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The GENIVI In-Vehicle Payment Special Interest Group (IVP-SIG) recently held a very successful and well attended workshop.  The workshop content directly focused on the intersection of in-vehicle technologies, payment technologies and EV-charging trends.

Thirty-four companies attended and heard content following three main themes: integrating the automotive and payment ecosystems, use cases related to EV-charging and trends in voice biometrics for commerce and authentication.  John Moon, GENIVI IVP-SIG Lead, opened the workshop with the purpose and goals for the GENIVI IVP-SIG as well as an overview of the IVP ecosystem.  Anthony Petit, Director of Internet of Things at Visa, continued the workshop with a presentation about the challenges and opportunities of more seamless integration of payments in the vehicle.  His presentation was followed by a Q&A session with Chris Budzynski, Director of Utility Policy at Exelon, who provided a view of the priorities facing an energy provider in the emerging EV world.  This was followed by a presentation by Boris Polania, Lead System Architect, e-Mobility Services at American Honda Motor Company, who spoke about "Takers and Givers", the use case of EV's not just consuming but providing power to the grid, and how that might affect payments.  Finally, Daniel Thornhill, SVP Global Pre-Sales for ValidSoft, presented the emergence of voice as both a means of executing commerce in the vehicle, as well as authenticating the purchaser by means of voice biometrics.

Slides for most of the presentations are available on the IVP SIG wiki page.  The IVP SIG is proceeding with additional activities including:

• May 4-7th 2021 - IVP & EV Charging panels and workshop discussions during the upcoming GENIVI Virtual AMM (All Member Meeting) 
• June 8-10th 2021 - GENIVI at TU Automotive FOCUS Vehicle Commerce Conference (GENIVI IVP-SIG participants receive a 25% discount for this event - Ask Mike for details).

Additionally, GENIVI IVP-SIG is cooperating with TU-Automotive on a survey on IVP technologies and approaches, in preparation for the June vehicle commerce conference.  You can participate in the survey here. 

If you have any questions or wish to participate in the IVP-SIG, please contact John Moon (jmoon at connectedtravel.com) or Mike Nunnery (MikeNunnery at comcast.net).

On 18 February, over sixty individual participants from nearly 40 unique organizations gathered for a several hour working session discussing the activities of the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII).  Co-hosted by GENIVI and W3C, the working session offered an informative and (intentionally) diverse set of presentations and dialogs.  The schedule, divided into three major components, can be found on the associated wiki page, on which you can also find slides for most of the presentations.

After brief introductions by Ted Guild, W3C Automotive Lead, and Gunnar Andersson, GENIVI Technical Lead, the first major component of the session included a series of updates from existing and related projects.  These updates represented work already active in GENIVI and W3C and enabled participants see that CVII is already a mature and productive project, one built on a strong foundation of previously delivered work that is further blossoming within the activities of CVII.  

The second major component of the working session was about alignment to existing work in other organizations like Sensoris, eSync Alliance, and the Open Insurance Network.  Because the scope of CVII encompasses the work of many other organizations, an active work thread of alignment to the work of others is essential.

A third and final major component of the working session was focused on the CVII Technology Stack activities.  Informative talks on developing a common Vehicle Service Catalog and Vehicle Signal Specification layering were given by experts.  BMW and Bosch took time to contextualize CVII into their own, data-oriented future.  And finally, discussion was held about CVII-related activities both in-vehicle and in the broader ecosystem of connectivity like Web of Things.

A general purpose and open email list (cvii-general@lists.genivi.org) for keeping people informed on CVII was announced during the workshop and any one interested can subscribe at lists.genivi.org.  For more information on CVII, please review the materials available on the CVII Home Page including a briefing document, an in-depth tutorial slide deck, and general information about upcoming events and meetings.  Contact information for both Ted and Gunnar can be found on the CVII Working Session wiki page. 

In addition to ongoing weekly meetings and webinars planned in coming weeks, CVII will be a major portion of the upcoming, GENIVI Virtual All Member Meeting, scheduled for 4-7 May 2021.  Stay tuned for more details about this important gathering of the GENIVI community and others interested in the work.

GENIVI and W3C have planned a joint work session on 18 February (1600-2000 CET / 10:00am-2:00pm US EST) as one of several next steps taken to activate the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII).  For several months now, GENIVI and W3C have been building awareness of the joint initiative with OEMs and the automotive industry broadly and the time has come to trigger additional productive collaboration around standard vehicle data models, vehicle/cloud interfaces and standard vehicle service definition and invocation.

