BMW Group and Amazon Web Services have agreed a strategic collaboration that they say will see the companies develop innovative cloud technologies together with the aim of harnessing the data potential of future vehicle generations to maximum effect.
The two companies are also cooperating to develop commercial off-the-shelf cloud solutions for securely managing vehicle data, and they say the collaboration marks a continuation in the two companies’ work together in the area of connected vehicles, which started in 2015. As in all previous collaborations, the BMW Group retains full and exclusive control of data and complies with the data protection regulations applicable in the respective markets.
BMW’s connected fleet currently numbers some 20 million vehicles in over 50 countries. The carmaker says today, its connected fleet already sends around ten billion enquiries to the backend every day. Vehicle data and the way it is interlinked with the cloud form the basis for customer functions such as the My BMW App, driver assistance functions, charging-optimised route guidance, over-the-air updates and hazard detection out on the road. Vehicle data is essential for the company too, as it is used for dedicated purposes, including improving and enhancing customer functions, quality management and after-sales processes.
BMW says that, in order to keep pace with the rapidly growing number of connected vehicles, it set up a central access point for internal users of vehicle-generated data in 2017, and in doing so took steps to ensure that customer data is protected and securely processed in accordance with data privacy requirements by means of established processes – across all the markets in which the company operates. In this latest collaboration, the BMW Group will again retain exclusive control of data. AWS provides cloud infrastructure and services without access to or insight into data generated by the BMW Group’s connected vehicle fleet.
Nicolai Krämer, Vice President Vehicle Connectivity Platforms commented, “We already have around 20 million extensively connected vehicles on the road today. When the ‘Neue Klasse’ is launched, our offboard cloud platform, powered by AWS, will process roughly triple the volume of vehicle data compared to the current generation of BMW models. Together with AWS, we will continue to create innovative solutions, allowing us to develop new, data-driven functions and make them available to customers faster.
BMW adds that, in the future, a self-service portal will enable its developers working on data-driven improvement of customer functions, for example, to obtain the necessary data on demand with just a few clicks. It says through the use of AWS services and with reliable infrastructure in place, the portal will operate efficiently and smoothly, allowing group engineers and data experts to focus entirely on data content and quality. In addition, data is also made available to third parties — subject to customer consent — for possible applications (information on BMW and MINI CarData).
(Picture – BMW)
