Cars Open Data
DraftA machine-readable representation of vehicles and who is authorised to act for them.
Purpose
Cars Open Data is a machine-readable way to represent a vehicle as a described subject, and the connections that attach to it: ownership, and authorisation to sell or represent it.
Scope
Covers a vehicle's profile and the connections asserted about it by a controller (an owner or a registry). A vehicle never self-signs: a described subject is only ever the subject of a connection, never the issuer of one.
Motivation
An authorisation like "this dealer may sell this car" is only trustworthy if it traces back to a real ownership claim and a real, scoped delegation, not just a label a dealer applies to itself. Cars Open Data gives that chain, ownership evidence, a signed delegation, a public authorisation, a shared shape so any buyer or platform can check it independently.
Guiding principles
- A vehicle is a described subject: it is represented, it never represents itself. It has no profile, because a profile is the view of something that speaks for itself.
- Cars Open Data neither knows nor cares who owns a car unless the owner chooses to publish that connection.
- A dealer's "authorised to sell" claim is only as strong as the ownership evidence and delegation behind it, and the standard is designed to make that chain inspectable, not asserted.
Current status
Draft. No published technical specification yet, and no reference implementation.
Repository
Not yet published.
Discussion
Not yet open. A discussion venue will be announced alongside the first published specification.