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COVESA was formed with one goal in mind: to develop common approaches and open technologies that accelerate innovation for connected vehicles and over the last year, our members, along with industry partners, have made significant contributions toward this goal.
COVESA members have worked together to publish version 3 of the Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS), the foundational data backbone for the Software Defined Vehicle. VSS is the most widely adopted, common approach for describing vehicle data that is created by, and exchanged between in-vehicle systems, mobile devices, and various touchpoints outside the vehicle including back-end cloud and EV charging points.
While we are proud and excited about this strong momentum, we continue to look for new ways to enhance our focus and recently implemented a refined technical structure that will allow us to further expand and grow our technology projects and engagements.
Refined Technical Focus: Data Expert Group
We’ve enhanced our technical focus with the launch of the Data Expert Group (DEG) providing COVESA a single entity in which best practices and common approaches for connected vehicle data and interfaces are discussed, documented, and where appropriate, proved.
The DEG will work under the oversight of the COVESA Technical Steering Team and will explore interactions with multiple touchpoints (integration points) on its own as well as horizontally in support of other Expert Groups such as the Electric Vehicle Charging Expert Group. Touchpoints out-of-scope will be tracked by the Technical Steering Team and may, from time-to-time, require analysis based on work done in other regulatory or standardization bodies.
The Data Expert Group is organized around four key pillars with existing activities (e.g., groups, projects and initiatives):
- Best Practices & Guidelines: How to handle privacy/identity, security, data model definition, API first approach in automotive, and governance.
- Data Modeling/Ontologies: VSS for vehicle domain data; PDM for personal data; Knowledge layer Ontologies and Graphs; Concept and tooling; and Interactions with other domain models.
- Data Architecture/Infrastructure: Data Base Layer - Storage, serialization and synchronization; and
Technical implementations and proofs of concept.
- Interface Definition: API (Vehicle Services Catalog (VSC)) definition with strong link to the VSS concept; How to handle deployment specific mapping; and Realization with existing tooling.
Discover more about the Data Expert Group and how to participate and contribute on the COVESA Wiki.
Remapping COVESA Projects
With the introduction of the DEG, COVESA technology engagements such as the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII) and the Connected & Cloud Services (CCS) project have been integrated into the new structure.
The discussions held formerly in the CVII Tech Stack will be distributed into the relevant pillars of the DEG. CCS discussions, including usage of the W3C Vehicle Interface Service Specification (VISS), have also moved into the DEG. And finally, the work of the VSC project will provide the foundation of the Interface Definition pillar of the DEG.
Ways to Learn More
The upcoming COVESA All Member Meeting on 18-20 October in Dearborn, Michigan, is the perfect opportunity to learn more about the enhancements resulting from the DEG launch. Several introductory sessions will be held as well as deeper dive technical breakouts of DEG topics. Non-members are welcome to attend the event which features a full-day, business-focused track on the 18th, exploring some of the most important challenges facing the connected vehicle industry. Senior leaders from Ford Motor Company, GM, Stellantis, Hyundai Motor, Bosch, Wind River, LGE, Ricardo, and many others will present. The day will end with a reception and showcase where member companies will demonstrate their latest products and services.
Many technical working sessions are also planned for all three days advancing existing and emerging activities of COVESA including Vehicle Signal Specification, EV charging, in-vehicle payment, in-vehicle experience, and many other topics.
Registration for the full event or a one-day pass is available here.
If you are unable to attend the COVESA All Member meeting, please visit the COVESA Wiki for information about technical participation in COVESA projects.
COVESA’s Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) version 3.0 is now available.
Reminiscing
I was introduced to VSS 6+ years ago at an All Member Meeting in Paris. At the time GENIVI and the W3C were kicking around the idea of a common service that could deliver and receive signals (data) from a variety of contexts inside and outside of the vehicle using well known, ubiquitous web technologies. The vision was to standardize and democratize development, enabling a much wider range of developers to innovate in Automotive. Magnus Feuer, of JLR at the time, and Gunnar Andersson, of GENIVI, piped up and said, “We have the data model for you! Have you heard of VSS?”
They proceeded to present an incredibly simple and pragmatic approach to modeling vehicle data that could be used in a variety of in and out of vehicle contexts. It was agreed that the group would try using VSS for the service. The service became Vehicle Information Service Specification. And, of course VSS is still VSS.
The following goals and approaches have been there from the beginning and have contributed to VSS’ adoption and growth:
- keep it understandable and simple to get started
- allow for complexity as needed
- cover as many uses and contexts as possible
- allow for variability
- keep it useful
VSS v3.0 - Introducing Overlays
In keeping with these goals the most significant feature introduced in VSS v3.0 is Overlays.
It is well understood, with vehicle data, variation is the norm not the exception. And, it is highly unlikely that any one organization will adopt and support the entire VSS standard catalog specification. It is, however, very likely that organizations will adopt a subset of the standard catalog but will need to add/modify nodes and add/modify metadata. For example, an OEM wishes to support a much wider set of proprietary or different HVAC signals than the standard catalog provides. The Overlay feature supports this variability.
Overlays also support specific Profiles. A Profile can be thought of as a specific type of vehicle, for example motorcycle, delivery truck, etc… The VSS group is considering the creation of recommended/standardized Profiles. Currently there is a draft version of motorbike profile.
