(Interior of Toyota Highlander. Source: Toyota.)
OCTO Telematics (London), a global provider of telematics and data analytics solutions for the auto insurance industry will develop a non-proprietary protocol for telematics data collection, within the in-vehicle Java Virtual Machine (JVM) environment.
“Knowing that the top car manufacturers in the industry have chosen Java, OCTO is investing in setting the industry standard to advance the development of connected cars and ensure integration across the entire telematics sector,” an Octo statement says.
OCTO asserts that the resulting software layer will provide a path to standardization for connected cars. The vendor says that it will also enable better integration of insurance and fleet functionalities within the Java community already used by the world’s leading auto manufacturers, to facilitate data transfer from in-car sensors.
Jonathan Hewett, CMO, OCTO Telematics.
the vendor statement asserts that the new data collection protocol will enable consistent high quality data collection and enhance driving analytics across all Java-based on-board units, including those delivered by leading global auto manufacturers. As a result, the standard will help to accelerate auto innovation with an approach that offers openness, tailoring and scale, enabling car manufacturers to more easily deliver cutting-edge connected car technology to their customers, the vendor claims.
“Until now there has been no standard way to extract telematics data from vehicles,” comments Jonathan Hewett, CMO, OCTO Telematics. “As the first non-proprietary telematics library within the Java community, this new software stack will provide car manufacturers with the fastest way to integrate insurance and fleet telematics services, for the benefit of all connected users.”
Launched Planned for May 2017
OCTO reports that related framework development is already underway, and that the vendor will launch a pilot in November 2016 to build a proof of concept in collaboration with an as-yet unnamed car manufacturer. The vendor says the final standard will be launched to the Java community in May 2017.
“To date, car manufacturers have used Java across a number of verticals, but never for insurance telematics,” the OCTO statement claims. “This new software layer, as the world’s first Java telematics protocol, will be of great value to car manufacturers enabling them to introduce integrated insurance telematics and value-added propositions.”
The Java environment will offer a universal way to extract data from telematics sensors inside a vehicle, and thus this launch of a common telematics data protocol framework will benefit telematics providers and car manufacturers across the world, OCTO says.