SAE WCX Panel Discussion — “Data — Navigating Complex and Conflicting Force”

Authored by: Rajeev Chhajer

I had the opportunity to represent Honda in a panel discussion at the recently concluded SAE WCX 2022 conference in Detroit. This was my first in-person conference since the pandemic and also my first time attending this prestigious automotive conference. The whole experience right from the panel discussion to learning from folks in the industry and the deep side conversations on various topics around CASE technologies (Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric) that is shaping the future of mobility was amazing.

To set the stage for this blogpost, I’d like to first share the abstract for this discussion that was set:

“If there’s a common thread that will weave the future of safe, automated and connected vehicles, it’s data. As vehicles become even more connected and everything and everyone will be generating data we will soon be drowning in data from all around. Buried in that data are incredibly valuable insights worth potentially billions of dollars, which is fueling an arms race in data collection in the industry. On the other hand, governments are increasingly demanding transparency from industry with increasing calls and mandates for data reporting. In Europe, proposals to nationalize for the “commons” valuable data assets like maps, if enacted, could upend our industry. It’s not even limited to national governments, even cities like NYC have enacted mandatory data reporting requirements unique to just that city. What are we to do? How can we manage and navigate these complex and conflicting forces?:

There is a lot to tease out but as a diverse panel team coming from different spheres of the mobility domain such as the OEM, Shared Mobility, Mobility Cloud and Regulatory body, we identified key thought-provoking questions that we all could provide our views on. This was with the hope that it would not only be a fresh learning moment for the audience but also generate curiosity to keep the conversation going on this important topic.

I’ll highlight some key points in this post that I shared in this discussion.

1. Introduction and setting the stage

• The mobility data ecosystem (refer image below) needs to be looked at beyond data generated from one’s own products. This ecosystem includes personal use vehicles, bus systems, shared mobility solutions, micro mobility options, food, and package delivery systems and many more
• The ecosystem is rich and provides a lot of opportunity to study and create new value in areas such as advanced safety, trip affordability and efficiency, commerce and convenience services and providing new experiences
• These systems and datasets need to be studied deeply to solve large problems and avoid unintended consequences to society such as congestion, crashes, pollution, and lack of green space

2. Perspective on “How we define data” and “What is important”

- Frameworks should be used to define datasets. These frameworks result in the decisions you make and the actions you take

- At 99P Labs, our working mental model of data is broadly classified into 3 segments:

o Data for new value services

o Data for regulation and compliance

o Data for R&D, future innovation, and controlled/uncontrolled trials

- Each segment of data has unique characteristics and need to be treated differently

- Data combined from each segment has potential to solve holistic ecosystem problems like safety and sustainability

- While a lot of work has been done in the first and third segments, data for regulation and compliance is an evolving topic and needs macro-level thinking and action

3. Opinion on if more data is “always better”?

- Generally, more data doesn’t always translate into meaningful insights

- Need to be more intentional about the use cases and have the right infrastructure to move fast when the opportunity arises

- Data collection and management is by no means an inexpensive proposition

4. Views on “Data for public commons”

- Data for public commons put in context to a societal problem to be solved holds potential merit

- Societal problems such as mobility inaccessibility, sustainability and safety are system problems that require system level thinking, multiple perspectives, collaborative problem solving and shared learnings — data is a critical asset in this context

- We’re building the 99P Labs developer community to solve these broad problems and get researchers, students, innovators and affinity groups to come together to use research data to solve problems. Learn more here: https://developer.99plabs.io

You can watch the whole discussion here:

You can also read about this discussion from the official SAE blog write up here: https://www.sae.org/news/2022/04/sae-wcx-2022-vehicles-are-the-gateway-to-valuable-data

I’d like to thank the amazing organizing team at SAE for the seamless coordination and execution. Also, I think it’ll be a big miss if I didn’t give a shout out to my many colleagues at Honda who helped me prepare for this panel discussion.

If you’re excited about this topic or would like to learn more about our 99P Labs Developer community, please reach out to us at support@99plabs.com