Digital Mobility Via Convergence of Consumer and Vehicular Application Data Spaces

Use of mobile consumer devices for vehicular entertainment and navigational applications is an emerging trend. Although number of such solutions are deployed in last three years, their ad hoc integration, and minimal access to vehicle’s internal functionality have put an upper bound on their capability and usability. In this paper we have presented a concept of the “ultimate convergence”, which enables a special class of consumer devices for automotive applications. Our novel approach utilizes the dual-boot technique to configure two application spaces called consumer and vehicular spaces. The device concept is jointly proposed by Ford Research & Advanced Engineering and University of Michigan-Dearborn. Our approach will enable the consumer to bring his or her everyday environment and experience into the vehicle thus providing a total convergence between shared consumer and vehicular data spaces. At the same time, the device has the potential to change the approach of the automotive OEM towards the implementation of the advanced consumer facing features. The paper describes the concept together with the assumptions that were made for the implementation of the device; the technical considerations as well as the range of opportunities, both technical and business-wise, that will become available with the introduction of the dual-boot device.