WCX17: IAV and HPE Showcase Connectivity Via Demo Car

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Nigel Upton (far left) and IAV's Lars Eggenstein stand beside the IAV/HPE connected BMW i3 demonstration vehicle at WCX17.

Messages that warn of a nasty pothole ahead or heavy rain falling two miles away are among a myriad of information possibilities for the future connected car.

Engineering services firm IAV and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are using a BMW i3 to demonstrate how advanced connectivity could influence future mobility.

“We see in the future that there will be a high demand for connectivity services to enhance higher levels, or even enable higher levels, of autonomous driving,” said Lars Eggenstein, Engineering Team Leader for Vehicle Systems at IAV Automotive Engineering.

Eggenstein and Nigel Upton, Universal Internet of Things General Manager at HPE, spoke with Automotive Engineering during SAE WCX17 from booth 3210, which features the BMW vehicle.

The intent of this joint project is to show that a set of user services can be compiled based on data from the connected car’s sensors.

In the demonstration, five different user services are illustrated. Explained Upton, “What we’re showing is that once you have connectivity and you have a platform that can ingest data, that data can be turned into something useful, like rain detection, pothole detection, or geo-fencing.”

The demonstration’s geo-fencing user service would provide an information alert relating to an upcoming border crossing. For instance, if the car were crossing from Germany into Austria, the alert would indicate relevant changes to the driving scenario, such as Austria’s mandatory daytime running lamp usage.

HPE’s Universal Internet of Things platform and an HPE Edgeline micro gateway are key to the demonstration vehicle’s advanced vehicle connectivity and systems management. The Universal IoT platform and the micro gateway essentially enable separate vehicle communication bus system data to be combined in a central in-car unit. The resulting connectivity environment means the car can handle communications with all of the vehicle’s bus systems and connect to surrounding external systems.

“If you talk about level 4 or level 5 autonomous driving, you will need [advanced] connectivity to enable certain kinds of functionalities,” Eggenstein said.