Blog from January, 2024

With Graham Smethurst, Research Lead at BMW Group

Why did BMW adopt open-source development practices?

In October 2008, after successfully delivering another proprietary head unit via a task force, I sat with my senior manager to discuss lessons learned. We concluded that there had to be another way to develop in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) solutions. Why did we repeatedly develop the foundation software with different Tier 1s? Why wasn’t it possible to re-use the non-differentiating, customer-irrelevant portion of an IVI solution across Tier 1s and vehicle generations? Why did we always start from scratch? We agreed on an experiment, and in 2009, the experiment became the GENIVI Alliance.

BMW´s motivation behind GENIVI was the establishment of an open-source development approach for automotive IVI. The goal was to establish an automotive community that would collaborate and contribute towards enabling software reuse ‒ not only at BMW but across the industry sector. For BMW, the experiment worked. The delivery of BMW´s first open-source head unit in 2013 was painful, but the experience had a far-reaching, long-term strategic impact that strongly influenced the current BMW software organization and processes.

GENIVI facilitated an industry mindset shift in IVI development and established open source as the de facto approach. Building on this success, it’s logical that in 2021, the GENIVI membership decided there was a new challenge to be addressed ‒ data and the connected vehicle. COVESA was born. Many of the GENIVI members transitioned into COVESA, bringing with them the open-source knowledge accumulated over 12 years, ensuring that COVESA remains the go-to alliance for open-source best practices in automotive.

What would BMW like to achieve within COVESA?

Mobile phones and their associated ecosystems have set the benchmark for updating and refreshing digital functionality and experiences. The automotive industry is measured against this benchmark. All vehicle users, from the first to the last, will expect the latest personal digital experience in and around their vehicles. This is a challenge facing many OEMs and, therefore, is a problem best solved together. BMW intends to address this challenge collaboratively within the COVESA open-source community.

BMW has three primary targets within COVESA:

1. To enable improved development efficiency and speed of delivery by decoupling digital experience development and deployment from specific OEM foundation implementations. To achieve this, relevant vehicle network signals must be described in a standard and governed data format that is applied by all OEMs. A combination of the COVESA Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) with defined access methods and interfaces can enable consistent, secure, and privacy-compliant data access at relevant vehicle touchpoints.
2. To ease the integration of consumer ecosystems, apps, and services into the vehicle digital experience by avoiding fragmentation when implementing extensions or functional enhancements to solutions such as AOSP ‒ with the aim being to ensure consistency across OEMs.
3. To inspire. A car is an element within mobility solutions, but data from vehicles alone is insufficient to deliver a compelling multimodal mobility experience to the user. Ideally, the example set by the COVESA community will inspire other sectors of the mobility ecosystem (e.g., charging) to collaborate in data format and access standardization activities.

With Cindy L. Warner, Founder and CEO of 360ofme

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

360ofme exists to transform the paradigm of personal data ownership that rebuilds trust between ethical enterprises and consumers.

Our ethical data exchange platform enables an enterprise to comply with the growing regulatory environment for consumer data privacy laws while protecting the personal data of a consumer on their terms and in compliance with current laws.

We enable Consent, Control, Collaboration, and Context for the personal data of a consumer, as they endeavor to consume goods and services from enterprises. Our ethical, two-sided exchange goes beyond compliance, empowering a scalable and profitable ecosystem anchored in verified identities and user consent.

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

We recently joined COVESA in October 2023 as we are in our first year as a startup. We are honored to be part of this community at the forefront of innovation for connected vehicles.

With 360ofme as the trusted privacy layer between the vehicle and the consumer, we empower enterprises such as OEMs to ensure their connected vehicles comply with data privacy regulations while generating revenue.  

We have a proprietary approach to consent management, identity assurance (knowing your customer), and sharing/monetization of a consumer’s data that facilitates a trusted exchange and enables a value realization for all parties.

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

We are so very excited to be part of COVESA for three primary reasons: 1) To create and share thought leadership with members regarding consumer data privacy and how to effectively manage in the new environment, 2) To enable COVESA members to learn about our solution and how it can enable their enterprise, and 3) To support affinity groups in conjunction with COVESA, such as Women in Technology, Mobility or Data.

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

 360ofme is interested in leading a Consent Management collaborative project across connected car services.  The collaboration of these companies would empower OEMs and Tiers to better understand data privacy regulation as it pertains to building trust across their customers. We hope to contribute to accelerating the full potential of connected vehicles through ethical data privacy practices, which can drive the mobility ecosystem forward in ethical ways.

As the automotive industry undergoes a digital transformation driven by changing customer expectations, COVESA is aligning its efforts to address the key opportunities and challenges around evolving digital experiences and seamless integration required to meet consumers’ digital lifestyles and the broader mobility ecosystem.

Given the limitations of individual OEMs, suppliers, and partners, we understand the necessity for integrating solutions from various ecosystems to meet these changing consumer expectations. Together, we can achieve this through robust data models, industry frameworks, standardized APIs, and flexible, interoperable solutions.

Addressing Core Challenges

To begin the foundational work of addressing digital expectations in the automotive industry, COVESA is concentrating on three core challenges, each pivotal in shaping the future of connected vehicles:

1. Challenge 1 – Keeping the In-Vehicle Digital Experience Up to Date
2. Challenge 2 – Embracing the Customer’s Digital Life
3. Challenge 3 – Integrating Vehicles into Broader Mobility Solutions

We dive into these three critical challenges in detail in our latest white paper, “Unlocking the Potential of Connected Vehicles with COVESA.” As a collaborative force in the automotive industry, COVESA is at the forefront of revolutionizing the connected vehicle sector. To better understand how COVESA is transforming the connected vehicle landscape, we invite you to read more in our latest white paper!