Israeli company Otonomo is making data from its connected car platform available for smart cities, including real-time traffic information and other technologies that improve the driving experience.
 
In addition to supporting personal services for BMW and Mini connected vehicles across the globe, Otonomo will also make crowd data available for innovative use cases that reduce city congestion and improve the driving experience.
 
Crowd data are now available from connected BMW and Mini vehicles in more than 44 countries, along with data from other automotive manufacturers. The data services platform increases the value of these data by reshaping them and enriching them so application and service providers can more quickly use them in their applications.
 
Use cases supported by this initiative include:

• Parking: Aggregated ultrasonic sensor data from BMW vehicles can be used to identify open parking spots and estimate parking availability. Services that use these data can decrease urban congestion and alleviate one of the most frustrating moments in drivers’ city trips.
• Urban planning for smart cities: The content and location of road signs detected by forward cameras from BMW advanced driver assistance systems enrich the understanding of traffic flows through urban environments and highways.
• Real-time intelligence: Real-time traffic information and navigation services and apps can use BMW data to highlight areas of congestion and help drivers find the fastest routes.
• Local hazard warning services: BMW local hazard data provide a way to alert drivers of dangerous road conditions – including heavy rain or dense fog – through mapping and navigation services. In addition, information on dynamic signage can issue warnings on slowdowns, slippery roads or ice.
• Mapping services: Road sign and ultra-sonic sensor data keep critical road information updated. These include speed limits shown on road signs and temporary road and speed changes caused by construction work.
• Municipal maintenance and road optimisation: Analytics can use BMW road sign data to identify signs that are missing or damaged and even trigger repair orders.

“Otonomo has long focused on building an ecosystem around car data that is open to many parties and inclusive for many use cases,” said Ben Volkow, CEO of Otonomo. “We’re excited to be able to expand this ecosystem with crowd data from BMW and Mini vehicles.”

BMW road sign data, traffic data, ultrasonic sensor data and hazard data are now available to service providers that are registered on the Otonomo platform.

The platform fuels an ecosystem of OEMs, fleets and more than 100 service providers. The neutral platform securely ingests more than two billion data points per day from over 20 million global connected vehicles, then reshapes and enriches them to accelerate time to market for new services.

With an R&D centre in, Israel, and a presence in the USA, Europe and Japan, Otonomo collaborated with twelve industries to transform their business with car data.