Building on weekly meetings within the W3C Automotive Working Group as well as the GENIVI Cloud and Connected Services project, the upcoming working session will explore three key areas:

• Overview of Existing Projects
  • Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) and Vehicle Signal Specification Ontology (VSSo)
  • GENIVI Cloud and Connected Services Project
  • Vehicle Service Catalog and protocols for remote invocation
  • CVII Technology Stack Definition
  • Android Automotive SIG - Vehicle Hardware Abstraction Layer (VHAL)
• Further discussion on CVII Technology Stack
• CVII Future Activities & Alignment to Other Bodies.

Participants will receive a status update on previous and current work encompassed in CVII and will also learn of practical ways of engaging in a number of active threads of the initiative.

The logistics for the working session can be found on the CVII pages of the GENIVI Wiki.  The detailed agenda of the working session will be posted to CVII wiki page in coming days.

GENIVI and W3C invite you to join this important initiative as it builds momentum toward a unified, industry-standard approach for vehicle data, vehicle services and vehicle-cloud interfaces. 

UPDATE:  Click here for the detailed agenda

Mobility Pioneer will be the mobility innovation focal point for 2021, setting the tone and providing the kickstart for what promises to be a fantastic year in transportation. Bringing together government, tech companies, startups, and investors, Mobility Pioneer will focus on the future and innovation in infrastructure, public transit, Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO), fleet operations plus connected, autonomous, shared and electric vehicles.

Mobility Pioneer is an opportunity for technology companies to demonstrate their solutions to potential customers. A congress for public agencies to share with and learn from their peers. A forum for startups to promote their innovative technologies to potential investors. GENIVI Alliance members are invited to join us on Tuesday 9 February at 14:00 GMT. Register on Eventbrite (https://bit.ly/3ojwcNQ) using the free code: MP2021GENIVI 

For more information visit: https://www.mobilitypioneer.com/.

On Thursday, February 25th, 2021, from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm US Eastern Time, GENIVI will host a complimentary virtual (on-line) collaboration workshop event.

IVP COLLABORATION WORKSHOP AGENDA

The focus of the February 25th GENIVI IVP Collaboration Workshop consists of (3) areas of discussion/presentation including Payments, Authentication, and UX.

Below briefly defines the five goals of the GENIVI VIP Special Interest Group (SIG) who will be leading the IVP workshop discussions:

1)    Provide a foundation of knowledge and access to the established ecosystems of automotive, payments, and retail.

2)    Provide a forum for automotive, payments, and retail to understand and develop requirements to enable commerce in the vehicle in a convenient and safe manner.

3)    Define and establish potential projects that mutually benefit and advance the acceptance of in-vehicle payment applications.

4)    Identify and define projects that would advance the standardization of specifications and requirements for in-vehicle payments for all interested industries.

5)    Facilitate and provide a unified industry representation of automaker needs with payments regulatory bodies.

Attending this IVP collaboration workshop will be Automotive OEMs, Tier 1s, payment card brands, merchants, integrators, developers, and other key stakeholders.   

If you're interested in collaborating with other organizations and professionals from both the IVP and EV Charging ecosystem, this workshop is for you.

To register for the event please visit:   https://IVPworkshop.eventbrite.com   passcode is “collaboration”

If you have any questions regarding this no-cost event, please contact GENIVI's IVP lead John Moon (Connected Travel) at jmoon at connectedtravel dot com or Mike Nunnery (GENIVI's Marketing Manager) at mikenunnery at comcast dot net.

The Automotive Virtual Platform Specification (first published version here, and look here for the ongoing working draft) is a collaborative work with an open source license, intended to be the common specification for compatible implementations of virtualization platforms for automotive.

It promotes device virtualization standards like VIRTIO in order to require common APIs that Hypervisors should provide, and complements this by defining other aspects of a virtual platform that VIRTIO cannot cover by itself.  Those are things like boot protocol and other general platform requirements.  The project also analyzes how and when to use hardware-assisted virtualization support while balancing this with the portability goals, for example at which times other methods may supersede emulation and paravirtualization approaches.

Those who are working on this specification (JOIN US!) believe it can be a very useful and important basis the automotive industry and we tend to get the same positive feedback from OEMs, Hypervisor vendors and independent technologists (although with the concern that it is challenging to do).

