EU Data Act Project

We propose to cooperate within COVESA on proposing open standards for interoperability of data processing services.

COVESA is well-positioned to host a collaborative project, in three phases, during which:

• Phase 1 (Understanding): A combined understanding of the legislative requirements can be reached, perhaps in active collaboration with the activities of ACEA, the German VDA and other relevant bodies.

• Phase 2 (Evaluate): An objective evaluation of Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) against those requirements.

• Phase 3 (Design and Deliver Proposal): To the extent VSS meets the requirements, a set of proposals based on OEM-consensus delivered to the automotive industry broadly and specifically to the Commission.

A successful outcome of this activity will be a clear understanding of how VSS meets - or falls short of meeting - legislative requirements of the Act. Should VSS meet the requirement, then a positive outcome would be active OEM adoption as part of the short- or long-term compliance to the requirements. A likely side benefit may be that VSS evolves to be a better solution for OEMs complying to the Act.

The proposed goals of the collaboration project are:

1. Gain a consistent, industry-wide understanding of Data Act requirements, in collaboration with ACEA, German VDA and others.

2. Evaluate VSS against that consistent understanding

3. Recommend, develop and deliver OSS specifications from which OEMs can evaluate their respective compliance strategy such as:

   1. Commit to data schema format (VSS or similar) - Payload structure - Use VSS YAML format.

   2. Commit to secure data transmission mechanism from cloud to user / third party - VISS or similar

   3. Commit to common baseline vehicle data specification/description (VSS or similar) to be adopted and extended by OEMs as they see fit. (content of VSS file). E.g. vehicle speed is described and transmitted the same way for all OEMs.

   4. Determine consent management process, taking into account OEM, 3rd party, user and government perspectives

   5. Explore interaction of data transfer mechanisms with Consent Management process.

Background (EU Data Act)

During 2025 and 2026 EU Data Act (EUDA) Legislation will start to come into effect, and the automotive industry needs to prepare. OEMs and suppliers, selling vehicles in Europe, including several COVESA members, need to understand the compliance requirements and determine their own course of action in a relatively short period of time.

In the regulation Article 30 and 35, discussion on interoperability and EU centralized repo for standards which refers to having standards for automotive as well. The motivation is to have a common standard for automotive and VSS could be the proposed standard for automotive.

Regulation link : Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023 on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive (EU) 2020/1828 (Data Act)

Reference to Article 30 (3)

Each OEM will have to analyze the implications of the EUDA and implement solutions accordingly.

However, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) has commissioned a study on “interoperability of data processing services”. The ambition is to set up a centralized repository of standards to be used for interoperability according to the article 30 above. There is a high likelihood that this will drive unified standards for e.g. exchanging vehicle data with Insurance companies.

Disclaimer

Specifications created by the project does not guarantee that it will be implemented by an OEM.

Vehicle data capabilities are dependent on the configuration of a vehicle. We are not defining any vehicle requirement.