Autonomous vehicles (AVs) make 150 independent vehicle detections every second and generate up to 80GB of data per driven-hour from sensors such as LiDAR, cameras and RADAR as well as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) logs. This constant activity means amassing 1.2TB of data in a 16-hour day—the equivalent of over 500 HD movies or over 200,000 songs—much of which is gathered when the vehicle returns to base.

Autonomous vehicle software company Oxbotica and Cisco are partnering to demonstrate how OpenRoaming can enable the seamless and secure sharing of this high-volume autonomous vehicle data.

By 2024, more than 70 million new connected vehicles will enter the market every year, with each required to upload and download 8.3GB of data per day, including streamed infotainment, HD navigation, vehicle telemetry and ADAS settings as well as safety critical information like severe weather updates or passenger ill health.

By comparison, the average smartphone will contribute just a fifth of this daily volume.

Stretched across an autonomous fleet, which could include hundreds or even thousands of vehicles in a city or region, this would produce an abundance of data beyond that which could be shared efficiently and cost-effectively using existing 4G or emerging 5G networks. Oxbotica has already started work on addressing this challenge with on-road trials taking place in Stratford, East London last September.

OpenRoaming, currently in beta, enables mobile users to roam automatically and seamlessly across Wi-Fi and cellular networks, including Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and 5G.

OpenRoaming offers the ability to unlock solutions to the large data transfer challenge for autonomous vehicle fleets. OpenRoaming, a Cisco-initiated federation of providers utilizing standards-based wireless technology, enables devices, whether smartphones or AVs, to connect automatically to trusted Wi-Fi hotspots and networks without the need to enter usernames and passwords. Instead, the devices use embedded credentials issued by identity providers—in this case OEMs or AV software companies.

OpenRoaming is particularly suited for connected vehicles, with opportunities for Wi-Fi hotspots to be deployed in locations such as gas stations, EV charging locations, parking structures and vehicle service centers.

The Next Generation Connected Vehicles Co-Innovation trial collaboration with Cisco demonstrates how Oxbotica customers will be able to access, customize and integrate leading mobile autonomy IP into their own products. The platform to be tested is designed to be fully-scalable, capable of being deployed across various fleet networks no matter the size or location, while delivering cost-effective and secure data offload.

As part of our Universal Autonomy vision, our pioneering software already reduces the amount of data sharing that is required, allowing vehicles to operate wherever they are, with or without network connection. In fact, our software has been designed to operate not dependent on any infrastructure, so it can understand the vehicle's environment in infinite detail. However, we fully recognise that in an autonomous world, fleets will need to upload and download vast amounts of data and the partnership with Cisco offers us the chance to solve one of the greatest data challenges of the future, already today.

—Ozgur Tohumcu, CEO at Oxbotica

Oxbotica was founded in 2014 as an Oxford University spin-out with a mission to develop autonomy software that will transform all industries where people and goods move.