Re: [Minutes] Auto WG 2019-08-13

Apparently there is some confusion from those in the recipients' list
who have read these minutes that I will try to clear up. 

VW made an updated Member Submission to their ViWi protocol. A W3C
Member Submission is not a standard but a conversation starter as
described on our submission page.

https://www.w3.org/Submission/

Their earlier submission was received before the group rechartered. In
that charter the group is tasked with creating a set of next generation
specification drawing upon VISS and the submission that includes REST
and can handle addition services besides vehicle signals.

https://www.w3.org/auto/charter-2018#deliverables

Some use cases on the vehicle would not require an open web socket
subscription connection but need to only poll certain static
information or current representation of a handful of signals. For
applications interacting indirectly with a vehicle by way of the cloud,
REST also makes sense. Sockets are particularly useful for in-vehicle
data sampling and dynamic client applications such as for the dashboard
itself. For large data stores and interacting with this information in
the aggregate people should be looking at the ontology on VSS (VSSo)
and Graph.

http://automotive.eurecom.fr/vsso

The group struggled to try to combine the two approaches (VISS and
ViWi) and ended up with largely a clean solution with influences from
both, probably moreso VISS which is facilitated by that being a rather
simple yet for certain purposes quite efficient spec. We spent
considerable time having feature by feature discussions.

The group is resolved in their commitment of the underlying data model
VSS for vehicle signals. VISS, the as yet unnamed Gen2 and ViWi are all
frameworks/protocols for accessing data models. Gen2 and ViWi in
particular are intended for data models besides VSS for other potential
services to expose for an in-vehicle application ecosystem. The intent
is to expose other services in the vehicle for other data models for
things like media, notifications, mixer, navigation.

Gen2 is progressing slowly, some of that was in part because of a lack
of mutual understanding of how the generic data model should be
defined. That was resolved at our last face to face meeting and
subsequent refinement of terminology. What has also slowed progress is
not enough editors. One of our two principal editors has changed
employment but fortunately remaining in the group.

Of the OEM present in the group it is not presently clear their
interest in Gen2 as I conveyed on the call. One is clearly using ViWi,
a couple VISS although differently and the other primarily interested
in establishing the VSS data model. I and others are actively
endeavoring to encourage adoption of this data model in other standards
efforts lacking one. That is showing some promise with liaison
agreements pending votes.

The updated VW submission is prompting a circular conversation in the
group but one worth having. Can ViWi adequately accommodate VSS? How
much would it need to change to do so. It provides REST although some
would like to see sockets improved for subscriptions as done in VISS.
It is in production vehicles across VW's brands, implemented by AGL and
being used in cloud by JLR. The group is taking another look at the
technical feasibility and simply exploring the possibility. Before any
dramatic decision, we would encourage participants to get clear
positions from their organizations.

I am willing to discuss with anyone on the list and/or their managers.
If there is broader interest in Gen2 other than what is known, please
make that clear and encourage your organization to take a more active
role.

On Wed, 2019-08-14 at 10:19 -0400, Ted Guild wrote:
> https://www.w3.org/2019/08/13-auto-minutes
> 
> htmldiff URI I said I would construct on the call.
> 
> 
https://services.w3.org/htmldiff?doc1=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FSubmission%2F2016%2FSUBM-viwi-protocol-20161213%2F&doc2=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FSubmission%2F2019%2FSUBM-viwi-protocol-20190718%2F
> 
-- 
Ted Guild <ted@w3.org>
W3C Automotive Lead
http://www.w3.org