Audi, BMW and Mercedes cars to connect via advanced data sharing network

Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have entered into an agreement to supply Here, a connected car expert company that they jointly own, with real-time sensor data collected by their cars to enable systems to better understand their surroundings.

The deal marks the first time a trio of leading brands have agreed to share data, and could spell the beginning of a proper connected car industry. The technology will likely act as a catalyst to the rolling out of more autonomous technology.

“We’re showing for the first time how you can take the value of rich sensor data coming from a vehicle and use it to do things that positively impact safety and efficiency,” said Alex Mangan, Here’s product marketing manager for connected driving. “To make the most of connected systems, we all as an industry need each other. The cars need sensor data, and with this kind of agreement a Toyota vehicle, for example, can have an understanding of what the JLR car saw down the road if everyone's involved."

Mangan believes that with three of the world’s biggest car makers on board, others are more likely to follow. He said up until now, progress had been fairly slow.

“It’s an interesting time because every single OEM knows that in order to do the things they want to do, they need to share data,” he explained. “But when it comes to the actual implementation, they think they still need to differentiate, so their data isn’t immediately comparable.”

Mangan said that this is where the challenge for Here lies. “The data coming from a BMW 3 Series is very different from a BMW 5 Series, and then it’s even more different from an Audi and Mercedes.

“Normalising data sets is therefore a massive challenge. We have to do a lot of processing in the cloud, and then make sense of that so the systems can say there’s an actual hazard at this place at this time,” he said.

If more brands join into the agreement, the growth in available data will create a global cloud of information that, once normalised, will essentially act as an Internet of Things (IOT) for the automotive world.

“We don’t want to take over the world here, we want to help people put location context into their services," explained Mangan. "If that’s with IOT data, with vehicle data or with traffic management data, we’re interested.”

Here is an expert in multiple fields of data from a variety of industries. “The automotive industry is just one area, but it’s one of the most mature,” continued Mangan. “When we talk about IOT in other sectors, it’s something we can’t always implement right now. But with cars the use cases are better defined, so it’s a more mature conversation in automotive.

“There are not many companies that can do this on a global scale, and since understanding location is quickly becoming more and more important for so many devices, we’re sitting at the crux of such a unique time on this planet,” said Mangan. “Our ambition is that we can help make this world a safer, more efficient place, as well as more technologically relevant to people.”