Blog from February, 2024

COVESA Kicks Off an Exciting 2024 with Upcoming Spring AMM and Stellar CES Showing 

The COVESA community is off to an exhilarating start in 2024, highlighted by our presence at CES and excitement building for our upcoming Spring Annual Member Meeting (AMM) in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Fresh off the heels of a highly successful CES event that drew in our members and friends from around the world and a showcase that spotlighted our members' groundbreaking innovations, we are now gearing up for another key event!

Register Now for Our COVESA AMM in Gothenburg, Sweden!

If you aren’t already aware, registration for the Spring All Member Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, is open. The event, happening April 16-18, 2024, will be held at the Scandic Göteborg Central hotel.  A room block for reservations will be open until March 31, 2024.

We’ve assembled a great program featuring representatives from OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, specialty software providers, and innovative start-ups!

As you can see on the agenda, this event will have similarities and differences from previous AMMs. Tuesday will kick off with introductory sessions and a keynote from our COVESA President. On Wednesday and Thursday, we’ll have working sessions for Expert Groups, Projects, and Birds of a Feather (BoF) activities. The themes of Wednesday’s business tracks include:

• Open Source in Vehicle Safety Applications
• Commercial, Off-Road, and Specialty Vehicles
• Software Defined Vehicles

New this year is a Board of Directors panel discussion, which presents an opportunity for members and non-members alike to hear about how the Board is leading COVESA into the future. As anticipated, we will have a demonstration and showcase event on Wednesday with 8,000 sq. ft. of space available. If you’re interested in showcasing your products and services or having visibility as an AMM event sponsor, contact Mike Nunnery at MikeNunnery@comcast.net.

We are grateful to our sponsors, including Ford Motor Company, LGE, MongoDB, Sonatus, Profilence, AIDEN, Mavi.io, aicas, Disti, Starfish, Tietoevry, and Haas Alert, with many more coming soon.

While the event is a gathering of the COVESA community, non-members are also welcome to register for a small fee. We can’t wait to see our members and new faces in Gothenburg! Please register today and secure your hotel room before the block closes on March 31st.

And as we gear up for the Spring AMM in Gothenburg, we’d like to reflect on the recent success of our COVESA Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024 Showcase.

COVESA CES204 Showcase Recap

CES has triumphantly returned, with 125,000 attendees signaling a rebound from the pandemic years. This resurgence was demonstrated at COVESA’s CES Showcase and Reception event on January 9 at the Bellagio Hotel. We welcomed around 2,200 people to the 3-hour event, who made their rounds to the over 80 tables and booths hosted by COVESA members, industry partners, and related organizations. This event’s success cannot be possible without the support of our sponsoring organizations:

While there is much to say about the event, a picture tells a thousand words, so we invite you to visit the gallery of pictures from the event. Here are just a few highlights from COVESA Executive Director Steve Crumb:

• We had an increase in the number of tables/booths compared to last year, and it felt much more like a true COVESA-driven event, as demonstrated by the non-stop discussions held at the COVESA table by Paul Boyes and others.
• That said, we were again happy to host the State of Michigan MEDC Office of Future Mobility and Electrification as a significant event partner. We had the pleasure of being welcomed by Michigan Lt. Governor Gilchrist, who spoke briefly from the stage and visited with several showcase participants.
• The event marked the launch of the SDV Alliance, a joint activity of COVESA, AUTOSAR, Eclipse SDV, and SOAFEE, which is collectively working toward meeting the tremendous promises of the software defined vehicle.
• Everyone we spoke to was excited about the prospect of expanding the showcase tables/booths and welcoming an even larger crowd of attendees at the next CES event in 2025.

A special thanks goes to Mike Nunnery and his team for creating and executing this amazing event!

In today’s digital era, consumers expect the technology they interact with in their daily lives - from smartphones to smart homes - to work seamlessly. This expectation also applies to their vehicles, which are not just a means of transportation but an integral part of a larger mobility ecosystem. But how do we bridge this gap between expectation and reality?

The big challenge for vehicle manufacturers is to remain at the forefront of this digital integration. They must determine the crucial data, functionalities, and programming interfaces that apply to current and future digital experiences. Beyond creating these content and experiences, it's about updating them swiftly, safely, and without disruption.

Addressing these challenges and seizing the opportunities requires a common understanding of vehicle data and interfaces, both in and out of the vehicle and across the broader mobility ecosystem. That’s where COVESA’s Vehicle Signal Specification plays a pivotal role, establishing a common language that underpins the digital platform of future automobiles.

Since its introduction in 2016, VSS has become a widely adopted, open data model for vehicle data from speed, tire pressure, interior lights, and much more. At its core, it’s about making it universally understandable and usable across many contexts.

More than a technical specification, VSS is a catalyst for collaboration. It reduces fragmentation in vehicle data and opens doors for cross-industry partnerships in areas like EV charging, safety, maintenance, fleet operations, and more unlocking new business opportunities and spurring ecosystem growth.

Learn more about the key advantages and design principles behind VSS in our latest white paper, “Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS): Enabling Cross-Industry Ecosystems and Innovation.” 

VSS is gaining rapid adoption, yet there is still plenty of opportunity to evolve the specification and associated tooling. VSS will only reach its full potential if it continues to be widely adopted by the automotive and adjacent industries. We invite you to join the COVESA community and Data Expert Group to collaboratively drive VSS forward!