It is a great, and achievable, goal but the specification doesn't write itself...

If you believe improving the state of virtualization in automotive is important, the team would like to invite you to join us in the new year.  Don't miss the chance to give your personal and your company's input on this important part of the automotive technology stack.  We CAN have better and clearer requirements, more portability, and less integration hassles for multiple operating systems and multiple hypervisor implementations, if we work together on automotive virtualization.

The meeting is held every Monday at 10.00 AM CET and the work is open to everyone, members and non-members alike, so just get involved. If the time slot does not suit you, let us know and we can renegotiate the meeting times with everyone who is interested.  You can find the invitation on the genivi-projects@lists.genivi.org mailing list (check the archives, and subscribe), or contact Gunnar Andersson, GENIVI Technical Lead directly (gandersson at genivi dot org).

Two talks proposed by GENIVI were accepted to the Embedded, Mobile and Automotive Devroom at FOSDEM (Free and Open-Source Developers European Meeting – virtual this year) scheduled on 6-7 February.  FOSDEM is the largest conference of its kind in the world, normally attracting more than 8000 participants and delivering more than 30 presentation tracks. GENIVI is pleased to have representatives from the Android Automotive SIG (AASIG) and the Cloud and Connected Services (CCS) project present during the event.  FOSDEM is open to the public and links to the presentations are provided below.

Networked Audio in Android Automotive

The first talk will be delivered by the GENIVI Android Automotive SIG Audio HAL project. Suhasini Raghuram from Analog Devices will present the outcome of the project work on Networked Audio in Android Automotive.

The modern vehicle audio system is built with a number of networked components that are required for many complex and integrated functionalities such as active noise cancellation, warning sounds, diagnostics, etc. And thus, complex and flexible audio setups are a fundamental design need for modern vehicles. GENIVI AASIG analyzed various scenarios of integrating Android in this complex setup and explored the maturity and gaps of Android Automotive solution in this context. This talk aims to highlight some of the findings of the team and discuss further topics for investigation in this area.

The AASIG Audio HAL talk is scheduled on Sunday 7 February 15:30-16:00 CET.

Link: https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/room/dembedded/ 

Designing an open communication framework for the connected car

The second talk will be delivered by the GENIVI Cloud & Connected Services project (CCS). Kevin Valdek from High-Mobility and Ulf Bjorkengren from Geotab will present the outcome of the project work on an open communication framework for the connected car.

The connected car has been around for some time but we are still waiting for a large breakthrough when it comes to third party services powered by vehicle data. The fragmentation of different technical solutions makes it difficult for 3rd parties or developers to work with easily accessible vehicle APIs.

To tackle this, the GENIVI Cloud & Connected Services project is designing an end-to-end communication framework starting from the data transfer from embedded systems in the vehicles and spanning to cloud based APIs. The framework is built on open protocols and is demonstrated with open-source reference code with the aim of simplifying implementation work for both car manufacturers and 3rd party developers. The presentation will show a Proof-of-Concept implementation that the project has made available to anyone.

The CCS talk is scheduled on Sunday 7 February 16:00-16:30 CET.

Link: https://fosdem.org/2021/schedule/room/dembedded/ 

Returning from a holiday break can be a daunting task.  With email boxes filled up and new deadlines looming, it is nice to be able to lock down a couple of important events BEFORE the holiday break, so they are in your calendars before you return.

GENIVI has three important events for you to consider adding to your schedules for the new year:

• CES2021 Connect2Car Event (14 January 2021)
• In-Vehicle Payment SIG Workshop (25 February 2021)
• Common Vehicle Interface Initiative Workshop (18 February 2021).

Connect2Car@CES Digital Summit

GENIVI has enjoyed a multi-year relationship with SAE and other organizations to plan and execute one of the best "on-site" Consumer Electronics Show (CES) programs for the automotive and mobility communities.  The Connect2Car track has consistently presented compelling content often filling the meeting room with interested attendees.  The registration site for the 14 January (10:00am - 2:00pm EST) event is at https://www.sae.org/attend/connect2car-ces and the program can also be viewed from that page. 

