Providing extensible mobile services to car owners based on on-board-diagnostics

Abstract

Based on data fetched via the On-Board- Diagnostics interfaces of cars, a comprehensive solution was created to provide functionality like automatically maintained driver’s logbooks within a mobile phone application. Advanced on-board hardware modules and a dynamic client/server architecture allowed the design and implementation of an extensible system with optional integration of third-party software and infrastructure. This includes a mobile phone application which can be extended with new functionality according to customer configuration settings and payments. The project posed challenges like time and location independent availability, privacy and security issues, the dynamic extension of mobile applications with platform-independent code, and also economic restrictions. This paper contains a description of these challenges, the technologies and concepts explored and utilized, and the final system architecture and implementation decisions taken during product development. First experiences gained during deployment and commercialization already show the aptitude of the system and the impact of the design decisions taken.