Anatomy of Connected Cars

[Abstract] The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US and the European Commission are drafting a regulatory framework that will make the goal of connected vehicles possible by 2020. Control, embedded systems, and communication technologies have developed over the past 10 plus years and are approaching maturity. These will spark a revolution in how we approach driving. Cars will no longer need human drivers; they will be connected and exchange information about navigation, road hazards, traffic conditions, and safety. Travelers will be connected more than ever. Today’s car will become tomorrow’s office and the act of driving will become a leisure activity rather than a necessity. The emerging Internet of Vehicle enables application scenarios unimaginable just few years ago. The main challenges are Internet access spectrum scarcity, mobility, intermittent connectivity and scalability. In this article, we discuss the evolution from intelligent vehicle grid to autonomous, internet⁃connected vehicles and vehicular cloud.

[Keywords] connected vehicles; Internet of Vehicles; name data networking