EU Data Act (vehicle data)

The EU Data Act (Regulation 2023/2854) governs access to data generated by connected products, and vehicles are among its most consequential targets. In force since January 2024 and applicable from September 2025, it gives users — private owners and fleets alike — the right to access data their connected products generate, and to share that data with third parties of their choosing.

For vehicles, this cuts into a long-contested area: repair shops, insurers, leasing companies and app developers have argued for years that OEMs control vehicle data generated by customers. Under the Data Act, manufacturers must make readily available data accessible on fair terms, design new products for data access, and cannot lock users’ data into their own ecosystems.

Open questions dominate the implementation phase: which in-vehicle data counts as “readily available”, how trade secrets and cybersecurity obligations bound the access right, and whether a sector-specific vehicle-data regulation follows. Standardized signal models such as COVESA VSS are the leading candidates for serving the data in practice.