COMMENT: Interoperability and standards are key for smart roads and future mobility

Statistics show that there will be around 76 million autonomous vehicles on the road by 2035, and that 8% of all vehicles sold by 2020 will be electric. Numbers like these demonstrate the shift we have seen in the automotive industry over the last couple of years, which shows no sign of stopping. Vehicles are no longer isolated entities on the road; they are not only connected to other vehicles but also to the environment around them. Therefore, they now need a range of sensor and machine learning technologies to communicate with these other items. But how do we ensure that they can actually understand each other? Interoperability is the key to the safe, efficient and ‘smart’ roads of the future. Ensuring these systems work effectively can bring a myriad of benefits. For instance, predictive maintenance of vehicles can be enhanced through the transmission of data from a car and will help to maintain a safe vehicle while also reducing unnecessary check-ups, saving time and money, and making journeys more efficient. Predictive maintenance of vehicles can be enhanced through the transmission of data from a car and will help to maintain a safe vehicle while also reducing unnecessary check-ups, saving time and money, and making journeys more efficient For this to work, the on-board systems in the car must work in collaboration with a diverse range of external systems around the vehicle. Through sharing this data with other players in the network, tasks like emergency response, parking or traffic management are able to operate in a more effective way. In the long run traffic lights, car parks and road signals may even become obsolete. There are many stakeholders at play here, as all of these systems will be run by different organisations. These includes government bodies, local authorities and manufacturers of vehicles or infrastructure. It is important that industry standards are in place to ensure effective communication between the systems. We already have a number of standards in place for communication between smart devices. However, as they were not purpose-built for IoT technology as we know it today, there is still a lot of work to do. If automotive manufacturers do not use the same protocols for communication between smart vehicles, it will be impossible to create the smart road infrastructure that we need If automotive manufacturers do not use the same protocols for communication between smart vehicles, it will be impossible to create the smart road infrastructure that we need. And in order to do so, it’s vital to have a consensus on what best-practice standards should be in place. A good example of progress in this area is the bIoTope project, which aims to establish a marketplace for services provided by intelligent systems that can communicate with each other using open standards, including connected cars. Standards already enabling the exchange of data in these situations include The Open Group O-DF and O-MI standards. Using these standards, the bIoTope project is providing concrete proofs-of-concept of IoT interoperability scenarios in smart city environments in Helsinki, Brussels and Lyon. This is set to have a notable effect on the automotive industry, as a connected car would be able to find a free parking space or a non-congested route at the touch of a button, due to the exchange of data between a range of smart devices in an urban setting. As car manufacturers make progress on autonomous, electric and connected vehicle technologies, standards will play a crucial role. To move forward, the industry needs consensus on standards and best practices to ensure effective interoperability. Only then can this technology reach its full potential and bring about benefits that will affect us all. The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd. Chris Harding is Director for Interoperability, The Open Group, and Andrew Josey is Vice President of Standards & Certification, The Open Group The AutomotiveWorld.com Comment column is open to automotive industry decision makers and influencers. If you would like to contribute a Comment article, please contact editorial@automotiveworld.com

COMMENT: Interoperability and standards are key for smart roads and future mobility

BY CHRIS HARDING AND ANDREW JOSEY. The trends of vehicle connectivity and autonomous driving will likely be governed by the construction of standards

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