception at the AutoTech: Detroit event as well as the first face-to-face workshop of the Automotive AOSP App Framework Standardization Expert Group.

In July, COVESA leaders gathered with leaders from AUTOSAR, Eclipse SDV, and SOAFEE to envision how to team together on the software defined vehicle. This important collaboration will have a presence during the CES Showcase in January 2024, including demonstrators from ETAS and Tietoevry showing the integration of technologies from all four organizations.

New Members & COVESA Collaboration Momentum

Over the summer, COVESA enjoyed welcoming new members GM (July) and Mbition (August). Both OEMs have been active including a contribution of uServices from GM and consistent contribution by Mbition to the IFEX project as part of COVESA’s focus on common vehicle interfaces.

Back by popular demand, the vsomeip project restarted in September with several new contributions to this historical and significant open project in the past few months.

October’s All Member Meeting in Troy, Michigan surprised us all with 340(!) in attendance, the continuation of BoFs for Commercial Vehicles and Vehicle Commerce and discussions about a new project leveraging VSS in road safety applications.

Wishing You Happy Holidays

This year has been amazing, and I have another list of equally impressive highlights (and apologies if I did not list your favorite), but I should close and wish you all a happy holiday season!

Hoping to see you in Las Vegas for COVESA’s CES Showcase and Reception on 9 January (6:00-9:00 pm) at the Bellagio ballroom. For more information on that event, contact Mike Nunnery.

With Dr. James J. Hunt, Co-Founder, CEO, and CTO of aicas GmbH

What does your company do? What services, or products, do you provide?  

 aicas is a global high-tech company that develops embedded IoT and edge-to-cloud solutions that run securely and enable new business models and processes across cloud and edge infrastructures. Major industrial companies and leading automotive manufacturers use aicas EdgeSuite solutions such as JamaicaCAR and JamaicaVM to access and control edge devices and their data.

Why did you join COVESA and how long has your company been a member?

aicas joined COVESA in January 2023. As a long-time automotive software supplier, we are proud to contribute to the digital software revolution in the automotive sector by being part of the global COVESA network and working with renowned companies such as Bosch, BMW Group, Ford Motor Company, and Wind River to shape the future technologies of connected vehicles and the mobility ecosystem. We look forward to contributing to COVESA standards.

VSS provides the industry with open data definition for signals for application in and around vehicles. It unifies proprietary definitions associated with specific vehicle buses such as CAN and AUTOSAR Signals. As such, it fits well with our edge-to-cloud solutions. In the working groups, we are discussing best practices to develop even better solutions for the future of global transportation.

We plan to contribute, not only to the data model, but also transport mechanisms and data acquisition plan definitions. VISS is a fine transport protocol for cloud applications, but it does not extend well to communication with the vehicle. Dynamically defined and deployed data acquisition plans are essential for ensuring the sending of the correct data. Our goal is to improve the use of live data and shape future connected vehicle technologies in the mobility ecosystem.

What benefits does your participation in COVESA bring to your company and business? 

We have only been a member of COVESA since the beginning of 2023, but we have already evaluated both integrating VSS into our products and the VSOME/IP project. We have also shared how we collect live vehicle data with our customers and where we see the future with live demonstrations at the last two COVESA All Member Meetings in Porto and at AMM in Detroit.

These demonstrations have attracted a lot of attention and the response has been consistently positive. We are networking with key industry players, jointly developing ideas for CV solutions and raising our profile. Through COVESA projects, we can continue to drive innovation and progress in the automotive industry, creating a better future for the industry and delivering better products and services to our customers, which means delivering data-driven solutions for the automotive sector.

Membership in COVESA will combine aicas' software and automotive expertise with the capabilities and teams of some of the largest OEMs and first-tier suppliers of operating systems, middleware, hardware, and services. Working with COVESA members, aicas is addressing the challenges of the future of automotive software, such as achieving cost efficiencies in software development and deployment with secure over-the-air updates and platformization to scale, and creating value from vehicle data for monetization, often referred to as data-as-a-service.

Which COVESA collaborative project(s) or Birds of a Feather (BoF) is your company engaged in and why is that beneficial to your business?

COVESA’s expert groups focus on standardizing vehicle interfaces and advancing common specifications for data interoperability, such as the Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS). aicas is well positioned to contribute to these initiatives and actively participate in shaping key interoperability standards. The aicas team has already demonstrated how VSS can be leveraged in vehicle applications by dynamically adding VSS concepts into its products.

Applying adaptive and secure methods for selecting and delivering vehicle data is the cornerstone of software-defined vehicle development. aicas is proud to lend its experience to COVESA’s expert groups, working together to develop new technologies for a seamless transition to the next-generation vehicle.