Tackling fragmentation with a standard vehicle information API

Tina Jeffrey

Has it been a year already? In February 2013 QNX Software Systems became a contributing member of the W3C’s Automotive Web Platform Business Group, which is dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Web technologies in the auto industry. Though it took a while to rev up, the group is now in full gear and we’re making excellent progress towards our first goal of defining a vehicle information API for passenger vehicles.

The plan is to establish a standard API for accessing speed, RPM, tire pressure, and other vehicle data. The API will enable consistent app development across automakers and thereby reduce the fragmentation that affects in-vehicle infotainment systems. Developers will be able to use the API for apps running directly on the head unit as well as for apps running on mobile devices connected to the head unit.

Parallel processing
Let me walk you through our work to date. To get started, we examined API specifications from four member organizations: QNX, Webinos, Intel, and GENIVI. Next, we collected a superset of the attributes from each spec and categorized each attribute into one of several functional groups: vehicle information, running status, maintenance, personalization, driving safety, climate/environment, vision systems, parking, and electric vehicles. Then, we divvied up these functional groups among teams who worked in parallel: each team drafted an initial API for their allotted functional group before sharing it with the members at large.

Throughout this effort, we documented a set of API creation guidelines to capture the intent and reasoning behind our decisions. These guidelines cover details such as data representation, attribute value ranges and increments, attribute naming, and use of callback functions. The guidelines also capture the rules that govern how to grow or extend the APIs, if and when necessary.

Driving towards closure
In December the business group editors began to pull the initial contributions into a single draft proposal. This work is progressing and will culminate in a member’s face-to-face meeting mid-March in Santa Clara, California, where we will review the draft proposal in its entirety and drive this first initiative towards closure.

I’m sure there will be lots more to talk about, including next potential areas of focus for the group. If you're interested in following our progress, here’s a link to the draft API.

Enjoy!

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QNX and the W3C: setting a new standard

For almost two years, you’ve heard us talk about HTML5 in the car, particularly as it applies to the QNX CAR Platform for Infotainment. And now, we're taking the next step: working with the entire automotive community to develop a standard set of JavaScript APIs for accessing vehicle sensor information.

Andy Gryc (that’s me of course) and Adam Abramski (from Intel and representing GENIVI) are co-chairs in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Automotive and Web Platform Business Group. Yes, our group name is a mouthful. But the translation is that Adam and I are working with W3C group members to create a standard that everyone can agree on.

Between GENIVI, Tizen, Webinos, and QNX, four different APIs are in use today. So what’s the process? All of these APIs have been submitted to the W3C group members as contributions. Those contributions form the groundwork, creating a baseline for where we need to go. Collectively as a group, we need to merge these four APIs — figure out the commonalities and harmonize the differences to create a new standard that takes the best features of all the proposals.

This effort takes some time, but the group intends to complete a first draft by December this year. Either Tina Jeffrey (my colleague, who’s doing some of the heavy lifting) or myself will be posting our progress here, so keep an eye out for our updates!

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Report from Barcelona: first meeting of the W3C automotive business group

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the first face-to-face meeting of the W3C automotive business group and the honor of being nominated group co-chair. (The other co-chair is Adam Abramski, an open source project manager for Intel.) With more than 70 members, the group has already become the eight-largest group in the W3C, even though it is barely two months old. Clearly, it’s generating a lot of interest.

The meeting included three presentations and two contributions. I presented on the lessons we’ve learned with the QNX CAR platform, how we think the market is changing, and how these changes should drive HTML5 standardization efforts.

I presented my three “musts” for standardizing HTML5 in the car:

1. Must create something designed to run apps, not HMIs (unless HMIs come along for free)
2. Must focus on mobile developers as the target development audience
3. Must support integration of HTML5 environments with native environments like EB Guide and Qt

I described some of the changes that have resulted from the alignment of the QNX CAR platform with the Apache Cordova framework, and why they are crucial to our HTML5 work. Unfortunately, we didn't have our W3C contribution ready due to these changes, but members generally agreed that having a standard consistent with mobile development was an appropriate course change.

Tizen and GenIVI gave presentations about their vehicle APIs. Tizen has contributed its APIs, but GenIVI hasn't yet — still waiting on final approvals. Webinos contributed its APIs before the meeting, but didn’t deliver a presentation on its contribution; members had reviewed the Webinos work before the meeting.

The meeting was a great chance to sit down with people I don’t normally meet. Overall, the group is moving in the right direction, creating a standard that can help automakers bring the goodness of HTML5 into the car.

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Making your car a first-class citizen of the Web

Tina Jeffrey

Anyone who follows the latest ongoings of the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) may have heard today’s news: the launch of the Automotive and Web Platform Business group. We live in a connected world, and let’s face it, many of us expect access to our favorite applications and services while on the road. I see the formation of this W3C group as a huge step in the pursuit of marrying web technology and the automobile.

The business group will bring together developers, OEMs, automotive technology vendors — many of who, like QNX, were part of Web and Automotive Workshop held last November. The group allows us to continue the discussion and to define a vehicle data API standard for enabling automotive services via the Web. And this is just the start of greater things to come: standards for OTA (over-the-air) software updates, driver safety, security, and seamless integration of smart phones and tablets.

As a member of the QNX automotive team, I second my colleague Andy’s enthusiasm in the announcement in saying we’re extremely excited to be part of this group and the process of helping to define these standards for the industry.

Check out the W3C press release.

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Tina is an automotive product marketing manager at QNX Software Systems

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