Overlays have been discussed with the VSS group for some time, but are still in their early stages. For details see Overlay documentation here.
Additional v3.0 Additions and Changes of Note
- Introduction of instantiate keyword to exclude specific signals from instantiation. See documentation.
- Refactoring of CombustionEngine signals
- Battery branch renamed to TractionBattery
- Refactoring and extensions of signals related to TractionBattery and Charging
- Keyword enum changed to allowed
- Refactoring of seat signals
- Extension of wiper signals
Complete v3.0 release notes with details are here.
Thank You
COVESA gives a big thank you to all the people who contributed to this release. THANK YOU! The best way to thank them is get involved.
Get Involved
We are now at a point in time where the connected and software defined vehicle are starting to take off. OEM and vendor adoption of VSS has grown. Let’s continue to grow adoption and mature VSS. Please get involved.
- Join our weekly calls on Tuesdays at 7am PT / 10am ET / 4pm CET
- Learn more about VSS and meet those involved at COVESA’s All Member Meeting on October 18-20 in Dearborn, Michigan. There will be VSS sessions every day. Register here.
- Bring and submit your ideas. Ideas and questions may be submitted via GitHub issues in the VSS project.
- Contribute to the specification and tools
- Look for more to come on COVESA’s recently approved Data Expert Group
- Look for more to come on COVESA’s relationship with other industry alliance
If you have any questions contact me: paul.boyes@covesa.global.
What novel ways will ubiquitous, connected vehicle data be used for in the future?
COVESA members Ford Motor Company, Geotab, and Tuxera share their insights on the future use of connected vehicle data.
Eileen Davidson, Chief, Vehicle Software Simulation, Ford Motor Company
Amir Sayegh, AVP, Data Product Discovery and Ph.D., Geotab
Harm-Andre Verhoef, Product Manager, Ecosystem, Tuxera
In today’s digital world, data is an enabler for innovation in nearly every industry, including automotive. Connected vehicles offer a rich source of data that can be used to benefit the vehicle driver, OEM, governments, or third-party app providers. For example, crowd-sourcing vehicle data supports not only instantaneous route planning or parking choices, but can be used for future infrastructure planning for cities as well. Predictive maintenance comes to mind, where data on common failures are instantaneously sent to the OEM, and fixes are delivered to every vehicle prior to even seeing a failure. OEMs can monitor the usage of specific vehicle functions or features to gauge their value to the customer. Performance of key vehicle features could be remotely monitored and analyzed, with subsequent improvements pushed to the users, even optimized for specific customer profiles. Vehicle cameras can be used as safety monitors, or for driver authentication (in the place of a key), or to record road accidents. If we respect the privacy and safety of the customer, the possibilities are endless.
Vehicles are becoming sensors on wheels digitizing the physical world as they traverse it. These vehicles rely on ‘sensor fusion’ and machine learning to sense and predict the most efficient and safe ways to transport people and things.
In the near future, through the power of V2X and autonomous driving, we can envision a world where vehicles act as mesh networked data centers interacting with edge processing units and cloud enabled processing units to develop online and real-time digital twins of locations to enable automated transportation systems that are clean, equitable, and efficient.
As a result of this, vehicle connected data can be used to:
- Improve the design of vehicles based on real world experience, rendering them safer and more efficient
- Improve city operations (remove foliage, pothole repair, by-law enforcement, dangerous intersections)
- Help design cities of the future that enable multi-modal and autonomous transportation
- Identify the most optimal and sustainable ways to generate and consume energy for transportation
- Build more reliable cellular networks
- Avoid congestion, accidents, large scale weather events
- Identify areas with low access to clean mobility services (equitable access)
At Geotab, we have been preparing for this future, with 2.8 M connected vehicles; we have already been able to build an amazing product suite for city planning. Our Altitude platform enables road speed analysis, intersection wait times, and origin-destination planning. More details at its.geotab.com. We have built a highly scalable platform that can handle data from any connected vehicle to increase the level of insights. All of this will be facilitated with the standards COVESA is bringing forth.
In my country, the Netherlands, many people frequently use a bike as a means for transportation, for example, in their daily commute to the office. Children also use bikes as transportation from an early age – starting with going to elementary school on their super-small bikes. And although we have many bike lanes where people can ride safely separated from car traffic, we also have many bike lanes that are only separated through painted lines from the main road. Or sometimes there are no bike lines at all, with cars and bikes sharing the road.
As cycling is so popular, it is no surprise that we have also a high rate of casualties due to traffic accidents. With almost 36% of all traffic-related deaths in 2021, the percentage of cyclist fatalities is higher than the death rate among car drivers plus passengers combined. Cyclists, especially small children on their bikes, are easily overlooked in traffic, for example when they aren’t visible due to another car or truck in front of a driver. When cyclists are recognized by radars and other sensors of
modern cars, that data could be shared among connected vehicles and issue pre-sense warnings to other drivers – or even automatically slow down cars with modern ADAS systems. This has the potential to save the lives of many cyclists.
For more information about COVESA, visit our website and blog.
