HERE, recently brought together a diverse group of automotive companies, system vendors and suppliers to discuss the establishment of an interface format for how in-vehicle sensor data is transmitted to a location cloud.
Modern vehicles collect vast sums of information on road and traffic conditions through onboard sensors, all of which can be utilized to improve the safety and experience of nearby drivers, such as real-time map updates and alerts on traffic or hazardous conditions ahead. If vehicles transmit sensor data in different formats, however, the ability for a cloud to efficiently aggregate and analyze the data at scale is lost and benefits to the driver become less realized.
During the forum held at HERE in Berlin, Germany, participants representing 16 companies agreed the industry must define a format in which vehicle sensor data is ingested by a location cloud. Participants also discussed a range of technical issues, including data content, security, anonymization, and transmission accuracy and efficiency based on the ingestion interface specification recently published by HERE.
“The ability to transmit in real-time sensor data across different vehicles on the road requires deep industrywide collaboration,” said Dietmar Rabel, head of product management for the automated driving program at HERE. “But when we do, the result should be fewer accidents and more efficient journeys, as well as moving the industry closer to its aspiration for cars that can fully understand their environment and drive themselves.”
The creation of a common specification for in-vehicle sensor data is prerequisite to an industry standard, following a similar approach taken by HERE and its industry peers to usher in ADAS Interface Specification. In the upcoming weeks and months HERE will re-engage industry peers across the globe to establish a formal working group on sensor ingestion standardization.
HERE released its Sensor Ingestion Interface Specification in June. It’s a proposed open standard for car sensor data that will allow vehicles to share information they sense or create with the cloud and with other vehicles on the road.