IoV (internet of vehicle) technology

Event report

[Read more session reports from the WSIS Forum 2018]

The session, moderated by Mr Harry Li, Global Vision Media Technologies Co. Ltd, China, featured discussion on the use of electronic information technology in automobiles and transportation, and presented some of the latest progress in these fields.

Mr Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), started the session by congratulating all the participants of the WSIS Forum. In his short speech, he said that smart transportation, including smart vehicles, is an important topic of discussion within the context of smart cities, and can be an enabler of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Mr Feiyu Liu, vicepresident of Qiming Information Technology Co., Ltd, began his participation by saying that traditional auto manufacturers are transitioning to mobile travel service providers, and that the use of the Internet to improve the automotive value chain is becoming the key to the transformation of these companies. The main business of the Qiming company is to provide smart city services, such as smart travel and smart driving for government departments, enterprises, and individuals. He presented the QMAC platform (QiMing Automotive Cloud) and its architecture in five layers. The cloud infrastructure layer will use a data centre that is currently under construction. The SaaS Service Layer makes possible the interaction between users and the system. Liu said that China FAW (Chinese state-owned automotive manufacturing company) is developing a new generation intelligent network of automotive supplies by using the QMAC platform. QMAC was described as the first auto industry Internet platform with independent intellectual property rights, covering the entire automotive product life cycle in China. At the end of his speech, he talked about the vision of the company in creating the first IT brand in the automotive industry, enhancing the automotive industry Internet platform system capabilities, and the automotive industry chain enterprise data application service capabilities.

Mr Harry Li, Global Vision Media Technologies Co. Ltd, China, started his presentation by explaining some keywords such as NGB-W/S (Next Generation Broadcasting-Wireless/Satellite), and smart travel. According to him, there are four modernisations of the vehicle industry, these being electric power, intelligent networks, and sharing (both hardware and software). The ‘intelligentised’ modernisation is around automatic driving (high precision positioning system), and the infotainment system. From the network aspect, there are three scenarios: the vehicle internal network, the vehicle-to-vehicle network, and the vehicle-to-cloud network.

According to Li, the infotainment system is currently not user-friendly, and existing vehicle applications do not conform to usage habits and the actual situation in the vehicle. In addition, customers do not want to pay for vehicle data. Other problems are related to the network because the mobile communication network covers only 40% of land area, and it is therefore necessary to think about how the vehicle-cloud network can work without a mobile communication network.

Li said that to meet these challenges, it is necessary to have low costs for vehicle information data and streams, wide area network coverage by NGB-W/S, infotainment systems based on smart media, and intelligent engine, and infotainment management systems based on User ID, with multi-screen content relay between multi-networks. To face these challenges, two companies have emerged: Global Vision and Global Fusion. Global Vision is responsible for basic network operation with three channels to provide different services. Global Fusion is the business operator and provides various solutions for end-users, such as the cloud platform, hardware sharing, content sharing, and content aggregation of broadcast media. At the end of his speech, he said that using this technology, distance learning for poor areas alongside the road will also be provided.

Mr Chenwu Lyu, project manager of TIAA, China, started his participation by talking about TIAA, which was established in February 2010, in Beijing, and includes over 300 members and nearly 200 observers in fields of OEM, agricultural machinery, e-bikes, electronics, software, and communication and information services. TIAA is responsible for many activities including 6 annual conferences, 37 national working conferences, and 400 technical working groups, attended by more than 10 000 engineers and technicians. Lyu talked about the National Planning for the IoV Industry in China, based on four areas: the intelligent connected car, network communication, intelligent transportation, and the intelligent management of vehicles. The development of some standards that will be used to certificate businesses in the area of IoV forms part of this planning. He talked about two important projects in the unmanned agriculture and e-bike areas. Unmanned agriculture needs to redesign six traditional agricultural methods including plantation, fertilisation and harvesting. The e-bike project is working on the complete interfacing and protocol standardisation for electric bikes and smart charging. In closing, Lyu talked about the cooperation between China and European countries in testing some of the developed technologies.
 

By Nathalia Sautchuk Patrício