COVESA Member News
What a great first half of the year it has been for COVESA with continued growth and interest. In April, we kicked off the second quarter with a wildly successful All Member Meeting held in Leipzig, Germany. This was followed by the much-anticipated event at AutoTech: Detroit in June where COVESA had a strong presence on stage and on the showroom floor driving a standout experience to increase COVESA awareness and engagement with existing members and prospects.
To top off the AutoTech: Detroit event, we had a full house at our annual networking reception. Thank you to our networking event sponsors (see below) for their continued alliance support. The positive response we have received from our presence at AutoTech has boosted our member interest substantially with new members joining COVESA each month. A big welcome to some of our recent new members: Humanising Autonomy, Cymotive Technologies, Garrett Motion, Innovation Works, Emergency Safety Solutions, Mojio, Area X.O., Stellantis, MAVI.io, TuneIn, and Rivit360.
The COVESA Board was able to meet in person in Frankfurt, Germany early July to discuss the next 18-24 month outlook for strategic planning.
Please read on to learn more about our significant inroads over Q2.
Technology Engagements
- EV Charging
EV Charging BoF kicks off with a proposal by member company Ford for multiple OEMs to collect and share charging data to improve the charging experience.
A recording of the presentation is here. Next steps: Scope and start proof-of-concept.
- digital.auto
digital.auto BoF kicks off with a proposal by member company Bosch to support OEMs in the adoption of SdV and COVESA standards by making it easy to rapidly explore and test the feasibility of new business ideas and features through an online playground. Project details and a recorded presentation can be found here.
- Vehicle Service Catalog
“Vehicle Service Catalog Deployment - Containers” was presented by member company Renesas to the VSC project team showing the potential of deploying VSC as Open Container Initiative containers. More information on the presentation can be found here.
Vehicle Service Catalog continues to mature as a project. Please join the project team on Mondays at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 1900 CET. For the latest on VSC, please visit here.
- Vehicle Edge to Cloud Edge
Vehicle Edge to Cloud Edge was proposed as an implementation project by member company Geotab. Project details can be found here.
Details on COVESA projects can be found on the COVESA Wiki.
Upcoming Events
COVESA All Member Meeting
We have kicked off the planning for COVESA’s Fall All Member Meeting (AMM) which will be held at the Dearborn Inn in Dearborn, Michigan USA on October 18-20, 2022. Early bird registration will open on Monday, August 15th. Our theme will be data and in-vehicle services and the AMM will include a showcase. A sponsorship prospectus will be available by mid-August and a call for member participation proposals will be sent on July 31st with a deadline of late August. More details on the AMM will be shared in a separate communication.
COVESA Marketing Team
The Marketing page is now LIVE (https://www.covesa.global/covesa-marketing-team). We have successfully transitioned from a Marketing Team Wiki page to our newly launched HTML-based page. Please take time to review the contents of this page which include COVESA Brand and Communication guidelines, access to download COVESA logos, artwork for use on your company website and social media, a COVESA briefing deck, and much more. If you’re interested in becoming a part of the Marketing Team please contact marketing@covesa.global or bgoolsby@covesa.global, we would be happy to welcome you to the team.
COVESA Blog Highlights
In case you missed some of our most recent blog articles, please be sure to review them on the COVESA Wiki.
COVESA Roundtable - July: How would a similar, common approach for defining vehicle services in a standard way simplify system development and deployment? Ulf Björkengren, Principal Connectivity Strategist at GEOTAB, and Paul Boyes, Community Director at COVESA share their perspectives on how a common approach for defining vehicle services will simplify system development and deployment. Read the article here.
COVESA Roundtable - May: What benefits does an industry-wide initiative like the COVESA and W3C Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII) bring to the automotive industry? COVESA members GEOTAB, Humanising Autonomy, and Renesas Electronics along with COVESA’s community director, share their insights on the benefits they see from an industry-wide initiative such as the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII). Read their perspectives here.
COVESA Roundtable - April: How can collaborative organizations accelerate the development of a common platform for the software-defined vehicle? We asked some of our members to provide their perspectives on how collaborative organizations can accelerate the development of a common platform for the software-defined vehicle. Read the article here.
Information and news on COVESA can always be found on our social channels. Be sure to Share/Like/Comment on COVESA content and follow us at:
- Twitter @COVESAglobal
- LinkedIn at Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance
- YouTube
COVESA Marketing Team
How would a similar, common approach for defining vehicle services in a standard way simplify system development and deployment?
Ulf Björkengren, Principal Connectivity Strategist at GEOTAB and Paul Boyes, Community Director at COVESA share their perspectives on how a common approach for defining vehicle services will simplify system development and deployment.
Ulf Björkengren, Principal Connectivity Strategist, GEOTAB
Paul Boyes, Community Director, COVESA
Open source software development today has a strong track record of producing high-quality code. However, this first requires an established common design. Preferably, this design should be developed in a similar open paradigm, and given approval from the relevant industry as a formal or de-facto standard.
The shared efforts in this scenario lead to a simplified development effort from participating members, compared to doing it solely, and the interoperability that standards provide also leads to a simplified "plug-in" deployment.
In the world of connected vehicles, everyone wants access to vehicle data and functions from both outside and inside the vehicle. The only way to do this in a sane efficient way is to standardize vehicle interfaces and data. The time is right for multiple automakers to make this a reality. If I were an OEM, given the recent announcement by Apple, it would be a priority to me to work with other OEMs to tell the big tech companies, “This is how you interface with our vehicle.” Currently, it is often the other way around. This would be a win all around for consumers, OEMs, and tech companies.
