Cloud-based connectivity enables the connected car to offer new services, transfer and manage vast amounts of data and ensure on-board technology remains constantly up-to-date. It is predicted that by 2020, around 250 million highly connected vehicles will be on public roads around the world, and Cisco’s recent US$1.4bn acquisition of Cloud-based Internet of Things platform provider, Jasper Technologies, only further underlines the importance of the Cloud in pursuit of this figure.
Headquartered in Switzerland, software development services provider Luxoft has been reaping the rewards of growing demands for connectivity; automotive revenue for the last nine months of 2015 grew 39% year-on-year, and the company has a vested interest in vehicle-to-Cloud connectivity.
One challenge that remains to be met is ensuring that vehicles maintain a reliable connection to the Cloud – and thus the Internet – in areas of poor signal, such as rural villages and underground car parks. For smartphones, a dip in connection is rarely more than a minor inconvenience, without any lasting repercussions. Many consumers opt for Cloud-based music streaming for example, but for the connected and eventually autonomous car, the effect of a drop in connection could be potentially dangerous.
“The biggest challenge within the Internet of Things (IoT) space is usage of the Cloud, the distribution of functions, and keeping the vehicle operational while you don’t have a fully connected network,” says Georg Doll, Managing Director, Automotive at Luxoft. “We will have vehicles in conditions where they simply have no network coverage – or at least very low network coverage. A perfect example is if I drive into the parking garage here at my office; the signal is very patchy and does not work all of the time.” Here, drivers still need to be able to operate the vehicle, and will expect minimal function degradation.
OTA the only way?
In order to maintain access to information in areas of poor connectivity, certain data can be downloaded via the Cloud and stored in the car. For factors that rarely change – such as basic infrastructure – incremental over-the-air (OTA) software updates could be a beneficial approach. OTA updates enable OEMs to carry out system refreshes, bug fixes or even a ‘digital recall’ remotely. In most cases, this removes the need for the current process, in which the vehicle owner brings their car into a garage, with the OEM potentially needing to provide a courtesy car while the repair is carried out. Tesla has already demonstrated this capability on a wide scale when it delivered its Autopilot update for the Model S via an OTA update in October 2015.
The biggest challenge within the Internet of Things (IoT) space is usage of the Cloud, the distribution of functions, and keeping the vehicle operational while you don’t have a fully connected network
“It depends on what is being updated,” says Doll. “For apps that have been downloaded into the car in the way we are used to doing with our smartphones, then updating incrementally absolutely makes sense.” In addition, he notes that given the car’s built-in map is an area where data does not frequently change, only that data which changes needs updating, rather than also updating the data that remains constant.”
Real-time information about traffic information or points of interest (POI) , could form part of an incremental update, for example. What’s more, Doll explains that Luxoft is utilising the Cloud to ensure that vehicles have a “live” connection.
“You can build behaviour patterns from driving data so the car can make decisions on its own. We are talking about how to optimise communication between the vehicle and the Cloud not for constantly changing data, but for live data.”
From the home, to the Cloud
New cars are also becoming increasingly connected to devices within the consumer electronics industry, with smart phones – and now smart homes – linking up with the driver’s in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system. How can the Cloud be leveraged here?
In January 2016, Ford announced it would work with Amazon to pair its Sync-equipped vehicles with smart home products through Amazon Echo, a small wireless speaker and voice command device. This would enable voice control access between the car and the home. In the same month, SmartThings – a home automation company acquired by Samsung in 2014 – also announced that BMW drivers would be able to control and monitor connected home devices through its Smart Home Monitor feature on the in-car display.
You can build behaviour patterns from driving data so the car can make decisions on its own. We are talking about how to optimise communication between the vehicle and the Cloud not for constantly changing data, but for live data
While it may appear that the car communicates directly with the home, Doll says, data is in fact shared via the Cloud. Typically, an application running on the car’s IVI head unit will connect to the OEM’s back end, which acts as a gateway into the home. “You’re never going to connect car to home directly – very often it’s a connection through a central gateway inside the Cloud,” says Doll. When leaving for work in the morning, how could the driver ensure the garage door closes from the car, for example? “Without connectivity, it’s hard to do. How can you use functions like that without a huge degradation of functionality?” asks Doll. “You could tell the system, ‘I’m leaving home and the garage has to close, but this doesn’t need to happen immediately. In this case, 100% network coverage is not necessary, and patchy coverage would be sufficient”.
Doll advises that such functions could be built through apps that are available for smartphones today. “If you want to open your garage door, you could stitch that together yourself with the different services in the Cloud. You could use apps such as If or PushBullet, which can interface with home appliances,” he suggests, but advises that this would be “highly unintuitive” and complex to use. Doll points out that most automotive companies do not have the built-in experience within the areas of domestic connectivity and home automation, hence the development of such partnerships with software companies.
Harnessing Big Data is a big ask
Luxoft is also heavily involved in telematics, which ties in closely with its developments in Cloud-based connectivity. Telematics systems log various driving data and can provide a valuable insight into how a vehicle is used. Fleet managers can measure the efficiency of a fleet of vehicles and observe the health of vehicle components and pre-emptively schedule maintenance appointments to reduce unscheduled downtime.
Telematics systems transfer data from the vehicle, through to the Cloud and then on to back end management. On the consumer side, usage-based insurance (UBI) can lower a driver’s insurance premium based on driving data that shows safe and efficient driving habits.
Autonomous driving
What’s more, the use of telematics for the development of autonomous driving is also being investigated. On board sensors can log data and help to create a blueprint of how humans drive, which can then be used as a reference point by the vehicle’s artificial intelligence (AI). “We are working on data aggregation and prediction models for driver and vehicle behaviour in the Cloud, and reflecting that back into the vehicle so that it can make decisions on its own,” explains Doll.
However, an issue remains when it comes to consolidating this vast amount of data being gathered from the vehicle and transferred to the Cloud. “You can’t upload all of the data generated in the vehicle, put that into a server and then perform data analytics,” says Doll. “That’s really, technically impossible.” For example, when it comes to vehicle development, OEMs will subject new vehicles to various test drives, “which is even worse,” according to Doll. “The problem is that OEMs put multiple sensors in the vehicle and within an hour they have generated five terabytes of data. Typically, they want to spend the whole day test driving, so how do you manage 50 to 100 terabytes of data in the vehicle?” he asks. “There is simply no data bandwidth to do that.”
The problem is that OEMs put multiple sensors in the vehicle and within an hour they have generated five terabytes of data. Typically, they want to spend the whole day test driving, so how do you manage 50 to 100 terabytes of data in the vehicle?
This links back to Luxoft’s view for incremental updates; if the Cloud already knows the environment a car has just ‘scanned’ by utilising existing data, is an update of the vehicle’s map necessary? Doll
does not think so, but suggests that if traffic levels have increased to the point where the trip is now abnormal, this would prove a likely situation where Cloud-based incremental updates can keep connected cars connected.
Ultimately, the Cloud acts as a bridge for communication between various devices, and will ensure effectively utilisation of the swathes of data being generated by a rapidly growing fleet of connected cars.
This article is part of an exclusive Automotive World report on connected cars. Follow this link to download a copy of ‘Special report: Connected cars‘
