Overview
Between 1997 and 2007, advances in communication technology and on-board vehicle electronics set the stage for a giant leap forward in automobile communicative capability, namely the transition from autonomous units to communicating, highly-interactive systems that share intelligence with each other and their environment. Making the vehicle and its occupants an integral part of the information society will allow the easing of existing tension between the vehicle and its environment, and help to lift the automotive experience as well as overall mobility to unprecedented levels.
GST is a major initiative mobilising more than 50 key stakeholders in the European telematics industry. The purpose of GST is to create an environment in which innovative telematics services can be developed and delivered cost-effectively, and hence, to increase the range of economic telematic services available to manufacturers and consumers. GST has developed an open and standardised framework architecture for end to end telematics. The openness relates to the existence of a common mechanism for the installation, updating, and removal of new services and applications. These standards are necessary for the key interfaces which allow the complexity and heterogeneousness of the supporting technologies to be hidden.
GST was an EU-funded Integrated Project that aimed to create an open and standardised end-to-end architecture for automotive telematics services.
GST strove to develop an environment in which innovative telematics services could be developed and delivered cost effectively, and thus increase the range of economic telematics services available to manufacturers and consumers. With GST, drivers and occupants would be able to rely on their on-board integrated telematics system to access a dynamic range of on-line safety, efficiency- and comfort-enhancing services wherever they drive in Europe. They also would be able to access their portfolio of services throughout Europe using the same vehicle terminal.
The project tied together the existing results of European, national and corporate research programmes and progresses the state-of-the art focusing on missing links for which enabling specifications and standardisation proposals have been developed.
Specific skill sets had been mobilised in different sub-projects covering specific technological building blocks that were missing (these were the 'Open Systems', 'Security', 'Payment' and 'Certification' sub-projects), as well as covering some specific on-line services that were essential for helping to bring the market to fruition (these are the 'Rescue', 'Enhanced Floating Car Data'and 'Safety Channel'sub-projects).
Funding
Results
GST has identified the requirements of users, car manufacturers, control centre operators, middleware providers, terminal manufacturers, and service providers
GST has defined an overall framework architecture for open telematics across the 7 sub-projects, as well as specifications for the key interfaces.
GST has developed a common validation plan to ensure that the site validation results can be aggregated and compared at the project level.
GST has addressed relevant operational and business aspects for market introduction of open telematics.
Technical Implications
GST was a 'Integrated Project' or programme of interdependent activities, aiming to structure European research in the field of telematics.
It consisted of seven sub-projects and seven test sites that work together towards a common purpose. In addition, a set of horizontal activities aim at a high level of integration inside GST.
Sub-projects were active in the two first phases of GST, defining requirements and specifications, and in the last phase of validation. The seven sub-projects included:
- Four technology-oriented sub-projects:'Open Systems', 'Security', 'Service Payment' and 'Certification';
- Three service-oriented sub-projects: 'Rescue', 'Enhanced Floating Car Data' and 'Safety Channel'.
Test sites are active in later stages of the project, at which technology and services specified in the sub-projects are developed and tested. The seven test sites are Aachen-Rüsselsheim, Gothenburg, London, Munich, Paris, Stuttgart and Torino.
Policy implications
The project tied together the existing results of European, national and corporate research programmes and progress the state-of-the art focusing on missing links for which enabling specifications and standardisation proposals were developed. While GST was not constrained to supporting safety services, the project was focus on safety services because safety represents the key societal challenge and is the common denominator across sectors.