Congratulations to Open Insurance for the publication of the first version of the open insurance API specification based on Swagger 2.0. It is meant to provide a standards format to unify how the insurance industry defines and describes RESTful APIs.
We appreciate working with the the team at OPIN's Automotive Lab to align VSS with OPIN’s data standards facilitating the consumption of data generated by connected vehicles. Over the course of almost 10 months, technical and business use cases were discussed at length. As a result, OPIN's Motor insurance data model has been complimented with more than 80 new data properties encompassing dynamic, semi-dynamic and static signals.
This work has been documented and published as a set of two documents. The first is titled 'OPIN Enabled Mobility Use Cases' and the second is guidance document on logical composition of end to end technology system and the boundaries of responsibilities, titled 'Motor Insurance Technical POC and Implementation'.
We look forward to continued work with Open Insurance.
What benefits does an industry-wide initiative like the COVESA and W3C Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII) bring to the automotive industry?
COVESA members GEOTAB, Humanising Autonomy and Renesas Electronics along with COVESA’s community director, share their insights on the benefits they see from an industry-wide initiative such as the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII).
Christoph Ludewig, Vice President OEM Europe, GEOTAB
Patricia La Torre, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Humanising Autonomy
With the avenue of the "software-defined vehicle" it becomes obvious that much of the differentiation of future cars, vans, trucks and buses will be determined by software and IT. For the automotive industry it will be important to channel scarce resources and energy in value-adding products and services that solve customers’ needs. This can only be done efficiently if there is a common base to use, among others the CVII. Industry-wide accepted standards are the enabler for cost-effective development and interoperable solutions - it eliminates the need for each player to develop its own "groundwork" and thus to be able to focus on its relative strength in the product creation and development.
An initiative such as CVII brings extensive benefits and value to the wider automotive ecosystem by addressing some of the most complex issues facing the industry today, including the need for standardized vehicle data collection and management approaches.
To allow for an improved customer experience, CVII’s collaborative approach ensures that features and functions which are meant to improve safety, quality, and provide other benefits can reach their full potential. In the end, it will not only be members and contributors who benefit, but it’s truly the wider mobility ecosystem, extending all the way to end-users and customers.
Stephen Lawrence, Principal Engineer, Renesas Electronics
Paul Boyes, Community Director, COVESA
Taken to its potential, the CVII initiative can have major benefits for the automotive industry. A standard catalog of data and functions is a requirement to enable a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem and vehicle data market. At the same time, a standard data model that is widely adopted helps avoid fragmentation and wasteful integration woes that do not add value. With common models in place industry can collaborate on non-differentiating areas of the Technology Stack that processes and invokes methods from them. Accelerating development at lower cost. See the CVII Project Brief for more details.
Taken to its fullest, the joint COVESA/W3C initiative CVII empowers the industry to focus on what matters: great customer experiences, faster innovation, new business models and new differentiating features. The goal is to facilitate opportunity and growth by making the common, non-differentiating easy and available. We have seen this time and time again. Open collaboration empowers creativity and speeds learning, creating previously unforeseen opportunities and invention.
In the last 25 years, we have seen enormous innovations in how we communicate, shop, and generally relate to the world through phones and computers. This was enabled by the adoption of paradigms, specifications, standards and technologies created through collaboration. We are just getting started when it comes to connected vehicles.
Join COVESA, W3C, our members, and our partners in accelerating the future of connected vehicles.
How can collaborative organizations accelerate development of a common platform for the software-defined vehicle?
We asked some of our members to provide their perspectives on how collaborative organizations can accelerate the development of a common platform for the software-defined vehicle and this is what they shared:
Girish Shirasat, Senior Director, Arm
Matt Jones, Director of Global Technology Strategy, Ford Motor Company
Daniel Krippner, Connected Mobility Solutions, Robert Bosch GmbH
It is now evident that the ability to deliver differentiated functionalities enabled by software is going to decide the front-runners in the software-defined vehicle era. The complex automotive supply chain that feeds into building a software-defined vehicle can accelerate its development by enabling a rich ecosystem of standards based non-differentiated system components for OEMs to build their systems from while the OEM can focus their resources in delivering value added features. This is where collaboration between new and already established automotive consortia like COVESA, SOAFEE , Eclipse SDV, etc. that are addressing the standardizations of different aspects of the automotive system needs to happen. With focused objectives, this collaboration will deliver vital boost in accelerating the software-defined vehicles.
Automotive and future mobility is built upon amazing customer experiences. For many years, OEMs and their ecosystems have been focused on adding the most value to the customer. I’ve said many times that “no one ever bought a car for the operating system”, the operating system being one example of part of the platform for a software defined vehicle. While it’s a true statement, it doesn’t mean that the platform is not important – it’s just not the differentiator compared to the customer experiences.
Defining the value of a common platform for software defined vehicles is far easier than creating it. It seems so simple for companies to come together, and iterate on common developments.
The quest for software-defined vehicles is facing multiple challenges, among them:
Alignment – What are these future software stacks, what do we need from them?
Technology Ownership – Overcoming IP (“code”) as the foundation of business models.
