On API Design and Usage in the Connected Car Ecosystem

Abstract: Connected Cars (CC) represent one of the most important trends in the automotive industry. Providers and consumers in the CC ecosystem have their own goals, objectives, and expectations. The CC initiative also brings new challenges to both providers and consumers. As the CC bubble continues to inflate, it is the speculative and multidisciplinary nature of the ecosystem that makes the study of connected vehicles timely and important. In this regard, this work considers what is known as API (Application Programming Interface) value chain to build a better understanding of the CC ecosystem in terms of opportunities and challenges. As research strategy, we utilise a qualitative case study where empirical evidence was gathered by semi-structured interviews of major stakeholders in the CC ecosystem. The results show that no common characterisation of the CC ecosystem exits and that different API design and usage trade-offs exist depending on the stakeholder role within the API value chain.