With innovation as the theme for CES2021, the Connect2Car summit provides the ideal setting to explore what is next in connected mobility.  Presented in conjunction with leading advocacy organizations in the industry, including GENIVI, MEA and SEMA, Connect2Car@CES Digital Summit provides a complete perspective of the technology, infrastructure, consumer acceptance, and business forces and regulation impacting connected mobility.  Connect2Car@CES Digital Summit provides a convenient online and cost-effective opportunity to hear experts from across the connected mobility landscape, including experts from Ford, FCA, Audi, Wind River, Cloudera, Connected Travel, Butzel Long, NXP, Humanizing Autonomy, Alexa Automotive and more.

GENIVI is pleased to have several members represented on the program so you will want to secure your place for this important automotive event during CES 2021.  Registering before 3 January 2021 will save you $50 on the cost of the event.  Registration is $99 through 3 January after which it goes up to $149.  

First GENIVI In-Vehicle Payment (IVP) Special Interest Group Workshop
 
Please save the date of 11 February 2021 for a 1/2 day virtual workshop of the newly formed, IVP SIG. The first IVP SIG workshop will focus on introducing and meeting the members of the group, discuss potential projects for the SIG and plan the goals and activities of the group. More information about the activities of the IVP SIG can be found at the GENIVI Project Wiki site HERE.
 
To be notified as more details are available on how to join the IVP workshop, please fill out our registration form HERE.
 
Or if you have additional questions you can reach IPV SIG organizers by email:
John Moon -  IVP Special Interest Group Lead (jmoon@connectedtravel.com)
Mike Nunnery – (a.k.a. GENIVI Mike) GENIVI Marketing Executive  (mikenunnery@comcast.net).

Connected Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII) Workshop

Momentum that was started during the May and October virtual GENIVI events to launch a new vehicle data and cloud interface initiative in GENIVI continues into 2021 with a planned workshop the third week of February.  This workshop, co-led by W3C and GENIVI, will present work done to date to define specific technical activities advancing a standard vehicle data model, standard vehicle service catalog, standard web interface and methodology for remote function calls from the web.  This work continues to evolve past work completed by GENIVI on Vehicle Service Specification (VSS) and W3C on Vehicle Interface Service Specification (VISS) by adding vehicle services to the standards.

Several OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and data-focused companies have committed to this initiative and it is sure to be a "next big thing" in GENIVI.  As details of the workshop become available, we will post additional blogs in January.

More information on the CVII work can be found at the GENIVI Project Wiki site HERE.  To express interest in participating in the CVII project, please contact Gunnar Andersson, GENIVI Technical Lead.

After two OEM Roundtables co-hosted by GENIVI and W3C and a full day allocated to the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII) during the recent virtual all member meeting, a webinar with a slightly different message but sharing a common theme will be presented on 19 November at 10:00 US EST and 1600 CET.

With past CVII activities focused on the value to OEMs, this webinar answers the question of why automotive suppliers and data-focused companies need a common vehicle interface.  A standard vehicle data model and accompanying services definitions are clearly a growing target for many suppliers and data-focused companies.  Adopting these common approaches will simplify automotive system development and allow the industry to realize business value of vehicle data and services more fully.

During this free, 60-minute webinar, hosted by Automotive World through its Mobex platform, GENIVI, W3C and GEOTAB, a new GENIVI member, discuss the benefits of vehicle data standards and potential positive impacts of a "single language" to define, exchange and use vehicle data and services.

Key topics and takeaways:

• An overview of the foundational standards of VSS and VISS for data exchange.
• An understanding of how adopting vehicle data and service standards positively impacts a business.
• A clear view of how the results of the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative will benefit OEMs, suppliers and third parties.

Registration is open for this webinar and we invite you to share this invitation broadly within your organization and among clients, customers and colleagues.

During the week of 26-30 October, GENIVI executed its second virtual event, following the virtual summit in May.  While there were many highlights and limiting it to ten is sure to result in leaving something important out, here are my "top ten" highlights to the event.

1. The event enjoyed just under 700 registrants, 419 of which participated in the event in one way or another.  These numbers represent a significant increase in participation from our earlier virtual event in May.
2. Roger Lanctot's (Strategy Analytics) session entitled "Google Automotive Impact Statement" was the most popular session followed closely by the panel entitled, "Three Vehicle Software Trends & What the Industry Should Do About Them" and a panel entitled, "Why the Industry Needs a Common Vehicle Interface Initiative".  
3. The entire program of 27 October was dedicated to an emerging activity called the Common Vehicle Interface Initiative or CVII.  In the previously mentioned (#2) panel, Renault, Volvo Cars and Ford all presented views on why CVII could benefit them and the industry broadly.  The workshops continued the discussion, including a presentation by W3C CEO Jeffrey Jaffe.  

