Experiences with a vehicular cloud computing platform Jason

Experiences with a vehicular cloud computing platform Jason Flinn, T. J. Giuli, and Brian Noble University of Michigan and Ford Motor Co.

The Goal A senior-level course around emerging technologies: • Vehicular sensors and interfaces • Cloud storage and computation • Widespread wireless connectivity • Social networking platforms • Partnership between Ford and Michigan • Class called “Cloud Computing in the Commute” Jason Flinn

The Hardware Platform Ford • • research hacked up a Fiesta to include: 10. 4” LCD color touch-screen x 86 PC running Windows 7 Wireless connectivity via 3 G mobile broadband Access via CAN bus to telematics, GPS, infotainment Jason Flinn

The software platform Integrated sensors via Microsoft Robotics Studio Also provided: • Network access services • Services for interfacing with social-networking sites • Voice recognition, text-to-speech Deployed software via a virtual machine • Allowed development without access to vehicle • Included APIs for testing with location and sensor traces • Minimized student time spent with configuration • Porting to vehicle environment was surprisingly easy Jason Flinn

Green Ride Challenge Promotes ride sharing to save fuel, costs • Structured as a game - earn points for transporting friends • Real-time updates of who needs rides where • Agreement protocol for arranging ride-share • UI runs in browser • Connectivity issues • Back end is cloud DB Jason Flinn

Fuel. Tracker Measure instantaneous fuel economy: • Compare to previous economy at same location • Compare to economy of others driving same route • Leverage social aspects to share green-driving tips • Paul Coldren, Clayton Willey, Petch Wannisorn, Amy Kuo Substantial back-end computation Cloud DB Web interface for complex stats Jason Flinn

Caravan. Track Helps co-ordinate a multi-vehicle road trip • For each vehicle, shows location, fuel, status, etc. • Later modified to use voice, steering wheel controls • Collin Hockey, Sangmi Park, Joe Phillips, John Ciccone Simple structure • DB backend Jason Flinn

Challenge: App participation required Caravan. Track aggregates sensing data from all vehicles • Speed • Fuel • Stop preferences Jason Flinn

The Road Trip Caravan. Track team tested their application on a road trip • Journey from MI to Maker Faire in CA. • Four Fiestas – two with integrated platforms • Sponsored by Ford “American Journey 2. 0” • All ran Caravan. Track • One vehicle (“AJ the Fiesta”) also ran social apps • Connectivity was generally quite good (except in Nevada) • Some unexpected benefits of Caravan. Track Jason Flinn

Lessons Learned: Network Connectivity Hosting interactions among vehicles in the cloud works well • Can easily handle human speeds for social apps • Connectivity usually sufficient on major roads • However, bandwidth can be a critical issue • Good performance needed for short, interactive msgs. For next time: • Would like to bring Intentional Network to platform • Allow background transfers w/o affecting interactive apps • Utilize networks other than cellular when available Jason Flinn

Lessons Learned: Sensing Many interesting apps used vehicle as sensor platform • Mostly limited to basic sensing: fuel, location, speed, etc. • Sensor data often shared among vehicles • Driver is also an excellent sensor However, substantially more sensors available: • Steering, breaks, temperature, seat position, cell phone presence, engine performance data, cameras (internal and external), … Vehicle is a great platform for participatory sensing: • Next time: add and enable more sensors Jason Flinn

Lessons Learned: UI still a Problem Designing for vehicular UI very challenging: • Must minimize distraction by keeping driver’s eyes on road • No dialogs with timeouts • All actions restartable • Only one button per screen region (four corners) • Use alternative modalities (voice, steering wheel controls) • Helped a lot to have design student(s) on each team Many successful apps included a Web component: • Complicated set-up done at a computer • Simpler interface used in the vehicle • More detailed information available later from PC. Jason Flinn

Thanks to… Timur Alperovich T. J. Giuli Brett Higgins Brian Noble Venkatesh Prasad Azarias Reda David Watson Jason Flinn