Open Technology Ideation – Transcend a culture of only doing things “150%”, stringently designed up front.
Overcoming these challenges can further SDV development, by first enabling collaboration and then accelerating it.
As automotive software is venturing into IT realms, we need interaction with a range of very different players. Doing this in myriad closed networks is very hard to scale, as skilled resources are at a premium. To overcome this, organizations need to identify and validate business models that go beyond technology ownership, allowing them to enter into true collaboration. This can drive towards an ideation culture where things are done first, and then challenged and improved subsequently, together. This accelerates the emergence of shared SDV technology ecosystems.
Brian Carlson, Global Marketing Director, Automotive Processing, NXP Semiconductors
Brandy Goolsby, Director, Product and Solutions Marketing, Wind River Systems
Industry collaboration is critical when seamless interaction of complex technology is needed. I participated in the mobile industry collaboration that helped spark the smartphone revolution where companies together defined standard ways to interface hardware and software to streamline and reduce the cost of R&D efforts. The industry could then focus on real differentiation and not have to waste time and money supporting multiple proprietary approaches. It accelerated development and created value by leveraging complementary capabilities from an ecosystem. SDV has quickly become a very rich and complex topic of technical discussions in the automotive industry. Collaborative organizations like COVESA can play a key role to help accelerate SDV development and proliferation by providing a practical, consistent and fair structure for industry engagement. Ease of engagement and access to relevant information, along with clearly-defined objectives and milestones for this collaboration will be key to SDV success!
The emergence and consumer push of connected and digital experiences is driving a new standard of customer delivery and product creation. Effectively moving the automotive industry from software-enabled to software-defined to deliver on new customer desired outcomes, while maintaining the highest levels of security and safety, will be critical. A recent study published by Forbes Intelligent Systems Research cited that 51% of automotive companies are still in the experimentation stages, and 16% are currently thriving and growing their intelligent systems approaches. The industry can’t go at delivering this new set of dynamic capabilities alone. Collaboration, the ability to connect knowledge, talent, technology and experiences across the collective automotive ecosystem is a must to realize a common platform approach to the software defined vehicle.
If you are interested in contributing to the COVESA roundtable or have topic suggestions, please email marketing@covesa.global.
COVESA News
Since the rebranding in October 2021, we have received an overwhelming positive response, including 15 new members, to our expanded scope into connected vehicle systems. COVESA is gaining tremendous traction as a leading and influencing voice to the industry for open collaboration, open standards and open source software solutions. Openness is essential to realizing the full potential of connected vehicles. Working together, we are a force-multiplier, creating a more diverse, sustainable and integrated mobility ecosystem.
Please read on to learn more about the significant inroads we have made over Q1.
Technology Engagements
Updates
- Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) is gaining adoption including AWS Fleetwise adopting VSS. Other known industry adopters include BMW, Bosch, Renesas, NXP, Volvo, Open Insurance, tieto EVRY, eSync and epam.
- VSSo (ontology derived from VSS) is now on the W3C Standards Track with First Public Working Draft published in March.
- VSS is a viable candidate for use in other specifications. Liaison activities have started with PFA, DG GROW, AUTOSAR and ISO.
- Software Defined Vehicle Telemetry BoF launched March 2022
Details on COVESA projects can be found on the COVESA Wiki and meeting times here.
Upcoming Events
COVESA All Member Meeting
We have less than three weeks to go before COVESA’s All Member Meeting in Leipzig, Germany, April 26-28. This is a much anticipated event as we will come together in-person to drive the future of connected vehicles. Several key industry experts and strategic partner organizations will present on a variety of informative and industry specific topics such as Software Defined Vehicles and CVII (Connected Vehicle Integration Initiative) in an expanded, three-day program of keynotes, panels, workshops, roundtables and plenty of face-to-face networking. There is a small cost for non-members. It’s not too late to register, sign up today COVESA April AMM.
Thank you to the AMM sponsors – Hyundai, Renesas, and Tuxera
AutoTech: Detroit 2022
COVESA will be back at AutoTech: Detroit (formerly TU Detroit) and we look forward to hosting our annual COVESA networking reception at Bar Louie on June 8, 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm EDT in Novi, MI. Register here and use passcode “collaboration”.
COVESA Blog Highlights
In case you missed some of our most recent blog articles below, please be sure to review on the COVESA Wiki.
COVESA Roundtable - February: What is the adoption potential for a single method of defining vehicle data in the collection, exchange and usage of that vehicle data?
Ulf Bjorkengren, Senior Connectivity Strategist at Geotab, and Paul Boyes, Community Director at COVESA, offer their perspectives on the adoption potential for a single method of defining vehicle data. Read the article here.
Software Defined Vehicle Telemetry Project - Birds of a Feather Launched
We recently launched the Software Defined Vehicle Telemetry Project - Birds of a Feather group. The goal is to enable new experiences and operational use cases with today’s connected vehicle systems through digital feedback loops. Read the article here.
COVESA Roundtable - March: How will the automotive industry evolve based on the coming mobility revolution?
We asked some of our members to provide their perspectives on how the automotive industry will evolve based on the coming mobility revolution. Read what they shared here.
