Cloudthink: a scalable secure platform for mirroring transportation systems in the cloud

We present a novel approach to developing a vehicle communication platform consisting of a low-cost, open-source hardware for moving vehicle data to a secure server, a Web Application Programming Interface (API) for the provision of third-party services, and an intuitive user dashboard for access control and service distribution. The CloudThink infrastructure promotes the commoditization of vehicle telematics data by facilitating easier, flexible, and more secure access. It enables drivers to confidently share their vehicle information across multiple applications to im-prove the transportation experience for all stakeholders, as well as to potentially monetize their data. The foundations for an application ecosystem have been developed which, taken together with the fair value for driving data and low barriers to entry, will drive adoption of CloudThink as the standard method for projecting physical vehicles into the cloud. The application space initially consists of a few fundamental and important applications (vehicle tethering and remote diagnostics, road-safety monitoring, and fuel economy analysis) but as CloudThink begins to gain widespread adoption, the multiplexing of applications on the same data structure and set will accelerate its adoption.