The question is no longer if connected car data is worth using, but how, and at what price.

From September 8 to 12, we were back at Automechanika Frankfurt, where our team had many of conversations about in-vehicle data and how it's revolutionizing the mobility industry!

What struck us most was that almost nobody asked whether connected car data matters for the independent aftermarket anymore. The questions were about how to access it, in what quality, and at what price.

On stage, we presented “Connected car data for the IAM: How smart in-vehicle data can power the IAM,” a deep dive into what OEM data actually enables for repair, parts and service businesses today. Thanks to Bitkom, we also had the chance to share our view on the Software-Defined Vehicle at the HighTech4Mobility Stage, followed by a panel discussion with ZF Group and d-fine.

Off stage, the range of topics said a lot about where this industry is heading, from the future of connected cars to new opportunities in fleet management and a lot of very practical talk about data access. We were glad to meet so many partners and peers along the way, from Schaeffler Vehicle Lifetime Solutions, Niterra, TOPMOTIVE and Hella Gutmann Group, among many others. It was also a pleasure to connect with the team from ADPA, the Automotive Data Publishers Association. CARUSO was one of 16 ADPA member booths in Frankfurt this year, which shows where this is going, namely that access to vehicle data is an industry-wide effort, not a single-company one.

A special thank you goes to the TecAlliance team for the outstanding coordination on site, and to everyone who stopped by and took the time to chat with us. Let’s keep turning vehicle data into something the aftermarket can actually use.