Vehicle API and Service Catalog for Next Generation Mobility

The freshness of vehicle on-board applications has become an essential part in the user's mobility demands. Based on the user's smartphone experiences, the vehicle's value is determined on frequent software updates and wireless cloud connectivity. Additionally, data-centric service providers seek to connect remotely to vehicle fleets consuming the vehicle data in real-time. Thus, recent developments in automotive software and application programming interface (API) design incorporate these new demands to assist advanced mobility services, business models, and autonomous driving for vehicle-to-cloud (V2C) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication driven by data interoperability. A generic data type and API used by online cloud services is essential to assist next generation mobility. This paper outlines the recent activities in the automotive industry related to vehicle API and service catalog for mobile applications and to incorporate them into established software vehicle platforms, such as adaptive AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture (AUTOSAR). Further, the vehicle signal specification (VSS) standard that is developed by the connected vehicle systems alliance (COVESA) is discussed and comprehensive data type and API design aspects that cover the vehicle's signals are introduced and the extended version hereof, the vehicle service catalog (VSC), is outlined. Finally, the realization of VSS/VSC related data types and interfaces are presented by utilizing a vehicle simulator tool in the laboratory.