Vehicle Integration Platforms Enable Hyperintegration
By Maarten Koning, Wind River Fellow
In automobiles, the amount of data generated, stored and collected – and the number of applications deployed within vehicles to process all this content – has increased dramatically over the last decade. Due to digital transformation, the modern automobile is now a supercomputer on wheels. Vehicle workloads can run concurrently on today’s multi-service integration platforms thanks to high-powered silicon that’s vital to mobile computation platforms. Read the full article here.
Information and news on COVESA can always be found on our social channels. Be sure to Share/Like/Comment on COVESA content and follow us at:
- Twitter @COVESAglobal
- LinkedIn at Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance
- YouTube
We welcome comments or questions about COVESA to marketing@covesa.global or bgoolsby@covesa.global
COVESA Marketing Team
What is the adoption potential for a single method of defining vehicle data in the collection, exchange and usage of that vehicle data?
Ulf Bjorkengren, Senior Connectivity Strategist at Geotab, and Paul Boyes, Community Director at COVESA, offer their perspectives on the adoption potential for a single method of defining vehicle data.
Ulf Bjorkengren, Senior Connectivity Strategist, Geotab
Paul Boyes, Community Director, COVESA
To answer this question, one could look back to when the mobile phone industry transformed from the manufacturer proprietary solutions to the more open solutions such as Android and iOS. This led to an explosion of new apps providing completely new levels of innovative services. A similar development is very likely when OEMs now adopt VSS as a common data model, together with adoption of standardized solutions for transporting this data from vehicle to the cloud such as W3C VISSv2. This gives vehicle data providers the opportunity to leverage the interoperability potential to accelerate the innovation of services through the upscaling of development resources that a vibrant 3rd party app ecosystem makes possible.
The adoption potential of agreed upon methods of defining, cataloging, and communicating vehicle data is almost guaranteed. As a matter of fact, it is required to realize the promise of the mobility revolution. When a vehicle needs to communicate with a vehicle from another manufacturer, devices, infrastructure, anything… a shared understanding of what is being communicated is imperative. It also facilitates scale of a broader ecosystem in the development of compelling features and digital services. Will it be a single shared method, model or catalog? Maybe… More importantly, a collaborative ecosystem is required and COVESA VSS and CVII are excellent starts. Open always wins.
If you are interested in contributing to the COVESA roundtable or have topic suggestions, please email marketing@covesa.global.
On Monday, Feb 28, 2022, the COVESA Software Defined Vehicle Telemetry Project - Birds of a Feather group was launched. The goal is to enable new experiences and operational use cases with today’s connected vehicle systems through digital feedback loops.
The plan is to meet bi-weekly starting on March 14, 2022 to identify and define high value use cases and potential solutions using existing components and assets (e.g. telemetry data sources, open source software, standards, architectures...). The objective is to complement, not compete with other industry initiatives. At the COVESA All Member Meeting on April 27, we will meet face to face for in-depth discussions, presentations, and planning.
Please see the SDV Telemetry Project page for details including: presentations, meeting times and meeting notes. Please spread the word about, join and contribute to the meetings.
If you have any questions contact me: paul.boyes@covesa.global.
COVESA Roundtable: How will the automotive industry evolve based on the coming mobility revolution?
We asked some of our members to provide their perspectives on how the automotive industry will evolve based on the coming mobility revolution and this is what they shared:
Christoph Ludewig, Vice President OEM Europe, Geotab
Maarten Koning, Wind River Fellow
Steve Crumb, Executive Director, COVESA
OEMs are undisputed in providing the hardware to physically transport people and goods. Eventually, technology will evolve into autonomous driving. At the same time, new companies are emerging. Mobility providers offering "transportation as a service" will step between the OEMs and the customers and play a major role in determining the customer experience. OEMs run the risk of being relegated to being a hardware supplier for mobility service providers and may struggle to become fully-fledged mobility providers. Thus, strong partnerships with mobility providers yield a big potential for OEMs - and since everything will be based on data and connectivity, interoperability and standardization are crucial for the success of all parties.
The automotive industry is evolving faster than ever due to modern software-defined system architecture. Vehicles are now intelligent cloud-connected edge devices, and the cloud plays an important role in vehicle capability operationally and for the user’s experience. Automation and analytics enable core to edge management of these software applications – beyond OTA and fleet management to now adding AI/ML, digital feedback loops and system orchestration to manage this massive new software defined world. As vehicles are increasingly software-defined, it is important that automotive companies acquire expertise around IT, OT, cloud and intelligent systems. The companies that do will dominate in this new automotive intelligent systems machine economy.
For the automotive industry to experience the promise of equitable and safe movement of people and goods, it must stop thinking of itself as an insulated industry and remove barriers to collaboration with adjacent industries and initiatives such as smart cities, smart infrastructure and even home automation. Vehicles are no longer "automotive" or "commercial", they are participating entities in a growing number of related contexts in which they will live, move and connect. "Automotive thinking" has to be replaced with "connected thinking" and cross-industry dialogues must increase to develop common approaches leading to the safety and equity desired. Until a delivery model with sufficient business value is discussed and implemented, the "mobility revolution" promising equity and safety will struggle to come to fruition.
By Maarten Koning, Wind River Fellow
In automobiles, the amount of data generated, stored and collected – and the number of applications
deployed within vehicles to process all this content – has increased dramatically over the last
decade. Due to digital transformation, the modern automobile is now a supercomputer on wheels.
