Smart cities demand resources for rich immersive sensing, ubiquitous communications, powerful computing, large storage, and high intelligence (SCCSI) to support various kinds of applications, such as public safety, connected and autonomous driving, smart and connected health, and smart living. At the same time, vehicles equipped with significantly powerful SCCSI capabilities are expected to become ubiquitous in future smart cities. By observing the convergence of these two trends, this article advocates the use of vehicles to build a cost-effective service network, where SCCSI-empowered vehicles form a web of mobile sensors, a grid of mobile servers, a network of mobile routers, a fleet of mobile storage, and a set of AI toolboxes, to provide SCCSI services in smart cities. This paradigm is called Vehicle as a Service (VaaS). Towards this goal, this article first examines the potential use cases in smart cities and possible upgrades required for the transition from traditional vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) to VaaS. Then, the system architecture and use cases of the VaaS paradigm are comprehensively elaborated. Finally, the open problems of this paradigm and future research directions, including architectural design, service provisioning, incentive design, and security & privacy, are identified. This position paper is expected to pave the way towards developing a cost-effective and sustainable approach for smart cities and offer a complementary alternative for 5G and beyond.

中文翻译：

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车辆即服务（VaaS）：利用车辆构建智慧城市的服务网络和能力


智慧城市需要丰富的沉浸式传感、无处不在的通信、强大的计算、大存储和高智能（SCCSI）资源来支持公共安全、互联和自动驾驶、智能和互联健康以及智能生活等各种应用。与此同时，配备强大SCCSI能力的车辆预计将在未来的智慧城市中变得无处不在。通过观察这两种趋势的融合，本文主张使用车辆来构建具有成本效益的服务网络，其中支持 SCCSI 的车辆形成移动传感器网络、移动服务器网格、移动路由器网络、一组移动存储和一套人工智能工具箱，为智慧城市提供 SCCSI 服务。这种模式被称为车辆即服务（VaaS）。为了实现这一目标，本文首先探讨了智慧城市中的潜在用例以及从传统车载自组织网络 (VANET) 过渡到 VaaS 所需的可能升级。然后，全面阐述了VaaS范式的系统架构和用例。最后，确定了该范式的开放问题和未来的研究方向，包括架构设计、服务提供、激励设计以及安全和隐私。该立场文件预计将为开发具有成本效益且可持续的智慧城市方法铺平道路，并为 5G 及其他技术提供补充替代方案。