Get the Government Out of Vehicle Connectivity

Europe is trying to mandate an eCall automatic crash notification module in cars by 2017. Brazil is trying to mandate a vehicle tracking and immobilization module by 2016. The U.S. government is talking about mandating vehicle-to-vehicle communications at some point beyond 2017.

It is time to face the facts. No one wants the government in vehicle connectivity.

The latest indication of the folly of this apparent ‘movement” toward government intrusion into driving is the news reported by TelematicsWire that the United Kingdom’s Independent Garage Association is demanding access to any data made available by mandated vehicle connections in Europe - https://tinyurl.com/omx3d7l

The move by the IGA follows efforts by European insurance companies and automobile clubs to get access to the same vehicle data. But what the IGA is proposing goes beyond the Right to Repair laws passed in the state of Massachusetts in the U.S. promising independent dealer access to the diagnostic codes required to service increasingly sophisticated new cars.

The IGA wants access to any and all data that might indicate potential vehicle system failures. In other words, the IGA wants access to the kind of condition-based maintenance insights that auto makers may obtain from connected car systems in the event that those systems are based on the mandated hardware.

What the IGA is seeking actually makes sense. If the system is required by law, then this secure, open and interoperable system ought to be accessible to any and all service providers.

The IGA is concerned that a car maker will use its privileged access to vehicle data to limit independent third party access to its customers. In other words, the IGA fears that new car dealers that handle repairs will have the upper hand in identifying and tending to vehicle repairs before or as they happen.

This debate creates a conundrum for car makers, most of which have yet to determine whether or how to obtain diagnostic data wirelessly from their own cars. In other words, most OEMs are looking at wireless vehicle connections for delivering content or services. Few, so far, have worked out the vehicle diagnostic logistics necessary to better secure aftersales revenue opportunities.

The position of the IGA is a form of independent repair shop hysteria which has also been whipped up in the U.S. The crowning irony is that most OEMs have no plans to leverage the eCall module for diagnostic information and many consumers may not even want the device to be activated at all.

Getting data out of a car is trouble for car makers. Diagnostic data has “liability” written all over it. Diagnostic data can be used against a car maker if it is not properly handled or interpreted.

To open up diagnostic data, in real time, to the open market is an invitation to all kinds of intrusive customer interaction possibilities that no car company or consumer is interested in. It is the equivalent of having your personal health record – and daily blood pressure and other measurements – made publicly available in real time.

The IGA is absolutely correct in demanding access to this information – since the device will be a government-mandated piece of kit. And for that reason all government mandated vehicle connections – with the exception of toll or tax tags – should be abandoned.

Mandated vehicle connections are an unwarranted and unwanted invasion of privacy. They are an expensive disruption of the already fractured vehicle design process. They are invariably out of step with technology trends and impede technological progress. And they interfere with existing progress being made along a trajectory of making vehicles better connected with the environment and with other vehicles.

The good news is that as these mandates get closer to adoption the opposition to them continues to intensify from lobbying groups, consumers and other interested parties. (All of these mandates are promulgated entirely by governments or industry experts without any backing from consumers - ie. market demand.)

To this growing opposition add the never-ending technical hurdles and rising costs and the wisdom of abandoning these efforts altogether is clear. Brazil? US DOT? EU? Are you listening? Get out of the connected car business now!