An Edge for Automotive
The number of connected cars will grow to about 400M globally by 2025, and car data itself is projected to hold a value of $750 billion by 2030 – if it is used.
Already today, some connected cars produce over 25,000 MB of data every hour and this number is expected to grow for every car generation.
Obviously, this data should not and cannot all be sent to the cloud. Edge Computing, enabled by next-gen Edge Database ObjectBox, will be critical to curb high cloud costs, improve user experiences, ensure reliable, real-time response rates, and protect personal data while complying with increasing regulatory standards.
Major software challenges Automotive faces today
Increasing Car Data Volumes
Car data volumes are growing for every new vehicle generation
Cloud / MNO Costs & Dependencies
Vendor lock-in; reduction of MNO rates can‘t compensate for increasing data volumes
In-Vehicle Data Demand
Connected Car applications need high-speed in-vehicle / onboard data processing
Legacy Patchwork Systems
Breaks in the tech stack, legacy code, and custom solutions make data access hard
Onboard / offboard Data Access
Lacking onboard / offboard access to Connected Car data hinders innovation
New Data Standards
New data standards (like VSS) and therefore data structures need to be supported
ObjectBox solution for automotive data
Fast & Lightweight DB
Footprint only 1 MB and up to 90% less device resource use (e.g. power, CPU, memory on ECUs) for sustainable, high-speed data access.
Game-changing Data Sync
ObjecBox makes conected car data easily & quickly accessible onboard and offboard, when and where needed, for developers.
40% Cloud / MNO cost reduction
ObjectBox reduces data volumes for the same data transmission by 40%, saving cloud and MNO costs, cutting down CO2 emissions.
Easy native language APIs
Intuitive and fast to implement APIS developers lov for faster time-to-market and minimal maintenance efforts.
An Edge for Connected Cars
Easy access to car data, both, onboard and offboard, to empower developers to create premium digital driving experiences.
Sustainability and privacy by design
ObjectBox makes digitization projects more sustainable by reducing CO2 emissions both directly and indirectly.
The software defined vehicle (SDV)
Connected Cars software stack
As the emphasis in automotive shifts to software, so does its complexity. The complexity of software in today’s automobiles has long surpassed that of passenger planes (having 100 vs 15 Million lines of code). More interestingly, this number will continue to grow, likely reaching 300 Million by 2030. However, the prodictivity gains are not that quick to catch up, badly influencing time to market and the costs involved in car production. Another problem is that as vehicles become more connected, and send more data to the cloud, new security challenges arise.
ObjectBox is built to make the development process in automotive more productive and affordable. By using our intuitive language APIs, developers can work with the onboard car data when needed where needed quickly and reliably without having to deal with the challenges of data access of decentralized, intermittently connected devices. Designed for scale, developers don’t need to put in a lot of effort as the applications grow.
Importantly, ObjectBox’s new data architecture (edge-first) helps to solve data privacy and data security problems by keeping data locally on the car and only syncing – differentially – when needed. This brings a reduction of MNO costs and increased sustainability, reducing CO2 emmissions.
Automotive Software Growth: Today vs. Tomorrow
Complexity vs. Productivity in Development
As the emphasis in automotive shifts to software, so does its complexity. The complexity of software in today’s automobiles has long surpassed that of passenger planes (having 100 vs 15 Million lines of code). More interestingly, this number will continue to grow, likely reaching 300 Million by 2030. However, the prodictivity gains are not that quick to catch up, badly influencing time to market and the costs involved in car production. Another problem is that as vehicles become more connected, and send more data to the cloud, new security challenges arise.
ObjectBox is built to make the development process in automotive more productive and affordable. By using our intuitive language APIs, developers can work with the onboard car data when needed where needed quickly and reliably without having to deal with the challenges of data access of decentralized, intermittently connected devices. Designed for scale, developers don’t need to put in a lot of effort as the applications grow.
Importantly, ObjectBox’ new data architecture (edge-first) helps to solve data privacy and data security problems by keeping data locally on the car and only syncing – differentially – when needed. This brings a reduction of MNO costs and increased sustainability, reducing CO2 emmissions.