4. The GENIVI Security Team put together a great program consisting of 8 sessions on various topics related to cybersecurity in automotive.  The program included a wide variety of topics like: data privacy, ISO 21434 and UNECE WP.29, increased complexity of cybersecurity control, false perceptions in media and vehicle forensics.

5. The GENIVI discussion around in-vehicle payments advanced significantly through a great panel moderated by Connected Travel with panelists from BMW, Mastercard, HERE Technologies and Postmates. 
6. The GENIVI Android Automotive Special Interest Group (SIG) held two workshops to advance work on their audio hardware abstraction layer and vehicle hardware abstraction layer activities.
7. GENIVI employed the Swapcard tool that enabled a virtual showcase of 15 participants and facilitated nearly 2000 connection requests between participating individuals.  While this was not like a face-to-face meeting, there was significant networking going on, which is always a highlight of GENIVI events.
8. The program on 29 October included a second CVII workshop at a more Asia-friendly time followed by a productive workshop by the GENIVI Cloud and Connected Services projects.  Both of these projects hold real promise for impacting the future of car to cloud connectivity as well as introducing a standard vehicle data model and services catalog. 
9. GENIVI recognized three Most Valuable Contributors (MVCs) during the event including: Joby Jester, Solutions Architect, Connected Transport at Irdeto, for his leadership of the GENIVI Security Team and Piotr Krawczyk and Stefan Wysocki, both Software Architects at TietoEvry for their leadership and contributions to the Android Automotive Special Interest Group.
10. And last but certainly not least, GENIVI wishes to thank Genesis and LG for their kind and generous support as sponsors of the event.

As I said before, there were many more highlights and limiting it to 10 is not optimal.  Feel free to make up your mind about the event by visiting the event page containing videos and slides of the event sessions.  At that bottom of that page, you will also find a number of videos on demand from our showcase participants and sponsors.  We want to thank our sponsors, Genesis and LG, our virtual showcase participants and most of all, those who participated for joining the event.    

GENIVI Virtual Experience (formerly the GENIVI All Member Meeting and Open Community Days)

26-30 October 2020

Agenda and Registration: https://www.eventleaf.com/GENIVIVirtualAMM

A special thanks to Genesis and LG for their generous sponsorship!

GENIVI is famous in the automotive industry for great networking events and we will not let a global pandemic hinder our ability to connect you with people you know but have been unable to meet with in person for some time.  GENIVI will employ the Swapcard platform that quite simply facilitates virtual networking, both informal chats as well as scheduled business meetings.  If you attended the TU-Automotive event, you are already familiar with the platform and its simple approach toward connecting with others registered for our free event.

There are many reasons you should consider registering for the event including a great program with highly relevant content on topics like:

• trends driving the future of vehicle software architectures
• challenges faced by increased software complexity
• impact of Google in the cockpit
• future of in-vehicle commerce
• a standard approach for vehicle data formats and interfaces
• data privacy and vehicle cybersecurity 
• and many more!

On Tuesday, 27 October, GENIVI, W3C and a number of supportive OEMs will answer the question, "Why the Industry Needs a Common Vehicle Interface Initiative?"  This combination of a panel discussion plus two one hour workshops will undoubtedly cause the industry to rethink the potential of an industry-wide standard for vehicle data and service definition as well as how it develops interoperable solutions for vehicle data management and vehicle service invocation. 

But let me get back to the networking and just how simple it is to place yourself in a virtual network of leaders from automotive OEMs, Tier 1s, semiconductor providers and many other suppliers absolutely free of charge.  Regardless of whether you attend any of the sessions (which I'm sure you will), GENIVI is providing you an opportunity to connect with potential customers, partners, start-ups and many others looking to collaborate on many of the biggest challenges facing automotive software organizations today.  We also are providing you access to a virtual showcase of leading technology suppliers and fellow standards development organizations for you to learn more about relevant offerings for vehicle projects.  With an expected 500 participants, 20 virtual showcase tables and tons of relevant content, why wouldn't you register to join in the fun?  

And I want to bring visibility to our two sponsors, Genesis (Executive Sponsor) and LG (Gold Sponsor), without which this event would not be possible!  Thank you both for your very generous sponsorships.  Note also than in addition to the virtual showcase, the event will stream videos from our sponsors and from a number of showcase participants during breaks and on-demand.

