By Joe Register, Vice President, Emerging Technologies, Auto Care Association

In my last blog, I explained that a group of vehicle manufacturers insisted the only way to address the problem of vehicle cyberattack was to cut off all direct access to their vehicles. A group of OEM engineers worked in isolation with engineers from their tier one suppliers within the ISO TC22 Road Vehicles Committee, authoring a set of standards known as Extended Vehicle. The objective of this design is to route all vehicle communication through the respective vehicle manufacturer’s infrastructure. This group made no attempt to standardize the security, communications or message content flowing to and from their vehicles, electing to leave these details up to each vehicle manufacturer in their proprietary solutions.

Given the latency of sending vehicle data on a round-trip through a manufacturer’s systems infrastructure, this approach could not address the near real-time communication requirements for vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) or vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communications. What the Extended Vehicle design did ensure is that each vehicle manufacturer had sole access and control over all the data generated by their vehicles, which in addition to vehicle health includes specifics about driving behavior and other personal information.

In contrast, communication engineers working in another ISO TC204 Committee, the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Committee, defined a secure interface design that natively supports all Intelligent Transportation Systems communication requirements. When implemented as an interface to in-vehicle networks, this design offers secure, direct access to vehicle data required by roadside ITS stations, as well as information required to support vehicle maintenance & repair operations. The in-vehicle solutions based on this design are referred to as Secure Vehicle Interfaces (SVI). These solutions ensure access and control over the communication of operational, behavioral and personal information can be managed by the vehicle owner, who may elect to share this information with authorized and secure third-party applications and independent service providers. Best of all, the standards referenced by SVI can be implemented in both new car architecture or as retrofit solutions in legacy vehicles.

The Auto Care Association and our aftermarket partners support a solution that provides security, privacy, choice, safety, and a level playing field for the marketplace. A solution that enables a smart global infrastructure, where the vehicles of the future can “talk” to infrastructure components like roads, traffic lights, emergency vehicles and other vehicles, resulting in safer and more efficient roadways using Intelligent Transportation Standards defined by SDO (standard developing organizations) line ISO, SAE, IEEE and others. We can enjoy the benefits of a secure, standardized vehicle communication interface without sacrificing direct access to vehicle information, ensuring access and control are managed by the vehicle owner, not the manufacturer.

See Live SVI Demonstrations at AAPEX

The Auto Care Association will host several live demonstrations of SVI solutions in action during the 2018 AAPEX show. These demonstrations will take place in the Technology of Tomorrow section, booth 31021, and will feature direct, secure access to internal vehicle network data, as well as communications with the Las Vegas ITS infrastructure information. Please check your AAPEX program guide for specific times of these events, as well as Let’s Tech presentations, Mobility Garage and additional demonstrations in the AAPEX Technology of Tomorrow section – I look forward to seeing you there!