Huawei, Groupe PSA Debut DS 7 Crossback Connected Car
One of China’s biggest telecommunications equipment and services providers has teamed up with Europe’s second-largest car manufacturer, Groupe PSA, to launch the DS 7 Crossback, a connected crossover vehicle.
The DS 7 Crossback, the first vehicle to use Groupe PSA’s Connected Vehicle Modular Platform (CVMP), debuted at the Hannover Messe 2018 in the Germany city, and comes equipped with Huawei’s OceanConnect Internet of Things (IoT) platform and cloud services supported by the firm.
Groupe PSA noted this joint project would ultimately be rolled out to all group vehicles, which are sold under the Peugeot — the group’s largest brand worldwide — as well as the Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands.
Launched this month in China, the DS 7 Crossback lets customers access services such as connected navigation, natural language voice recognition and a connected service portal through the vehicle’s dashboard screen.
In addition, the vehicle’s maintenance status and the history of journeys and driving styles are also accessible from the customer’s smartphone –additional services for private customers and fleet managers will be added in the future.
OceanConnect is an IoT ecosystem developed by Huawei’s Cloud Core Network, a unified, open and cloud-based platform that allows for connections using SIM and non-SIM cards and supports connection management.
The platform has already been deployed for Huawei connected car projects and with partners such as FAW Qiming and Zain Saudi Arabia.
The platform supports mainstream IoT standards and function implementation, and complies with the JT/T 808 standard in the connected car space.
Additional potential features deployed over OceanConnect and through Groupe PSA’s CVMP include infotainment services; remote software updates and navigation mapping remote vehicle diagnostic and maintenance functions; and services aimed at car hire companies, fleet managers and carsharing operators.
Part of Huawei’s strategy is driven by the digital transformation that many car manufacturers are undertaking. In order to achieve this, these companies need to build their vehicles on top of a cloud platform to provide an array of services to customers.
Based on that platform, OEMs such as Groupe PSA, application ecosystem developers and other industry partners can partner to jointly sell vehicle products and services and provide personalized travel services to car owners and users.
With the public generally wary as to the security of their data passing through connected car platforms, Huawei briefly touched on cybersecurity concerns in a company statement, noting all digital interactions between the car and the cloud are secure.
The company claims customer and car data are encrypted, and guarantees the integrity, authenticity and confidentiality of the data, though it’s likely consumers in the West will want more specific details in the future.
As part of Huawei’s connected vehicle platform, car manufacturers can control core technological and data assets through the basic architecture, and the platform also provides predictive maintenance, advanced driver assistant system (ADAS) analysis and artificial intelligence services such as a personal assistant.
For its part, Groupe PSA recently became a founding member — and the first automaker — of the Prairie Institute alongside Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Nokia Bell Labs, joining forces with CNRS, Inria and PSL University to study artificial intelligence.