So, here's the next step.  Browse to the registration site and sign up at no cost.  You will be sent instructions that will answer many of your questions on event participation and networking.  For those not answered, there is an FAQ available on the registration web site.  

We look forward to having you join us for this great event, whether you are a GENIVI member or just interested in the future of automotive software and data.  See you soon!

The GENIVI Program Committee is pleased to announce several additions to the speaker line-up at the upcoming GENIVI Member Virtual Experience on 26-30 October.  Please visit the latest online agenda and registration portal for the latest information and to sign-up for the free event open to all interested parties in the automotive industry (including non-members of GENIVI).  Unlike past member meetings that tended to be 2.5 or 3 days long, this virtual event will span the entire week with portions of the event reserved for working sessions of current GENIVI projects.

Monday (26 October) will kick off with a moderated, thought leadership panel comprised of GENIVI Board member representatives discussing three trends in future vehicle systems including: 

1. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (Matt Jones, Wind River)
2. Digital twin concepts as applied to vehicle data (Dimitrios Stavrianos and Rainer Lang, both from Bosch)
3. Consolidating vehicle functions in a software defined architecture (Tero Salminen, OpenSynergy).

The audience will also hear from Roger Lanctot, Strategy Analytics, about the impact of Google in the cockpit and from Georg Doll, McKinsey, about cost implications to vehicle software complexity.  Another trend discussed by Thom Denholm fromTuxera is solving data storage challenges in the automotive projects of tomorrow.  And the final session of the day will be panel moderated by John Moon, Connected Travel on car commerce and in-vehicle payments with panelists from BWM, HERE Technologies, MasterCard, and Postmates.

Tuesday (27 October) will be given to the continuation of a multi-year, productive collaboration between GENIVI and W3C in the vehicle data and web interface areas that has resulted in two industry standards.  Both the Vehicle Service Specification (VSS) defining an extensible model for vehicle data and the Vehicle Interface Service Specification (VISS) defining a web interface to exchange vehicle data with the cloud are being adopted in the industry and are expected to expand in a newly announced, joint project called Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII).  The day will start with an OEM-led panel (Ford, Volvo Cars, Renault Software and BMW) arguing in favor of the initiative to create common approaches to collect, manage and exchange vehicle data both in the vehicle and in the cloud.  Two one-hour workshops are planned after the panel to continue to define the scope and work breakdown of the CVII.  If you have any interest in the future of vehicle data, these sessions are essential.  A second, Asia-friendly replay of the CVII content with live Q&A is being planned for Thursday morning (0900 CET).  

Because of contributions by Asia-based colleagues, Wednesday (28 October) will have two primary program tracks, one starting in the morning CET and the other in the afternoon.  The GENIVI project defining an Audio Hardware Abstraction Layer (A-HAL) associated with Android Automotive will be the focus of the morning sessions, led by representatives of BMW and TietoEvry.  The afternoon track will focus on automotive cybersecurity with talks and panelists including the Chair of ISO's 21434 Committee, General Motors, Irdeto, NCC Group, Strategy Analytics and Automotive News. 

Thursday (29 October) will be given to the GENIVI project called Cloud and Connected Services (CCS).  This project has been active for some time and is exploring not only the usage of a standard vehicle data model (VSS), but also a common reference architecture for vehicle to cloud communications. Kevin Valdek, CTO of High Mobility, will lead the working sessions.  And finally, Friday (30 October) will be dedicated to the other important project of the Android Automotive SIG, namely the Vehicle Hardware Abstraction Layer (V-HAL) development work.

In addition to all of the relevant and informative program content, the event will be an great opportunity to network with current and prospective colleagues and customers through the Swapcard platform.  Used during the recent TU-Automotive event, this platform enables registered participants to request connections with other participants, to freely chat and to support virtual business meetings between interested parties.  We would also like to thank our event sponsors, Hyundai Motor Company and LG Electronics for their generous support of the event.   

Please take time today to review the latest online agenda and to register for this free event at the registration portal.

By now we are all getting used to announcements like this.  The GENIVI Member Meeting, originally planned for 26-28 October in Leipzig, will be a virtual event - but not just any virtual event.  