ObjectBox Next-Gen Connected Car Data Management
Offline-first onboard Car Data Management
Whenever you are driving, at some point you will be offline – for example, while on the move, in underground garages, or in remote areas. Therefore, Connected Cars necessitate offline-first capabilities. However, computing resources onboard are severely limited and have a significant impact on costs. That’s why ObjectBox is designed for high performance on resource-restricted devices such as onboard ECUs. With ObjectBox automotive applications always work, fast and reliably while being frugal on CPU and Memory.
Offline-first onboard Car Data Management
Whenever you are driving, at some point you will be offline – for example, while on the move, in underground garages, or in remote areas. Therefore, Connected Cars necessitate offline-first capabilities. However, computing resources onboard are severely limited and have a significant impact on costs. That’s why ObjectBox is designed for high performance on resource-restricted devices such as onboard ECUs. With ObjectBox automotive applications always work, fast and reliably while being frugal on CPU and Memory.
Efficient onboard and onboard / offboard Data Sync
Edge Computing has many benefits and with ObjectBox you can sync within any edge. Many use cases, however, need to access part of the data set at a central point, e.g. in the cloud. With ObjectBox Sync, data is synced differentially and exactly once. On top, the Data Sync is optimized for efficiency, effectively lowering the data transferal volume. You choose which data is synchronized and when. This keeps mobile networking and cloud costs affordable as projects scale.
Efficient onboard and onboard / offboard Data Sync
Edge Computing has many benefits and with ObjectBox you can sync within any edge. Many use cases, however, need to access part of the data set at a central point, e.g. in the cloud. With ObjectBox Sync, data is synced differentially and exactly once. On top, the Data Sync is optimized for efficiency, effectively lowering the data transferal volume. You choose which data is synchronized and when. This keeps mobile networking and cloud costs affordable as projects scale.
Sustainable digitization
Already feeling the drastic effect of our actions on the planet, we cannot wait any longer before starting to embed the sustainable mindset into everything we do… ObjectBox provides top speed with little power use and empowers developers to choose an efficient edge-first data architecture that lowers data transmissions, thus saving CO2 emmissions as well as battery and cloud costs.
Most users are not willing to share their personal data with auto manufacturers; in fact 90% of EU respondents in an FiA survey believed that vehicle data should belong to the vehicle owner or driver. ObjectBox allows developers to build apps that keep personal data with the user – enabling a personalized user experience without bringing data ownership into question.
Sustainable digitization
Already feeling the drastic effect of our actions on the planet, we cannot wait any longer before starting to embed the sustainable mindset into everything we do… ObjectBox provides top speed with little power use and empowers developers to choose an efficient edge-first data architecture that lowers data transmissions, thus saving CO2 emmissions as well as battery and cloud costs.
Most users are not willing to share their personal data with auto manufacturers; in fact 90% of EU respondents in an FiA survey believed that vehicle data should belong to the vehicle owner or driver. ObjectBox allows developers to build apps that keep personal data with the user – enabling a personalized user experience without bringing data ownership into question.
Connected Car Use Cases with an Edge
Car data needs to be stored in the car, onboard, on the “edge”. There are countless use cases for this data – from monitoring tire pressure to tracking driver behavior, there are thousands of real time data points which can be captured in cars to make cars smarter, safer, and more efficient. With ObjectBox, developers get fast and easy access to onboard car data across components as well as offboard, so they can build advanced Car applications unlocking the power of car data.
Collecting Test Drive Data
Automotive manufacturers complete extensive test drives with new vehicle models, during which they collect a wide range of data (from the car and smartphone). Currently, many car manufacturers send this test drive data directly to the cloud, to be processed and analyzed. However, based on these applications, manufacturers strive to deploy many of these functionalities with regular cars. This would enable them on one hand to monitor their cars on the road (anonymized) to e.g. inform future design based on actual user behavior, or detect anomalies that occur. On the other hand, they could also provide their customers with more insights into their cars and their driver behavior as well as provide them with additional features like predictive maintenance that would help everyone lower car break downs.
