Used Cars Ontology Language Reference

Used Cars Ontology Metadata (rdf:type owl:Ontology)

V 1.0:A, Release 2012-12-31

Latest version: http://purl.org/uco/ns#

Author: Hepp Research GmbH and Makolab S.A.

URI http://purl.org/uco/ns#
rdfs:label Used Cars Ontology

dcterms:subject E-Commerce, E-Business, GoodRelations, Ontology, Automotive, Cars, Vehicles, Used Cars

dcterms:rights The Used Cars Ontology is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license; see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. In a nutshell, you are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work; to remix/adapt the work (e.g. to import the ontology and create specializations of its elements), as long as you attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

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Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Examples
3. Classes
4. Datatype Properties
5. Object Properties
6. Individuals
7. Contact Information
8. License
9. Acknowledgments
10. References
11. Change Log

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Overview

This Used Cars Ontology is an extension of GoodRelations and provides the additional vocabulary elements for describing used cars and their history, e.g. ownership record, damages, modifications, features, etc.

Representation of Vehicle Features

The general patterns of extending GoodRelations for vertical industries are described here.

The Used Cars Ontology slightly deviates from this standard pattern, because a global standardization of car features features is not possible without loosing granularity. Many features that look trivial at first sight are impossible to harmonize in a feasible and lossless way.

Thus, the Used Cars Ontology follows a radically different approach for Web Ontology Engineering in that it supports the so called Deferred Consensus Principle (Hepp (2012)): Instead of consolidating product features beyond those provided by the Vehicle Sales Ontology (VSO) in the new ontology, it provides a consolidated conceptual model for encoding proprietary feature information in a way that is most useful for the automated, heuristical consolidation at the client side. So instead of defining properties for all possible vehicle features, the ontology provides the class uco:PropertValue that can hold feature information in varying degrees of formality.

UML Class Diagrams

There is a UML class diagrams available that illustrates the conceptual structures of the Used Cars Ontology. Note that the following diagram is only an approximation of the real OWL DL model, since it cannot represent all details of the formal model.

• UML Class Diagram: Used Cars Ontology

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Examples

This section shows typical examples of using the ontology.

We assume the following prefix declarations for all examples:

# Prefix Declarations
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix schema: <http://schema.org/> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@prefix pto: <http://www.productontology.org/id/> .
@prefix gr: <http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#> .
@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix dbpedia: <http://dbpedia.org/resource/> .
@prefix vso: <http://purl.org/vso/ns#> .
@prefix uco: <http://purl.org/uco/ns#> .
@prefix foo: <http://ontologies.makolab.com/uco/examples.rdf#> .

Examples of Describing a Used Car

Scenario: In the following, we describe an offer to sell a used 2002 Chevrolet Camaro

RDFa

You can use the tool at http://rdf-translator.appspot.com to generate an RDFa version of the example.

Turtle

Basic Car Description

# Part 1: Basic Car Description using http://purl.org/vso/ns
# Make and Model: 2002 Chevrolet Camaro
# VIN: 2G1FP22G522155049
# Drivetype: RWD
# Mileage: 42000 km
# Stock No: 155049
# Transmission: 6-Speed Manual
# Engine: 5.7L V8 OHV 16V
# Exterior Color: red
#
# 1.1 Basic Car Specification
foo:car_155049 a vso:Automobile, gr:Individual ; # it' a real car
    gr:hasManufacturer dbpedia:Chevrolet ;
    gr:hasMakeAndModel dbpedia:Chevrolet_Camaro ;
    vso:modelDate "2002-01-01"^^xsd:date ; # year-only data is not possible in xsd:date and also problematic
    vso:VIN "2G1FP22G522155049"^^xsd:string ;
    vso:bodyStyle <http://dbpedia.org/resource/Coup%C3%A9> ; # Coupé
    vso:color "red"@en ;
    vso:engineDisplacement [ a gr:QuantitativeValueFloat ;
                             gr:hasValueFloat "5.7"^^xsd:float ;
                             gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "LTR"^^xsd:string ] ;
    vso:engineName "5.7L V8 OHV 16V"@en ;
    vso:mileageFromOdometer [ a gr:QuantitativeValueFloat ;
                             gr:hasValueFloat "42000"^^xsd:float ;
                             gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "KMT"^^xsd:string ] ;
    gr:hasStockKeepingUnit "155049"^^xsd:string ;
    vso:gearsTotal [ a gr:QuantitativeValueInteger ;
                     gr:hasValueInteger "6"^^xsd:int ;
                     gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "C62"^^xsd:string ] ;
    vso:transmission dbpedia:Manual_transmission ;
    vso:fuelType dbpedia:Gasoline ;
    vso:rentalUsage "false"^^xsd:boolean ;
    vso:feature dbpedia:Cup_holder,
                dbpedia:Power_window,
                dbpedia:Air_conditioner,
                dbpedia:Anti-lock_braking_system ;  # Add more DBPedia / Wikipedia URIs for additional features
    foaf:depiction <http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickwall316/7081356845/> ; # URI of a photo
    foaf:page <http://www.agautosalesny.com/details.php?key=71> . # URI of the web page			
		

Offer

# 1.2 Offer using http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1
# Price: EUR 11990

# 1.2.1 Company / Vendor Data (needed only once for all offers)
foo:company a schema:AutomotiveBusiness ;
    schema:name "Miller Inc." ;
    foaf:page <http://www.miller.com/> ;
# add other properties from http://schema.org/AutomotiveBusiness here, if data is available
    gr:offers foo:offer1 .

