Demonstrator for sustainable Automotive Services

Initial Situation

Increasingly Mobile Services find their way in the environment of modern cars. So called Automotive Services for the support and comfort of the driver get crucial for the customer as well as from the vendors’ perspective. Unfortunately availability as well as usability is currently decreasing as soon as the user wants to utilize the service within the car. This happens due to the limited scope within the infotainment deployment or due to the challenge of the interaction with a smaller or larger screen. Additionally, the seamless availability of data and services across diverse devices constitutes the basic prerequisite of user acceptance. Up to now information and communication technology (ICT) within the automotive industry has been mainly seen as supporter of business processes and activities for development, manufacturing, distribution and service. Through new challenges in the automotive domain, e.g., through connected cars (connecting cars among each other as well as with the infrastructure), ICT becomes more and more a key component of the product. Thus, ICT and especially Automotive Services become a part of the core business of the automobile infrastructure. This integration challenges the product life cycle in terms of shortened innovation phases and rapidly changing mobile service offers.

Project Aim

In cooperation with Audi (INI.TUM), the aim of this project is the development of a demonstrator for the sustainable environmental integration of Automotive Services into the value creation. By doing so, this project provides a first attempt to integrate the challenges that Automotive Services induce with regard to standardized processes. Through providing a framework of basic requirements, actual working practices need to follow only rudimentary parameters and can use the flexibility to produce creative and innovative ideas. Thus, we address the balance of predefined parameters (in from of quality attributes) and flexibility (in form of innovative approaches) within the Automotive Service domain. Therefore, quality attributes (scalability, integrity, adaptability, etc.) need to be identified, which have to be considered during the creation of mobile applications. The quality attributes form the basis for the integration of diverse Automotive Services and are used as predefined parameters. The planned project concludes with the development of a demonstrator and a use-case to show the balance between flexibility and the predefined parameters.

Realization

In the context of the Automotive Service Practical Course (ASP) 20 Students will work together in teams of 4. The course is coached by a team of 5 members of the Chair for Information Systems. Each of the student teams will get the task to develop an Automotive Service. Additionally, it will part of the task to consider one identified quality attribute. This attribute will be identified by the students with support of the teaching team and Audi. For a successful development those attributes have to be considered and each team is responsible for one of the quality attributes. In the context of the practical course the responsible team constitutes the counterpart for questions concerning their attribute. Contact persons of Audi will serve as experts who will help each team to identify relevant requirements, e.g. with interviews. Finally, patterns are derived which are necessary for a sustainable architecture and which build the basis for the demonstrator. The 5 acquired apps will be rated by a team of experts (consisting of Audi employees) during a final presentation.

Work Packages:

Requirements analysis and evaluation of existing approaches
Preparation and configuration of a model for sustainable architectures
Inclusion and evaluation of existing ICT
Evaluation and final documentation

Value

Through the preparation of a demonstrator for a sustainable architecture, Automotive Services will be processed independent from economies of scale and safety requirements for future integration in modern cars. Provided patterns will supply a universal structure for the seamless integration into the environment of the modern car. With respect to the balance of flexibility and predefined parameters, the demonstrator will provide a tool to make the grade. The demonstrator can thus enable the implementation of Automotive Services in a sustainable environment with regard to the identified quality attributes.

Stakeholder

Scientific Partners

Technische Universität München, Chair for Information Systems (Prof. Dr. Krcmar)