Connected vehicle data provides opportunities to meaningfully improve vehicle and roadway safety but often includes sensitive and proprietary information. MITRE offers an approach for a framework for enabling responsible access to this data for independent safety research.
Building a Trusted Framework for Responsible Telematics Data Access
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Connected vehicles generate increasing volumes of data that can improve understanding of vehicle performance, driver behavior, roadway conditions, and crash causation. These data offer significant opportunities to advance roadway safety by enabling more comprehensive evaluation of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), automated driving technologies, vehicle safety features, driver behaviors, and transportation infrastructure than is possible through traditional crash reports or aggregated datasets alone.
At the same time, vehicle-specific telematics data may include proprietary vehicle information as well as sensitive information about drivers and passengers. As connected vehicle technologies continue to evolve, policymakers, automakers, researchers, and consumers share an interest in ensuring that telematics data can support legitimate safety research without compromising privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, or public trust.
This paper proposes a set of design considerations and key elements for establishing a framework for enabling responsible collection and access to vehicle-specific telematics data for independent safety research. If established through future legislation, standards development, and public-private collaboration, such a framework could complement existing vehicle safety, privacy, and cybersecurity requirements by outlining governance structures, technical safeguards, and implementation considerations that support meaningful safety research while limiting access to what is necessary for approved research purposes.
Rather than creating an entirely new regulatory structure, the paper presents an approach that builds upon existing institutional responsibilities, established privacy principles, and current transportation safety programs. The concepts presented here are intended to inform future legislation, standards development, pilot programs, and broader implementation efforts involving government, industry, academia, and other qualified research organizations.