The EU Data Act is Here: COVESA Recommendations

The COVESA EU Data Act Project began in September 2024, following a workshop initiated by Volvo Cars and WirelessCar to discuss and better understand the implications of the emerging EU Data Act. What started in this workshop quickly evolved into a broader, open COVESA project as interest grew.

Over time, the group expanded to include contributors and participants from OEMs, suppliers, and technology providers such as Ford, General Motors, Geotab, RTI, MOTER, Bosch, MongoDB, Endive, AppsFactory, Red Hat, and others. Together, the group created a dedicated forum for collaborative learning, technical discussion, and practical exploration of how the EU Data Act impacts vehicle-generated data sharing, and to define compliance requirements for OEMs and suppliers selling vehicles in Europe.

Under the EU Data Act, manufacturers of connected vehicles and providers of vehicle‑related services are required to make use‑generated vehicle data accessible to the user and, where the user requests it, to share that data with third parties designated by the user under fair, reasonable, and transparent conditions. These access rights primarily apply to raw and pre‑processed vehicle data, such as sensor signals, vehicle status information, and operational measurements.

The regulation does not prescribe specific technical interfaces, schemas, or APIs. This gives the industry flexibility but also creates a practical challenge: without common approaches, data consumers would need to adapt to multiple OEM‑specific formats and access models, increasing complexity and integration effort across the ecosystem.

A COVESA perspective: building on open, existing approaches

As a global, member‑driven alliance focused on open approaches and technologies for connected vehicles, bringing together OEMs, suppliers, technology providers, and service companies worldwide, COVESA sees the EU Data Act as an opportunity. Rather than creating new, proprietary solutions, the industry can build on existing specifications that are widely understood and purpose‑built for vehicle data.

In December 2025, as part of its ongoing work, the group agreed to make a recommendation to use Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) and Vehicle Information Service Specification (VISS) when exchanging vehicle‑generated data over APIs in the context of the EU Data Act. The group identified VSS and VISS as offering a common, industry‑accepted language and behavior for defining and exchanging vehicle‑generated data, streamlining integration, and making it easier for OEMs, service providers, and third parties to collaborate and innovate.

Building on this agreement, the work has since progressed into a more structured set of recommendations that further demonstrate how existing open specifications can be applied in practice to support EU Data Act requirements while promoting interoperability, scalability, and ecosystem alignment. See recommendations here.

Learn more at the COVESA All Member Meeting in Porto

To learn more about COVESA’s work related to the EU Data Act and ongoing projects, join us at the COVESA All Member Meeting in Porto on 23 April, 11:00 – 11:25 AM session: EU Data Act Project Status Update.

Join the Discussion

The EU Data Act Project continues with regular bi-weekly meetings focused on shared learning, open discussion, and ongoing alignment on the regulation. Meetings take place every other Wednesday at 3 pm CET / 6 am PT / 9 am ET, and new participants are welcome.

In addition to the published recommendation, a growing collection of related artifacts can be found in the group’s source repository: https://github.com/COVESA/eu-data-act/tree/main.