Here's the path data standardization typically takes. First, you get one or two innovators who introduce a new system based around a new type of data. Next, a competitive market develops. Then suppliers and customers alike realize their costs will be lower, and their services potentially better, if they use a common standard for the data.
This is currently happening in crash telemetry. OnStar led the field in systems that notify emergency services in the case of a crash. Other manufacturers introduced their own systems. As the systems became mainstream, costs for responders increased because they had to interface with different formats. Costs for manufacturers were high because they had to maintain their own formats. Meanwhile customers found it hard to compare systems.
Now there's VEDS, the Vehicular Emergency Data Set. It's XML for data about collisions. This standard is produced by the industry, for the industry. It will benefit everyone.
The auto industry has responded in good time to the need for standardization. It's unrealistic to ask every innovator to propose an industry standard when they first launch. That would restrict their own room for maneuver and constrain the evolution of the new industry.
But it's equally unrealistic to expect an industry to persist without common standards. Fragmentation leads to friction. Customer confusion. Lost sales. Partner liquidations. The slow death spiral of the whole sector.
With standards, innovations have the chance to stick and grow. Collision Notification
Comments