- Scale data collection and processing sustainably
- Real-time information and feedback for the driver
- Data Sync transfers data when the phone or car is back online
Carbon Footprint Calculator
In the past decade it has become clear the role that vehicle carbon consumption plays in greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, vehicle emission make up 29% of greenhouse gas emissions, and worldwide, vehicle emissions make up 72% of global transport emissions, which has seen an 80% rise in emissions between 1970-2010. Increasing consumer awareness and government regulation make a carbon footprint calculator a relevant tool. With ObjectBox you can reliably persist all needed data – on- and offline – in the vehicle, including speed, fuel level, kilometers travelled, ambient temperature, wiper sensor, altitude, and number of passengers. With this data you can calculate and track specific vehicle carbon footprint in the car. ObjectBox then takes care of synchronizing parts of the data that matter to a mobile phone and / or the cloud server of vehicle manufacturers.
- Track exact carbon emission footprint with accurate, real time data
- Edge applications can gather and analyze this data, summarizing data into useful summary
Tire Pressure Monitoring
Tire pressure is an important aspect of car maintenance that car drivers would love to be aware of all the time. Tire pressure is important to vehicle safety, because it affects vehicle handling and stability. Also, inappropriate tire pressure leads to tire wear and tire failures. Using edge computing, a small smart node can monitor tire pressure in the car. At regular intervals or when a significant change occurs, the node can send data to the car interface and/or the user’s smartphone notifying the driver of the change and advising on actions to take. Using defined specs, like these open source vehicle spec standards, vehicle manufacturers like BMW, Volvo, and Jaguar can model this data in a standardized way, opening up future use cases and data exchange as needed.
- Data is kept locally, driver is alerted when pressure is too low
- Using a digital twin, data can be updated a different intervals for different parts
Personalized Comfort Settings
Edge computing enables an amazingly broad range of use cases, including user experience use cases. Personalized seat settings – for example, how far forward the driver seat is, tension level, or back support – is data that is stored locally, on the edge, in the car seat. An app allow users to save and adjust their personal settings via their smartphone. Edge data storage and data synchronization keeps the data saved in the seat and on the app in sync – so when users get in the car they the ultimate comfort with minimal effort.
- Improves user experience
- Synchronization keeps both instances up-to-date
Roadworthiness
Roadworthiness tests are regularly carried out to reduce accidents, technical failure and to avoid excessive emissions. Roadworthiness of a vehicle can be determined by tracking a combination of data, including: tire pressure, oil level, coolant level, fuel level and/or battery status. By collecting and analyzing this combination of data with sensors on the edge, car owners can ensure that cars are in the best condition to drive, without having to take it to the shop.
- Standardized data makes regulation simpler
- Up-to-date data on roadworthiness keeps drivers safer
Mobility-as-a-Service
Mobility sharing is a service that includes ride-sharing, car-sharing, and even parking lot sharing. Multimodal navigation services provide end-to-end route guidance that use various modes of transportation and mobility sharing services information. Mobility-as-a-service will necessitate multiple types of real time information being shared in a timely and actionable manner between asset owners, service providers, and end-users; accordingly, edge computing processes necessary data on the edge, in real-time, while ObjectBox sync makes it available where needed, when needed.
- Real-time, up-to-date data, synchronized between providers
- Up-to-date data for queries or e.g. continuous location data
ObjectBox in a Nutshell
EFFICIENT EDGE DATABASE
ObjectBox is a high performance Connected Car Edge Database for resource-restricted embedded devices dealing with high data volumes. Single-digit CPU use, frogal on Memory, ACID compliant, <1MB footprint, superfast (see open source benchmarks).
Out-of-the-box data sync
ObjectBox syncs data between devices, e.g. ECUs, onboard and offboard, providing reliable access to car data when needed where needed. It’s super resource-efficient (CPU, Memory, energy, …), reducing cloud costs.
Why edge computing?
Edge Computing keeps data local, and makes data storage and processing: sustainable, efficient, real-time, offline, and secure. We believe Edge Computing is the future of computing, and we aren’t the only ones.
Why ObjectBox rocks
* A fast database = business value, save expense and time
* Our solutions are super-fast. Seriously. Benchmark us (please)
* We support all kinds of devices and platforms (details)
* We’re pretty fun to work with
Reach out and let’s collaborate.
In Depth: Automotive Edge Computing Case Studies
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Edge Computing delivers fast access to data on the edge, empowering modern infrastructure projects. In the context of car tolling, data speed, reliability and easy access are indispensable.
ObjectBox — the database for Connected Cars