Members have told us often that one of the greatest benefits to GENIVI was the networking that occurred at our events.  Obviously, COVID has eliminated the opportunity for this valuable networking to happen physically, but GENIVI isn't settling for no networking.  In addition to our program consisting of both invited talks and panels, the October event will be an opportunity to connect virtually through some new tooling that enables both ad-hoc and scheduled meetings with other event participants.  If anyone attended the recent TU-Automotive event, you got a flavor of how a virtual showcase and private, business-related meetings can be facilitated online.  While nothing is like being together, we hope that "virtual experience" we will produce in October will be closer to what we have had in the past.

So what can you expect at our upcoming, 20th edition of a GENIVI All Member Meeting? 

First, GENIVI will hold its industry-trend oriented program tackling issues like vehicle software complexity and maximizing the value of vehicle data.  Speakers from Strategy Analytics, McKinsey and a number of OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers will fill the first day and a half of sessions.

Second, GENIVI will continue its history of holding technical workshops on topics ranging from Android Automotive to Cybersecurity to Cloud and Connected Services.  Additionally, GENIVI intends to launch a new project called Common Vehicle Interface Initiative (CVII) during the event.  This initiative has already been discussed during a recent OEM Roundtable where several OEMs expressed strong support for the work.

Finally, GENIVI will use tooling to create a virtual showcase experience consisting of "booths" where sponsoring organizations can host meetings, display materials and run videos about their products and services.  The tool enables both ad-hoc and scheduled meetings with showcase representatives so that you can learn more about emerging products and services in the market.  Mike Nunnery is contacting member organizations to see if they wish to participate in this virtual showcase and several have already committed.  Please contact Mike if you wish to participate or have questions.

GENIVI is taking a step forward toward leveraging virtual tools to connect our global community and invites you to plan to attend the GENIVI Member Virtual Experience on 26-30 October.

On 10 September (4pm CET, 10am US Eastern), leaders from the GENIVI Board of Directors will present a panel entitled, "Taming the Beast of Vehicle Software Complexity".  The webinar, hosted by Mobex (Webinars by Automotive World),  is the first in a series of thought leadership topics to be delivered by GENIVI during the remaining months of 2020.  Another second topic will be part of the GENIVI Virtual All Member Meeting program scheduled for 26-30 October.   

With the growing volume of software in the modern vehicle, the complexities of integrating multiple operating systems, platforms and components are skyrocketing. Add to this the fact that the vehicle is increasingly a player in multiple cross-industry contexts, such as the internet of things, smart cities, shared mobility and vehicle to infrastructure initiatives.

The panel, moderated by GENIVI Chairman Matt Jones (Wind River), will include perspectives from an automaker (BMW), a tier 1 supplier (Mentor Automotive) and a software services company (TietoEvry) on how their organizations are evolving to better manage this growing complexity while attempting to reduce costs and time to market.  Registration for the webinar is free and is available here: https://mobex.io/webinars/taming-the-beast-of-vehicle-software-complexity/.

Make sure you register early and reserve time your calendars for this important presentation.

On 16 July, GENIVI and W3C hosted an OEM Roundtable teleconference to discuss an emerging initiative to define standard approaches for modeling, managing and exchanging data in a vehicle and in the cloud.  The Common Vehicle Interface Initiative can best be described as

• An extension of the existing movement for“a common data model”, where Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) is a driving example
• A technology collaboration to define associated protocols (e.g. W3C VISS/Gen 2) and interfacing technologies to make use of the data/service model in real systems
• A discussion on where standard interfaces are appropriate in the entire vehicle+cloud
• A movement towards unification of fragmented ecosystems that inadequately address only part of this problem, and not in concert.
• The initiative may include inside-vehicle: Standardized software components and well-defined interfaces between ECUs, and outside-vehicle: Remotely-accessible vehicle functions in the car-to-cloud infrastructure

The slide deck used during the roundtable is here.  Graphically, the initiative looks like this:

During the round table, representatives from Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW all delivered statements in support of the initiative.  These were followed by similar opinions from Volvo Cars and Toyota.  Other OEMs present included Daimler/Mbition, GM, Renault, PSA and SAIC Motor.  The result of the call was to plan a follow-up workshop for additional initiative definition and to discuss how best to host the dialog, which is sure to include not only W3C, but also other standards developing organizations.

The initiative will be tracked in the Cloud and Connected Services project until it takes on its own project schedule.  Stay tuned for additional information on future gatherings around this important industry initiative.  If you have questions about the initiative or want to be involved, please contact Philippe Robin .