Automotive Working Group Charter

The mission of the Automotive Working Group is to develop Open Web Platform specifications for HTML5/JavaScript application developers enabling Web connectivity through in-vehicle infotainment systems and vehicle data access protocols. The API is agnostic with regard to the connection used.

Join the Automotive Working Group

End date	September 2016
Confidentiality	Proceedings are Public
Initial Chairs	Paul Boyes, OpenCar Adam Abramski, Intel
Initial Team Contacts (FTE %: 20)	Kazuyuki Ashimura (10%), Ted Guild (10%)
Usual Meeting Schedule	Teleconferences: topic-specific calls can/may be held Face-to-face: we will meet during the W3C's annual Technical Plenary week with other additional F2F meetings may be scheduled on an as needed basis

Scope

The group will develop APIs to expose vehicle data and information from an automotive network bus(es) (e.g. MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) or CAN (Controller Area Network)) to a Web application. The APIs will expose information like the vehicle brand, model, year, fuel type, transmission type, steering wheel position, tire pressure, oil level, wiper position, lights, doors, windows and seat settings as well as navigation, trip computer data, climate control data, speed, rpms, acceleration, gears and other vehicle sensors.

As the variety and types of information that are generated from vehicles varies from OEM (car manufacturer) to OEM it is expected that this specification will be broken into two parts: a Vehicle Information Specification containing durable, unchanging access methods for obtaining vehicle information; and a Vehicle Data Specification to specify agreed upon standardized data elements as well as the method for extending data elements to OEM specific elements. Initially these specifications will be limited to passenger vehicles. How an implementation obtains this data is not in the scope of the group.

The specification(s) produced by this Working Group will include security and privacy considerations. The APIs developed by this group may use a different security model than the traditional browser security model.

Members of the Working Group should review other working groups' deliverables that are identified as being relevant to the Working Group's mission.

Success Criteria

To advance to Proposed Recommendation, each specification is expected to have two independent implementations of each feature defined in the specification(s). The implementation(s) should demonstrate the interoperability between them such that the web application running on either implementation should render the same data and data values with the same functionality.

Out of Scope

This Working Group will not define or mandate implementation details including vehicle, network or sensor protocols for sharing data between the vehicle data network and sensors. The vehicle data bus network and protocols are OEM specific and vary from vehicle to vehicle.

However, to facilitate interoperability among vehicle OEMs and encourage adoption of the API, the group may informatively reference existing suites of protocols, either directly in the Vehicle API deliverable(s) or in a non-normative companion Note.

Deliverables

Recommendation-Track Deliverables

The working group will deliver at least the following specification:

Vehicle Information & Vehicle Data APIs: There are two API specification reports that when combined together allow a web application to request vehicle data from the vehicles network bus and sensors.The vehicle data represents a large amount of data but not all of the data a vehicle has since the data can differ from model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer. The initial version of these documents will be copied from the Automotive and Web Platform Business Group Final Report(s) produced by the W3C Automotive and Web Platform Business Group. Further modifications (if any) will be decided upon by this Working Group.

The working group may decide to group the API functions in one or more specifications as they see fit.

Other Deliverables

Use cases and requirements: The Working Group is strongly encouraging the participants to create and maintain a use cases and requirements document for each specification.
Implementation guidelines: To facilitate interoperability among different vehicle OEMs and encourage adoption of the API, the group may provide informative guidelines for implementors, either directly as informative notes within the Vehicle Information API or in a separate non-normative group Note.
Test suite: A comprehensive test suite for all features of a specification is necessary to ensure the specification's robustness, consistency, and implementability, and to promote interoperability between User Agents. Therefore, each specification must have a companion test suite, which should be completed before transition to Candidate Recommendation, and which must be completed with an implementation report before transition to Proposed Recommendation. Additional tests may be added to the test suite at any stage of the Recommendation track, and the maintenance of a implementation report is encouraged.

