Mass market telematics test starts in Europe

LEUVEN, Belgium -- ACUNIA, a pioneer in the emerging automotive telematics industry, is playing a key role in Europe's Third Generation Telematics (3GT) project. The 3GT project runs from June 2002 through November 2003 and is supported by the EC Information Society Directorate General.

The project will be developed through a series of workshops and on-site development programs at automotive OEMs in Europe. Deliverables will include a set of standard specifications for the European telematics mass market. The first workshop was held last week at the European ITS organization ERTICO in Brussels.

ACUNIA will provide its telematics expertise to the project and will deploy its ACUNIA OTF middleware- management software at all five automotive OEMs test-sites in Europe.

Telematics, which blends computer and wireless telecommunications technologies, is becoming a major value-added feature in the automotive industry. While only a small percentage of new cars sold in Europe are telematics-enabled today, industry analysts project that one-third will be telematics-capable within the next five years.

Standardized architecture

ACUNIA is well known for the development of the ACUNIA Open Telematics Framework (OTF), a standardized architecture that offers an integrated and transparent way of distributing telematics services to and from vehicles. ACUNIA's latest product is its XINGU technology. In the automotive version, it offers a fully-tailored telematics processing environment that meets application needs, from basic navigation services to more advanced luxury services such as downloadable customized music systems and on-board concierge services.

Industry analysts say that in order to bring telematics to the mass market, some key issues need to be solved so telematics services can be delivered in a cost-efficient way. Many of these issues involve interoperability standards at various levels:

▪ On vehicle level: standards are being established by organizations like AMI-C (Automotive Multimedia Interface Collaboration) and MOST.

▪ On the level of the local service life cycle management: OSGi (Open Service Gateway initiative) handles this.

▪ On the operator level: how to manage the terminal gateway, the services and the users? This is the area that 3GT will standardize. 

Third Generation Telematics

3GT aims to establish a standard telematics service delivery platform built on top of the existing standards. It will define common interfaces for OSGi-based telematics service delivery. The key objectives of the 3GT project are:

▪ Develop OSGi-based specifications for the interfaces between service providers, service aggregators and in-vehicle terminals.

▪ Test and validate these specifications at five European test sites, i.e. Gothenburg, Munich, Paris, Russelsheim and Turin.

▪ Propose these specifications be considered as an open standard by the relevant standardization bodies 

"3GT goes one step further in defining telematics APIs," said Peter Van der Perre, Project Manager ERTICO. "It includes practical telematics deployments at multiple OEM sites throughout Europe, ensuring early acceptance. Having partners like ACUNIA with experience in telematics deployments, adds a lot of value to the overall results of the 3GT project."

In addition to ACUNIA, the 3GT consortium includes ERTICO as coordinator; vehicle manufacturers including BMW, C.R.F., Adam Opel, FIAT, Peugeot Citroen Automobiles, and Volvo Technological Development; and other suppliers and organizations including Robert Bosch, Ericsson Microwave Systems, Gatespace, Mizar Mediaservice, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Vodafone Passo, Webraska Mobile Technologies and WirelessCar.

There is also an open project forum established with other leading telematics players. The members of the project Forum will be involved at key stages of the project to strengthen the validation of the architecture and the specifications.

ACUNIA develops and commercializes enabling software and hardware solutions for next-generation telematics service management and deployment. Headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, the company employs about 90 people worldwide. The company's U.S. subsidiary, ACUNIA Inc., has an office in Cambridge, Mass. ACUNIA, through its business unit ACUNIA Embedded Solutions, develops and commercializes hardware solutions, of which XINGU 8000 Series is the newest product line.