A safe and fair concept for vehicle data

Vehicle data is an important source for innovations, new services and business models related to cars. With the "Automotive Data Access, Extended and Open" (ADAXO) concept, the VDA has presented a procedure that, also in the interest of consumers, bundles and protects valuable information and secures the vehicle against manipulation.

A modern car generates 25 gigabytes of data in just one hour. This way, the vehicle owners themselves, the car manufacturers and the supplier industry as well as other interested companies receive valuable information about the vehicle.

What is missing today, however, is a uniform framework that regulates the storage, backup and use of this information. To this end, the VDA and its members have developed a procedure that meets all of these requirements: The "Automotive Data Access, Extended and Open" concept, ADAXO for short, enables secure and fair use of data along the entire value chain.

The issues of security and data protection are our top priority. For example, the vehicle owners are first asked to consent to the transfer of sensitive data. Of course, the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union also applies to data access (you can find out more about this in the text below).

From the time data is generated in the vehicle to new data-based services for customers, this framework defines how and which data flows on platforms and can be processed further. The objective is the broad, manufacturer-independent availability of data.

It is useful for vehicle owners if parameters from the areas of service and maintenance are recorded. Two practical examples: Every day, people have to deal with a wide variety of weather conditions while driving. Fog, heavy rain and black ice can be dangerous for the passengers. If a driver finds himself in such a situation, the data is recorded using the ADAXO process, secure data transmission enables immediate warnings for other road users in the region and alternative routes are offered. This significantly increases road safety.

You can find out how the ADAXO procedure specifically helps in dangerous situations when driving and get further information on the concept in the video:

ADAXO also promotes comfort: If e.g. the warning message "decreasing tire pressure" appears immediately while driving, the driver can access additional information such as about roadside assistance or local dealers and workshops in the area. They get this information from their own vehicle manufacturer as well as from other service providers depending on their choice.

Important for users: They are asked in advance to agree to the exchange of data. This ensures that only data for the desired services is released. In this case, the system in the vehicle can independently call for roadside assistance and transmit additional vehicle data such as location, owner's name and license plate number.

Another advantage of ADAXO relates to the area of data protection: The interface is ISO-certified, so compliance with the highest safety standards is guaranteed for the data of the occupants and the vehicle. The process also ensures that data access is governed by appropriate business-to-business agreements while also complying with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. The integrity of the interface also increases overall vehicle safety, since sensitive vehicle functions are protected from external manipulation.

Other individual solutions for data requirements that are already available on the market quickly lead to an almost unmanageable variety of data accesses. The reason for this can be the numerous interfaces in the vehicle, which increase security risks and access difficulties.

In contrast, the ADAXO concept only provides a single common interface through which data generated in the vehicle is made available. The vehicle owners are thus protected against additional and unsafe extensions that are subsequently implemented in the vehicle and for which responsibility is not clearly regulated. You can use the app mentioned or a display in the vehicle to see at any time which data transmissions you have opted for and adjust them if necessary. For customers, this means maximum transparency and control over their data.

Car manufacturers and suppliers, in turn, receive fundamental knowledge about the vehicles and can not only develop new products more quickly, but also more individually. Third-party providers are thus able to provide various services. The license conditions Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory, FRAND for short, are the common rules of the game for all those involved in this data market.

Manufacturers, suppliers, service providers and of course the customers urgently need a uniform regulation for the management of the data collected in the vehicle. Using the ADAXO concept the automotive industry may ensure data security for customers, fair sharing of data with service providers and secure vehicle operation.

ADAXO is the blueprint for a European regulation of data management in the automotive sector, which the European Commission intends to present in the near future. The Commission has already asked various stakeholders, associations and interest groups for their opinions. ADAXO can therefore be the solution for the whole of Europe - and thus exploit the potential of digitization in road traffic across borders.