FAQ

About the Alliance
What is COVESA?
The Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA), formerly known as the GENIVI Alliance, is a global, member-driven alliance focused on the development of open standards and technologies that accelerate innovation for connected vehicle systems, and create a more diverse, sustainable and integrated mobility ecosystem. 
 
Why did GENIVI Alliance rebrand?
GENIVI Alliance rebranded to align with the organization’s evolved technical focus to connected vehicle systems including vehicle, edge and cloud services, interfaces, and data exchange.  
 
COVESA is the only alliance focused solely on developing open standards and technologies for connected vehicles, and our new brand and vision reflects the commitment and shared goal of creating a more diverse, sustainable and integrated mobility ecosystem.
 
Who participates in COVESA? 
Participating organizations include automakers and suppliers of automotive technologies and services, and organizations from adjacent industries such as consumer electronics, communications, mobility, manufacturing, and smart cities that are interested in accelerating the future of connected vehicle systems.  COVESA also welcomes start-up organizations of all types. Members include leading global automakers, electronic companies and vehicle component suppliers, including Aptiv, Bosch, BMW Group, DENSO, Ford Motor Company, Geotab, Honda, Hyundai Motor Group, LG Electronics, Mobis, Renault Group, Renesas, RTI, Stellantis, Wind River, and NXP among others.
 
Membership
Who can join COVESA?
COVESA welcomes participation in our global community of automotive experts and thought leaders from related industries to collaborate on connected vehicle systems. Organizations interested in joining the Alliance as active members can learn more at www.covesa.global/join.
 
Do I have to join as a member to participate in COVESA projects?
There are many advantages to being a COVESA member.  Membership is required to participate in specification development activities.  With that said, many exploratory COVESA activities are a combination of member representatives and industry experts.  COVESA code is openly available in GitHub and more information on COVESA projects can be found on the COVESA Wiki.  
 
What are the main benefits of COVESA membership?
The top benefits available to COVESA members are: 
1. Full access and insight into all work in process, providing a head-start competitive advantage
2. Influence on the technical direction of the alliance, including the development of specifications, reference architectures, implementation guidelines and test suites
3. Use of released COVESA specifications and implementation guidelines to reduce development costs and shorten time to market
4. Opportunity to collaborate with members in creating joint platforms that allow seamless integration benefits for all members 
5. Networking through the vast alliance membership community for key contacts, partnerships, and business opportunities
6. Opportunities to showcase your technology and competencies at COVESA global promotional events
 
Technical Scope
What technology projects are currently active within COVESA? 
COVESA members launch and contribute to a variety of collaborative projects that advance the mobility ecosystem and focus on accelerating connected vehicle systems. Active projects include:  
 
Data Expert Group
 
  • Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) is a common approach for describing vehicle data and is a widely adopted, developer-friendly, extensible data model and catalog with industry-supported tooling.
  • Vehicle Signal Specification Ontology (VSSo) facilitates the use of VSS in analytics and services.
  • Vehicle API exposes vehicle data as defined and described by VSS to a variety of agreed upon touch-points in and out of the vehicle.
  • Vehicle Service Catalog (VSC) is a standardized, extensible vehicle service catalog and associated tools to enable protocol, language, and specification-agnostic interoperability between ECUs, infotainment, and cloud.
  • Vehicle Information Service Specification is a joint effort between W3C and COVESA hosted by W3C. It is a service for accessing vehicle information, signals from sensors on control units within a vehicle's network. It exposes this information using COVESA VSS.
  • Data Architecture Terminology drives understanding and adoption of COVESA specifications and technical projects through definition of reusable common architectural terminology and patterns realized with technical implementations, and proofs of concept.

Electric Vehicle Charging Expert Group

Security Team

​Automotive AOSP App Framework Expert Group

  • Automotive AOSP App Framework Expert Group identifies gaps between AAOS with GAS and AAOS without and proposes, and specifies and/or develops white label solutions/alternatives. Only topics either not being available for OEMs using AAOS without GAS or not available at all will be tackled within this group to avoid fragmentation across the automotive industry.

Simulation & Tooling

  • digital.auto aims to support OEMs in the adoption of VSS, SdV and COVESA standards by making it easy to rapidly explore the feasibility of new business ideas and features through an online playground. 

​Vehicle Experience and Content – Entertainment BoF

The COVESA community is also actively collaborating with various liaisons including AUTOSAR, W3C, Open Insurance and eSync Alliance.

More information on COVESA projects can be found on the COVESA Wiki.
 
How is work accomplished within COVESA? 
The majority of the work is conducted through expert groups for specifications, teams and special interest groups for exploratory subjects and open source projects to define requirements, build software, and perform integration of the software and other standards in the industry.
 
Will COVESA license its technology to non-members?
Most technology deliverables are available publicly and are licensed with OSI-approved, open source licenses.  Some normative specifications may be delivered to members only.
 
News & Updates
Where can I get more information about COVESA?
Information and news on COVESA is available through various channels: