Autonomous vehicles and big data: Managing the personal information deluge

We have commented before in The Sensor on the general privacy and data protection implications for the connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) ecosystem. In his recent article, Max Jarvie returns to consider those implications in relation to recent developments in the world of CAV big data.

The Automotive Edge Computing Consortium (AECC) researches how edge network architectures could help CAVs process data effectively within the timeframes needed to support current and next generation CAV technologies and enterprise applications. These technologies and applications include High Definition Mapping, Intelligent Driving, Mobility Services and Finance and Insurance services.

In its most recent publications and presentations, the AECC concluded that earlier studies of the data required for CAVs in relation to these services greatly underestimated the volume of data needed. When the technologies mentioned above are taken into account, current estimates suggest that each vehicle could be generating up to 100 GB of data per month. Across an estimated 100 million CAVs in use worldwide by 2025, that could mean as much as 10 exabytes of data per month.

In his previous article, he referred to the amount of data generated by CAVs as a torrent. These recent studies on data volumes reveal that the metaphor of a tsunami or deluge is likely more appropriate. As a significant quantity of this information will be personal information, the volume of data and the complexity of the multitier information ecosystems needed to support its processing will create challenges for privacy and data protection.

Read Max Jarvie’s new article on this topic.

This content has been updated on December 1, 2020 at 15 h 25 min.