Intel, Ericsson, and Toyota have formed a consortium to develop network and computing infrastructure for big data used in connected vehicles.

Other members of the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium include auto parts maker Denso, and telecom companies Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and its mobile subsidiary NTT DoCoMo.

Intel, Ericsson, NTT DoCoMo, and Denso also belong to another automotive group working on connected vehicle technology, called the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA). The 5GAA formed in September 2016.

While there will likely be some overlap between the two groups, the new consortium plans to focus more on car-to-cloud communications, said Hakan Anderson, director of industry alliances at Ericsson.

“The Edge Computing Consortium is looking at more the cloud aspect of car communications,” he explained. “How can we utilize cloud and the execution environment for different services that can be done using cellular connectivity or other connectivity to attach a car to the cloud.”

The consortium will also define requirements and develop use cases for emerging mobile devices focusing on the automotive industry, bringing them to standards bodies, industry consortiums, and vendors.

The data volume between vehicles and the cloud will reach 10 exabytes per month by 2025, about 10,000-times larger than the current volume, the group says. This increase will trigger the need for new network and computing infrastructure architectures to support distributed resources and topology aware storage capacity.

“Intel along with the founding members believe it is the right moment to accelerate discussions on connected car services for mainstream adoption in the coming years,” said Caroline Chan, VP of 5G Infrastructure Division at Intel, in an email to SDxCentral. She added that, compared to 5GAA, “the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium will focus on system capacity issues around connected car use cases and potential solution of distributed computing on localized network.”

Earlier this week Intel said it will start building self-driving cars, deploying the first units later this year and eventually scaling the fleet to more than 100 fully autonomous vehicles. These cars will use 5G “to deliver a complete ‘car-to-cloud’ system.”

The companies involved in the new group say they will “initiate activities to invite relevant global technology leaders and expand the consortium” in the comping months.