Industry associations call for European legislation around free access vehicle data

An alliance of automotive industry associations is calling on European policymakers to legislate free access to vehicle data. The parties say this is necessary to create a level playing field where independent providers are able to provide competitive and innovative services and solutions.

Consultancy firm Roland Berger predicts that around 70% of the vehicle fleet will be connected by 2025. However, a lack of effective access to vehicle data and functions hinders the realisation of many innovative ideas, the parties argue in a manifesto. "With the rise of the 'connected car', competition now takes place in the vehicle, where data quality and secure access to car functionality determine the quality of service. In an increasingly digital automotive sector, the entire automotive value chain should have the right to develop their business models and compete on equal terms with car manufacturers to deliver the competitive services their customers expect."

Four things are needed to do this, according to the manifesto:

Car manufacturers currently use the Extended Vehicle (ExVe) model for access to vehicle data. Among other things, the manifesto points out that with ExVe, all communication between vehicles and third parties is through car manufacturer servers. In addition, only part of the vehicle data and functions are available to third parties.

"'ExVe' does not guarantee equal opportunities. Instead, it gives car manufacturers full control to decide how, when (latency) and who gets access to (mainly aggregated and diagnosed/processed) data," the advocacy groups say. The alliance also points to the limited access to vehicle data via the physical On-Board-Diagnostics (OBD) port, which they say is indicative of the 'gatekeeper' role that car manufacturers have adopted. The alliance therefore advocates direct access to vehicle data on a contract basis or through a data services platform, which is also called a 'neutral server'.

According to the parties, the solution lies in a built-in interoperable, standardised and secure platform that provides free access to data. Such a platform was previously proposed by the European Commission's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in its report 'Access to In-vehicle Data and Resources'. Such a platform offers several advantages, according to the manifesto:

The alliance points out that the European Parliament previously called on the European Commission in two resolutions to legislate fair, secure, real-time and technology-neutral third-party access to vehicle data. The parties therefore call on the European Commission and other policymakers to come up with a legislative proposal by 2020.

The manifesto was signed by:

The manifesto can be found here.