Vehicle workloads can run concurrently on today’s multi-service integration platforms thanks to
high-powered silicon that’s vital to mobile computation platforms.
Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Deployment (CD) and Continuous Testing (CT) are practices
that enable more frequent, lower-ceremony release of the software payloads that are activated as
services and applications on a vehicle platform. With CI/CD/CT, a lot of the heavy lifting is done
up-front during the software development process which enables these payloads to be taken forward
in a largely automated fashion using tooling.
In a complex system like a vehicle, we want the granularity of those released software payloads to
be smaller than an entire system to parallelize CI/CD/CT. This is done using element separation.
Element separation is a software architecture best practice for many reasons as it helps with:
1. Preventing fault propagation so we know which payload caused a software (SW) failure.
2. Provisioning of compute and memory resources so we can engineer the system.
3. Simplifying implementation for SW teams by separating functions from each other.
4. Securing credentials to the time and place needed - the “least privilege principle.”
5. Providing various producers of SW (e.g., ISVs) their own private execution environment.
6. Easier management of software lifecycle using granular independent SW elements.
7. Containment of software with specialized core values (e.g., safety or real-time SW).
8. Reuse of software elements across systems, projects and hardware.
9. Workload orchestration and optimization such as SW load balancing and scaling.
These separated software elements are the vehicle applications and services that are activated as
one or more multi-threaded processes which comprise the vehicle workloads. It is becoming
increasingly helpful to wrap one or more of these services and applications into discrete operating
systems (OS) containers so that they can avoid interference from other services and applications
with which they don’t need to be tightly coupled. One of the advantages of containerizing services
and applications is that they can use, and be delivered with, an OS that is composed of the optimal
set of files, libraries and support services for their needs.
Host operating systems run on physical or virtual hardware whereas containers share an underlying
host OS – although they don’t see one other and so they ‘think’ they have their own OS instance.
This is not unlike when multiple host operating systems run on the same CPU cluster using a
hypervisor, as in both cases the applications see what looks like their own OS instance and OS
object namespace. This practice of containerizing payloads so they each have their own logical OS
instance helps reduce interference between payloads and between the underlying host OS and the
payloads themselves as well.
One could extend this notion of providing applications and services their own OS instance to
compute islands, since they provide a hardware mechanism for OS separation in SoCs without
requiring virtualization or container technology to do it. Whether virtualization, containers or
compute islands are used to enable services and applications to have their own OS instance, these
payloads can integrate, collaborate and be managed similarly with the right platform
software. This can be drawn like this:
Since payloads can be combined into working systems from multiple sources, it is helpful to have
standardized ways to secure, deliver, deploy and manage them. To do that we have to define the
touchpoints between these payloads, standardize those interfaces, and standardize the management
actions that can be taken upon those payloads within the vehicle.
This standardization will allow automotive systems to be assembled from ready-made software
payloads within the automotive ecosystem regardless of whether they are in-house, third-party or
open source payloads. There are many initiatives within the automotive industry to create such
multi-service integration platforms, which I will collectively label Vehicle Integration Platform
(VIP) architecture. Many top automotive companies have already announced VIP technologies. Even
though some of those VIP initiatives are referred to as an OS, they offer much more than just an
operating system. VIPs include capabilities on top as an integration and management infrastructure
that helps connect and orchestrate vehicles while also separating vehicle services and vehicle
applications from the various execution environments and hardware that the VIP abstracts.
For VIP systems to be able to do their job, they need to be able to process software payloads from
various sources including open source, in-house teams and also from third-party ISVs and
sub-contractors. One thing that is missing is a way to describe these software payloads in a
standard way for a VIP to consume it. For example, if a payload offered self-describing metadata
that told the VIP what its resource requirements were (e.g., memory, compute, services, reactivity,
etc.) and what deployment models it supports (e.g., migration, hitless software update,
suspend/resume, etc.), then the VIP would be able to learn how to integrate and run that payload
automatically.
With such metadata, the VIP software would be able to predict if the system can afford to run a
vehicle service or vehicle application given the available vehicle resources – without trying and
failing, or without denying resources to some other possibly higher-priority application. Once we
do this, we will be a step closer to achieving software hyperintegration, which is highly-
automated software integration.
This is the type of challenge that is best solved under the guidance and collective expertise
offered through an industry alliance such as COVESA. Together, companies can create a standard
that enables low-code/no-code system hyperintegration of software from a standardized automotive
ecosystem. This allows companies building new VIP-based vehicles to integrate vehicle extensions,
services and applications from other organizations – and the converse is that it allows ISVs to
provide specialized ready-made software that can easily be integrated into any VIP-based vehicle.
Taking this road – everyone wins.
My tenure as the Community Director for COVESA began on January 1 – and three days later I found myself in Las Vegas for CES 2022. With organizations from around the world opting out of physically attending this massive annual event due to the pandemic – combined with Automotive Tech: Megatrends being cancelled – I was unsure what all to expect this year. However, I was pleasantly surprised and plenty productive.
