Introduction to Vehicle Computing

Over the past century, vehicles have predominantly served as a means of transportation. However, as vehicular computation and communication capacities continue to expand, connected vehicles (CVs) will not only fulfill their conventional transport functions but will also act as versatile mobile computing platforms. In this chapter, we introduce the evolving paradigm of vehicle computing and explore the essential functionalities of CVs that underpin this transformative shift—computation, communication, energy management, sensing, and data storage. We highlight the transition from traditional vehicular roles to advanced computational capacities and detail how these vehicles integrate with and interact with burgeoning communication technologies. The chapter further examines how CVs are poised to become pivotal nodes within energy networks through Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) integration and how they leverage sophisticated sensing capabilities for enhanced data collection and storage. Besides, this chapter introduces an innovative business model for vehicle computing, addressing the economic and infrastructural challenges while capitalizing on opportunities in this emerging field. By discussing the technical challenges, we also present the opportunities associated with these domains in the era of vehicle computing.