GM Pushes for Vehicle Software Standardization with uServices

General Motors Co. in Detroit today announced it is contributing a vehicle services definition called “uServices” to the automotive software developer community to standardize software interfaces.

The platform is a standardized interface and associated programming model that enables efficient development of distributed software required by Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) to securely access vehicle systems from anywhere in an OEM’s vehicle ecosystem.

GM is contributing uServices by joining the Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA), a global, member-driven alliance focused on the development of open standards and technologies that accelerate innovation for connected vehicle systems.

“General Motors intends to play a leading role in unifying a global community of creative developers while reducing the time it takes for the industry, from automotive manufacturers to suppliers, to develop and integrate these features,” says Frank Ghenassia, executive chief architect of software defined vehicles at GM.

“By sharing existing technologies now in production, GM hopes to accelerate the development of an ecosystem that we can leverage to integrate third-party software at reduced engineering cost. This, in turn, can help lower the cost for customers and reduce time to market while opening the door for customers to gain access to more applications.”

The automaker says the action complements its recent commitment to SDV standardization. In April, the company announced it would share uProtocol with the Eclipse Foundation, a standard with the potential to connect automotive applications and services everywhere — not just in GM products or in vehicles — but to create efficiency across phones and other devices talking to vehicles as well.

While uProtocol serves as the backbone for more efficient vehicle software development across the industry, uServices is meant to set standards for interfacing with vehicle features and communicating through that backbone, serving as a standard API to abstract vehicle services, enabling a unified connected vehicle ecosystem.

COVESA’s community brings extensive experience in the software services space. Introducing uProtocol and uServices across two organizations links strong areas of experience and drives more unified collaboration across a greater population of contributors.

“COVESA is very pleased to have GM as another global OEM actively contributing to our open-source community,” says Steve Crumb, executive director at COVESA. “uServices is a great addition to the growing set of open-source solutions hosted by COVESA and made openly available for enhancement and adoption among a growing number of automotive stakeholders.”

uServices was introduced to COVESA’s Data Expert workgroup during a meeting in July. GM will be contributing uServices to COVESA throughout October, continuing to add to the program as it is developed.