Other non-normative documents may be created for each specification, for example:

Primers
Non-normative schemas for language formats
Non-normative group notes

Milestones

Milestones
Specification	FPWD	LC	CR	PR	Rec
Note: The group will document significant changes from this initial schedule on the group home page (link to be added once group approved).
	Q1 2015	Q3 2015	Q1 2016	Q3 2016	Q3 2016

Dependencies and Liaisons

Liaisons

The Working Group expects to maintain contacts with at least the following groups and Activities within W3C (in alphabetical order) and ask for reviews of deliverables where appropriate:

Automotive and Web Platform Business Group: This group developed the initial version of the Vehicle Information & Vehicle Data APIs and will likely continue to explore new use cases and other automotive and web related topics like Speech.
Device APIs Working Group: The Device APIs Working Group defines the Network Service Discovery API that addresses some of the use cases that are in scope of the Automotive Working Group.
Geolocation Working Group: The Geolocation Working Group is continuing to work on access to the user's location information via standardized interfaces with mechanisms to obtain the user’s consent as needed. The Working Group's scope now includes the addition of geofencing capability, and the development of use cases and requirements for indoor location enhancements to the Geolocation API.
Privacy Interest Group: The Automotive API Working Group intends to secure reviews on its deliverables from the Privacy Interest Group to ensure they offer the right level of protection to users.
Speech API Community Group: This Speech API Community Group will enable web developers to incorporate scripts into their web pages that can generate text-to-speech output and can use speech recognition as an input for forms, continuous dictation and control.
System Applications Working Group: The System Applications Working Group is to define a runtime environment, security model, and associated APIs for building Web applications with comparable capabilities to native applications.
Technical Architecture Group (TAG): The Automotive WG will ask the Technical Architecture Group to review some set of its specifications.
Web Accessibility Initiative Protocols and Formats Working Group: To ensure the Vehicle Information and Data APIs support accessibility requirements, particularly with regard to interoperability with assistive technologies, and inclusion in the deliverable of guidance for implementing the group’s deliverables in ways that support accessibility requirements. The PFWG will also coordinate review from the Mobile Accessibility Task Force.
Web & Mobile Interest Group: The Automotive API Working Group intends to develop APIs suitable for use on mobile devices connected to passenger vehicles, and will thus seek reviews from the Web & Mobile Interest Group.
Web Applications Working Group: This group defines relevant or potentially relevant specifications including Web IDL, HTML5 Web Messaging and The Web Socket API.
Web Application Security Working Group: The Web Application Security Working Group is developing security and policy mechanisms to improve the security of Web Applications and enable secure cross-site communication.
Web Notifications Working Group: The Web Notification Working Group works on OS-independent APIs for exposing platform-level notification mechanisms to Web applications.
Web Security Interest Group: The Automotive API Working Group intends to secure reviews on its deliverables from the Web Security Interest Group to ensure they offer the right level of security.

External Groups

The following is a tentative list of external bodies the Working Group should collaborate with:

GENIVI Alliance: The GENIVI Alliance is an automotive initiative that uses Linux and open source technology to define an automotive infotainment system that would adopt the APIs developed in this Working Group.
Automotive Grade Linux (AGL): Automotive Grade Linux is a collaborative open source project developing a common, Linux-based software stack for the connected car and part of The Linux Foundation.
AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture): AUTOSAR is an open and standardized automotive software architecture, jointly developed by automobile manufacturers, suppliers and tool developers.

Participation

To be successful, the Automotive Vehicle API Working Group is expected to have 10 or more active participants for its duration, and to have the participation of industry leaders in fields relevant to the specifications it produces.

Effective participation to Automotive Vehicle API Working Group is expected to consume one fifth of a full-time employee for each participant and two fifths of a full-time employee for editors. Chairing the group is expected to take two fifth of a full-time employee. This Working Group will also allocate the necessary resources for building Test Suites for each specification.

Communication

Teleconferences will be conducted on an as-needed basis.

This group primarily conducts its work on the public mailing list public-automotive@w3.org. Administrative tasks may be conducted in Member-only communications.

Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Automotive Working Group home page.

Decision Policy

As explained in the W3C Process Document (section 3.3), this group will seek to make decisions when there is consensus and with due process. The expectation is that typically, an editor or other participant makes an initial proposal, which is then refined in discussion with members of the group and other reviewers, and consensus emerges with little formal voting being required. However, if a decision is necessary for timely progress, but consensus is not achieved after careful consideration of the range of views presented, the Chairs should put a question out for voting within the group (allowing for remote asynchronous participation -- using, for example, email and/or web-based survey techniques) and record a decision, along with any objections. The matter should then be considered resolved unless and until new information becomes available.

Any resolution taken in a face-to-face meeting or teleconference is to be considered provisional until 10 working days after the publication of the resolution in draft minutes sent to the working groups mailing list. If no objections are raised on the mailing list within that time, the resolution will be considered to have consensus as a resolution of the Working Group.

This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.

Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.

For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.

About this Charter

This charter for the Automotive Working Group has been created according to section 6.2 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.

On 11 July 2016, this charter was extended until 30 September 2016.

On 8 December 2016 this group was rechartered.