BMW, Otonomo Expanding Smart City Data-Sharing Plan

The world is taking more of its communication online as many of us stay at home more than usual, which means the amount of digital data is spiking. Once we get around to physically moving about as freely as we used to, there’s going to be some digital data that should make all that moving smarter and more efficient.

That’s the promise of an expansion of a partnership between Otonomo and BMW that was announced this week. The expansion will make “additional crowd data available for smart cities, real-time traffic information, and other solutions that improve the driving experience.”

What that means is that BMW, for the first time, will share data from its vehicles in 44 countries so it can be utilized in Otonomo’s neutral automotive data platform, Otonomo said in a statement. The idea is to use this additional vehicle data to enable “smart city, real-time road intelligence and other ‘data for good’ applications” by adding BMW and Mini vehicle information to a “vendor-neutral ecosystem that benefits drivers of all connected vehicles on the road.”

Otonomo’s ecosystem tries to leverage sensor information from numerous sources and put that into packages that other companies can use. In addition to general data that the BMW Group has collected (including information about road signs, traffic and hazards) this announcement adds the following types of data that BMW and Mini vehicles will be contributing, Otonomo said in a statement:

1. Parking: Aggregated ultrasonic sensor data from BMW vehicles can be used to identify open parking spots and estimate parking availability. Services that use this data can dramatically decrease urban congestion and alleviate one of the most frustrating moments in drivers’ city trips.
2. Urban planning for smart cities: The content and location of road signs detected by forward cameras from BMW Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) enrich the understanding of traffic flows through urban environments and highways.
3. Real-time intelligence: Real-time traffic information and navigation services and apps can use BMW data to highlight areas of congestion and help drivers find the fastest routes.
4. Local hazard warning services: BMW local hazard data provides a way to alert drivers of dangerous road conditions—including heavy rain or dense fog—through mapping and navigation services. In addition, information on dynamic signage can issue warnings on slowdowns, slippery roads, or ice.
5. Mapping services: Road sign and ultra-sonic sensor (USS) data keep critical road information updated. This includes speed limits shown on road signs and temporary road and speed changes caused by construction work.
6. Municipal maintenance and road optimization: Analytics can use BMW road sign data to identify signs that are missing or damaged and even trigger repair orders.

Otonomo has been publicly partnering with BMW since October 2019, when the two companies announced that telematics data from “millions of BMW and MINI vehicles” would be made available for service providers to use on Otonomo’s Data Services Platform.

Otonomo is an Israeli company and takes a strong public stand in favor of data privacy. The company’s CMO calls herself a “passionate data privacy advocate with over 20 years of public and startup company experience” and the company has commissioned reports in the U.S. and Europe about how consumers feel about sharing their car data. You can read more about that here.