My first step was to sit down with COVESA colleagues Steve Crumb, Executive Director and Matt Jones, CEO and President, to swap thoughts around our direction moving forward. We walked through current projects and brainstormed on connected vehicle domains for future projects: electrification, autonomous, smart home, smart city, and insurance. It is quite clear that in order to achieve success in most, if not all of these domains, open collaboration between OEMs, tier 1s, public sector, content providers is imperative. Ecosystems are required for these areas to thrive and function and once vehicles are connected, sharing resources and open collaboration is a firm requirement.
As for the show floor – I really took it all in. And I was struck by the number of electric and autonomous vehicle exhibits from established players and upstarts large and small from all corners of the planet. There were also many electrification and autonomous infrastructure support companies chasing big opportunities. It’s an exciting time!
Additionally, I learned about many industry opportunities by attending the Connect2Car panel “Standardized Data, Common Architecture and Vehicle Services” featuring:
- Moderator: Brian Carlson– Director, Global Product & Solutions Mkt, NXP Semiconductors
- Speaker: Brandy Goolsby– Director, Product and Solutions Marketing, Wind River
- Speaker: Matt Jones– Chairman and President of COVESA and Director of Global Technology Strategy, Ford Motor Co.
- Speaker: Madison White– Senior Manager, Market and Solutions Strategy - Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, Ricardo
This panel hammered home the need for collaboration to standardize and build the foundations to enable the “value for the entire connected ecosystem.”
That evening, I attended the COVESA CES Networking Event and Showcase, and given the small numbers in attendance overall on the Las Vegas Convention Center show floor, I was expecting sparse attendance by visitors and those showcasing. Wow, was I wrong – attendance was strong for both activities. We had 1,100+ pre-register with more than 500 attendees – making this perhaps the best networking experience in automotive worldwide since CES 2020.
The event was held in a large ballroom at the Bellagio Hotel providing ample room for social distancing with the ability to move about freely. There were 49 showcases featuring wares from startups to established companies, and each was enthusiastic to share their newest products, solutions and technologies ranging from electrification, power management and smart home to smart city and autonomous and vehicle data exchange. Steve Crumb gave a short welcome followed by a video message delivered by Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II from the state of Michigan who focused on the future of mobility and electrification. The networking vibe was strong, a large number of attendees stayed at the COVESA event until the end, and many commented it was the highlight of CES for them. Photos of the reception are here.
The overall message I carried home from CES, is in order for the connected vehicle to achieve its full potential, it’s imperative to facilitate collaboration between ecosystem partners. This requires the development of open standards to create a path for innovation, and a plug-and-play approach for a diverse, sustainable and integrated mobility ecosystem. This necessary fusion of technologies and participation from adjacent industries requires an open door to attract collaboration. COVESA is a vibrant ecosystem that brings buyers and sellers together to solve industry challenges. Let’s continue to build on our successes, work alongside each other, and bring about industry transformation.
If you’re already taking part in COVESA, thank you! We have a lot in motion, with more planned for 2022 – stay engaged and accelerate your involvement. Members drive direction and collaboration. If you aren’t yet a member, note COVESA projects include: In-Vehicle Payment/EV Charging, Automotive Cybersecurity, Connected Vehicle Interface Initiative and Vehicle Signal Specification. We are actively seeking participation and input from stakeholders and the community, and would love to have you setting direction with us. Ready to decide the future of connected vehicles?
Change is a fundamental part of every organization and is often experienced during the end or beginning of a year. On behalf of COVESA, I have a number of announcements regarding current and new resources that facilitate COVESA activities.
First, while we will miss him greatly, we want to congratulate Philippe Robin on his retirement, effective at the end of 2021. Philippe has been with GENIVI/COVESA almost from its inception and has faithfully contributed a Program Management Office lead to almost every project the alliance has hosted. He has also been instrumental in building strong relationships with existing and prospective members in France, throughout Europe, and the world. We wish Philippe all the best and smooth waters for his future sailing endeavors.
Second, Gunnar Andersson, COVESA’s Technical Lead, is also in transition to new opportunities. Having served GENIVI/COVESA for 10 years(!), first as an assigned resource from Volvo Cars and then as the alliance’s Technical Lead, we have mixed emotions to say “see you later” to Gunnar in February of this year. Gunnar has been instrumental in many of the past and current deliverables of the alliance, not the least of which include the Automotive Virtual Platform Specification, the launch of Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII) with W3C, and shepherding the Vehicle Signal Specification work. We wish him the best and know that our paths are likely to cross again.
Last but certainly not least, COVESA has engaged the full-time services of Paul Boyes as COVESA’s Community Director. Paul has a rich background in vehicle software platforms and vehicle data gained while holding key positions at OpenCar and Inrix. Paul also served as Co-Chair of the W3C Automotive & Web Platform Business Group and Automotive Working Group and is intimately acquainted with both Android-related and VSS/CVII-related projects. We ask you to welcome Paul to COVESA and you can expect to hear more from him in the coming days.
Paul Boyes
One last comment regarding COVESA’s choice of Paul’s title of Community Director. We purposefully see Paul as a recruiter, shepherd and facilitator of MEMBER resources applied to current and future COVESA activities. Paul’s primary goal will be to engage with member companies to understand their interests and facilitate member-driven projects, resulting in an active and vibrant COMMUNITY. We believe this subtle shift to a member-centric model is an essential distinctive of COVESA going forward. I very much welcome and appreciate all efforts our members and prospective new members will make to help Paul develop the COVESA community going forward.