Continental has highlighted the role of digital mobility in a white paper entitled ‘Mobility applications for software-defined vehicles’, which illustrates how vehicles could become versatile platforms for intelligent software solutions, including for real-time traffic management.
The publication focuses on verifiable credentials (VCs), which, Continental notes, are regarded as a key technology for greater security and data protection in connected mobility applications. Continental outlines an approach for how VCs can enable trustworthy communication between vehicles, infrastructure and digital services.
VCs are a standardized, cryptographically secure format for digitally representing information, such as details about a vehicle or a user. The white paper was created as part of the publicly funded cooperation project GAIA-X 4 AGEDA, a subproject of GAIA-X 4 Future Mobility, in which Continental, together with well-known partners from industry, has conducted research to address the central challenges of increasing connectivity and digitalization in the automotive sector.
Verifiable credentials as a key to the safe mobility of tomorrow
The paper discusses mobility applications, a central component in meeting the mobility requirements of the future. However, their integration in the vehicle, the necessary connection to an open ecosystem and the decentralized management of identities and data raise questions. Continental stated that it is necessary to create a framework that ensures both the seamless integration of new applications and compliance with strict security and data protection standards. “Research by colleagues has shown that verifiable credentials are a promising approach for the secure use of mobility services in vehicles. They enable a high level of security and data protection when using software-defined vehicles as an execution platform for mobility services,” explained Nino Romano, chief technology officer at Continental Automotive.
Based on the results of the GAIA-X 4 AGEDA project, the white paper outlines the necessary fundamentals and describes the key aspects of how the use of verifiable credentials provides an effective way to make access to vehicle data and functions secure and flexible. The white paper underscores the importance of the developed framework for the mobility of the future. It highlights that the concepts embedded within it are central to integration into modern, software-defined vehicle architectures. “Software-defined vehicles as part of a cloud ecosystem are the key technology for future mobility concepts,” added Romano. “With a reliable and trustworthy digital framework, the vision can become reality.”
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