Automotive Big Data Marketplace for Innovative Cross-sectorial Vehicle Data Services

Project Information

AutoMat

Grant agreement ID: 644657

DOI

10.3030/644657

Project closed

EC signature date 12 December 2014

Start date 1 April 2015

End date 31 March 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 5 751 785,50

EU contribution

€ 4 460 269,00

Coordinated by

VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AutoMat (Automotive Big Data Marketplace for Innovative Cross-sectorial Vehicle Data Services)

Reporting period: 2016-10-01 to 2018-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Problem:
At the moment, various business potentials related to untapped data collected with vehicle sensors are sealed to possible users. The foremost reason is that the automotive industry has not yet built an open vehicle data marketplace where such data can be discovered, browsed and eventually acquired. Some proprietary solutions are in use, but in such solutions vehicle data is not provided in a brand-independent format, making the data less generically applicable. Furthermore, proprietary Original Equipment Manu-facturer (OEM) solutions render business potentials uneconomical, due to various issues like the need for negotiation with different OEMs/data suppliers/partners and individual interfaces to different proprie-tary systems, all of which lead to the costs of realizing and providing services being too high. Another negative side effect of proprietary solutions is that no service alone can cover all costs of the value chain.

AutoMat Solution & Objectives:
The core intention of the AutoMat project is to establish a novel and open ecosystem in the form of a cross-border Vehicle Big Data Marketplace that leverages currently unused information gathered from a large amount of vehicles from various brands (also see Figure 1 below). The interface to the marketplace is derived from a brand-independent Common Vehicle Information Model (CVIM) that makes aggregated vehicle data accessible to cross-sectorial service providers. AutoMat intends to reduce the costs for realizing and providing services based on vehicle data, by achieving the following:
• Creation of an open ecosystem for provisioning of manufacturer and service provider independ-ent vehicle data
• Single point of data access for service providers via the Marketplace
• Definition of standardized and open interfaces for unconstrained data access
• Specification of the CVIM data format that enables harmonized, generic vehicle data access
• Provision of a broad spectrum of collected data due to different participating OEMs
• Definition and prototyping of Vehicle Big Data Marketplace concept as mediator between vehicle data and cross-sectorial service providers
• Validation of the AutoMat concept by developing cross-sectorial (non-automotive) example ser-vices, e.g.: Meteorological Data based Hyper Local Services and Extended Innovative Enterprise Services
• Development, definition and validation of a market business model and its value chain

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the first half of the AutoMat project, the concept of the Vehicle Big Data Marketplace as unique and central point of access to brand-independent vehicle data has been defined. This includes the definition of a brand-independent Common Vehicle Information Model, according to which all data provided through the Marketplace will be formatted, and the related data process requirements (storage installa-tion, termination, B2B-cases, CVIM reconfiguration). In order to achieve a logical structuring of the “world of available vehicle sensors”, the description was split into five domains (Vehicle, Passenger, Navigation and Mobility, Environment and Connectivity) for CVIM specification.
The design of the system architecture is another achieved goal of this period. It enables the connecting of vehicles and OEM-based data capturing mechanisms inside them with cloud storage, the marketplace, and service providers. Furthermore, the workflows envisaged for the interactions between the actors (OEMs, Service Providers, and Vehicle Owners) have been designed, taking into account specific as-pects of the B2B and B2C cases.
Another main result is the software specification of the AutoMat modules themselves: Vehicle Data Cap-turing, OEM Backend Vehicle Data Harvesting and Analysis, Cloud Storage Vault, Vehicle Big Data Mar-ketplace, Vehicle Data-based Service Provider solutions.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The current automotive Big Data situation is characterized by proprietary OEM solutions focusing on vehicle-based services or company specific services regarding traditional value chains. This Big Data landscape fails to allow service providers to access vehicle data, particularly across brands / fleets. Thus, the conventional approach by the car industry restricts data’s availability and free flow across EU. Moreover, in the old system, no new data protection and privacy concepts will be developed. In Auto-Mat, 3 EU high volume vehicle manufacturers have ventured the establishment of an independent and open Vehicle Data Marketplace where brand-independent vehicle data is offered, in CVIM format. In this way, service providers can create services based on brand-independent vehicle data.
AutoMat targets these main impacts:
(1) The relevant data produced by a vehicle accumulates to about ~500MB-1GB of data / day. With an increasing number of sensors, this number will increase. Due to technical & economic constraints, the transferrable data volumes are bounded. AutoMat’s CVIM & Marketplace enable 3rd party service providers to use vehicle content by gaining access to brand-independent vehicle data. EU citizens and companies benefit from services established by 3rd party service providers building upon such data.
(2) The AutoMat ecosystem’s open nature and its intention to bring vehicle information to the outside world is the foundation for service offerings:
Cross-border: The CVIM is stable across EU borders and allows to generalize and abstract away from type and origin-related aspects. Using Marketplace data, service providers are enabled to target EU and worldwide applications.
Cross-sector: The AutoMat idea is to enable cross-sectorial services by providing abstract vehicle data in CVIM format. Even though the AutoMat ecosystem may also be used for vehicle-centric services, only an open ecosystem like AutoMat actually enables 3rd party service providers to use such vehicle data in their own domains, for services which need not be vehicle-centric.
By defining a value chain where companies can focus on their core businesses, AutoMat strengthens EU’s position as provider of innovative cross-sectorial Big Data-based services, and may serve as incubator for new business opportunities, in particular for SMEs, due to highly reduced market entry barriers compared to proprietary approaches.
(3) OEMs in the AutoMat Consortium run innovative data analytics, particularly during development of new vehicles. By publishing an interface to such data, parts of this knowledge are transferred to interest-ed service providers to create further value. Such data will stimulate the use of innovative data analytics within the service provider's domain to advance their business. The envisaged ecosystem reduces mar-ket entry barriers for new service providers relying on data generated from vehicles and helps stakeholders in the value chain to interconnect their business with other stakeholders.
(4) AutoMat will establish an open and competitive Marketplace complementary to existing service distribution marketplaces. Service providers are invited to enrich their services based upon vehicle data, by providing unique interfaces managing access to vehicle data by service providers, ultimately enabling them to gain unified, brand-independent access to vehicle content in order to offer their cross-sectorial B2C / B2B services. This approach does not enforce the use of any target platforms for service offering.

Figure 1: AutoMat ecosystem – modules and actors