General Motors is ramping up its efforts to create “a free, universal language” for software developers to create cool apps for its vehicles and, in particular, its competitors’ vehicles.
GM announced a new definition of vehicle services called “uServices” for the automotive software developer community. In essence, uServices is intended to serve as GM’s own API for other software developers to create applications that can work across multiple vehicle lines. The automaker will also present the new definition to the Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA), a global alliance focused on the development of open standards and technologies for connected vehicles.
This new definition aims for standardized software to “securely access vehicle systems from anywhere in an OEM vehicle ecosystem,” the automaker says. Along with the open source software protocol, uProtocol, which GM introduced earlier this year, the company says it is implementing the pieces necessary for the creation of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).
Here’s how GM says uServices will work:
While uProtocol serves as the backbone for more efficient vehicle software development across the industry, uServices is intended to establish standards for interfacing with vehicle functions and communicating through that backbone, serving as a standard API. to abstract vehicle services, enabling a unified connected vehicle ecosystem.
The overall effort aims to accelerate the development of SDVs. The automotive industry has been on a hiring spree over the past few years, hiring thousands of software developers in hopes of bringing more technical sophistication to their fleets. Recent Silicon Valley layoffs tech-workers/?sh=41440b6415e0″>have given those companies even more opportunities to grow its ranks of coders, engineers and tech-savvy workers.
The result has been the release of more cars with continually updated software features. Tesla was the first company to bring over-the-air software updates to the general public. Now, the rest of the industry is scrambling to catch up by introducing their own upgradeable vehicles.
GM’s contribution to this effort is Ultifi, a software platform that will begin appearing in vehicles later this year. The company says the end-to-end software platform will enable OTA updates, in-car subscription services and “new opportunities to increase customer loyalty.”