# 1.2.2 Offer: Price, Payment, Conditions
foo:offer1 a gr:Offering ;
    gr:includes foo:car_155049 ;
    gr:hasBusinessFunction gr:Sell ;
    gr:hasPriceSpecification [ a gr:UnitPriceSpecification ;
                                gr:hasCurrency "EUR"^^xsd:string ;
                                gr:hasCurrencyValue "11990"^^xsd:float ] ;
    foaf:page <http://www.agautosalesny.com/details.php?key=71> . # URI of the web page			
		

Non-standard Car features using uco:Property

# Non-standard features using uco:PropertyValue
# 12V front power outlet
foo:car_155049 uco:feature 
                    [   a uco:PropertyValue ;   
                        uco:propertyName "12V front power outlet"@en ; 
                        uco:propertyValue "yes"@en ] .
# Rear leg room: 26.8 in.
foo:car_155049 uco:feature 
                    [   a uco:PropertyValue ;   
                        uco:propertyName "Rear leg room"@en ; 
                        uco:propertyValue "26.8" ;
                        uco:unitCode "INH"^^xsd:string ;
                        uco:unitText "inches"@en ] .  			
		

List Price Information

# List price: EUR 13,999
foo:car_155049 uco:listPrice [ a gr:PriceSpecification ;
                                gr:hasCurrency "EUR"^^xsd:string ;
                                gr:hasCurrencyValue "13999"^^xsd:float ] .			
		

Official Valuation (Blue Book (R) etc.)

# Valuation: Blue Book® Value EUR 12,500
foo:car_155049 uco:valuation [ a gr:PriceSpecification ;
                                gr:name "Kelly Blue Book® Value"@en ;
                                gr:hasCurrency "EUR"^^xsd:string ;
                                gr:hasCurrencyValue "12500"^^xsd:float ] .			
		

Location of the Car

# Current location: Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
foo:car_155049 uco:currentLocation [    a schema:PostalAddress ;
                                        schema:addressCountry "USA"@en ;
                                        schema:addressLocality "Mountain View"@en ;
                                        schema:addressRegion "CA"@en ;
                                        schema:postalCode "94043" ] .			
		

Certified Pre-Owned and Other Certificates

# Certification - Chevrolet Certified Pre-Owned inspected at a odometer mileage of 41750 km
foo:car_155049 uco:inspected [  a uco:Check ;
                                gr:name "Chevrolet Certified Pre-Owned Vehicle"@en ;
                                foaf:page <http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/certified-program.html> ;
                                uco:mileage [   a gr:QuantitativeValue ;
                                                gr:hasValue "41750"^^xsd:float ;
                                                gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "KMT"^^xsd:string ] ;
                                uco:carriedOutBy  uco:AuthorizedDealer ] . 
		

Smoking / Non-smoking

# Non-smoking: Nobody has ever smoked inside the car
foo:car_155049 uco:smoking false .
		

Pets

# The car has been used to carry dogs (regularly)
foo:car_155049 uco:pets dbpedia:Dog .			
		

Number of Owners

# Two owners: The current owner is the second owner
foo:car_155049 uco:numberOfOwners "2"^^xsd:integer .			
		

Detailed Ownership Records

Scenario: In the following, we show how the full ownership and usage record of a car can be modeled.

RDFa

You can use the tool at http://rdf-translator.appspot.com to generate an RDFa version of the example.

Turtle

Periods of Ownership

# Detailed ownership record
# The car has been owned by Frank Sample from 2002-02-15 (odometer: 0 km) through 2004-06-15 (odometer 13,000 km)
# and by Miller Inc from 2004-06-15 (odometer: 13,000 km) through today.

foo:person a schema:Person ;
# add other properties from http://schema.org/Person, if data is available
    schema:name "Frank Sample" .

foo:car_155049 uco:hasOwnershipInfo foo:record1, foo:record2 .

foo:record1 a uco:OwnershipInfo ;
    uco:owner foo:person ;
    uco:from "2002-02-15T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    uco:to "2004-06-15T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    uco:mileageInitial [ a gr:QuantitativeValue ;
                         gr:hasValueFloat "0"^^xsd:float ;
                         gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "KMT"^^xsd:string ] ;  
    uco:mileageEnd     [ a gr:QuantitativeValue ;
                         gr:hasValueFloat "13000"^^xsd:float ;
                         gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "KMT"^^xsd:string ] .

foo:record2 a uco:OwnershipInfo ;
# Note that uco:currentOwner is a specialization of uco:owner
# Also note that we already defined Miller Inc. above
    uco:currentOwner foo:company ;
    uco:from "2004-06-15T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    uco:mileageInitial     [ a gr:QuantitativeValue ;
                         gr:hasValueFloat "13000"^^xsd:float ;
                         gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "KMT"^^xsd:string ] .
		

Car Details per Period of Ownership

The ownership record could also state additional facts about the ownership period of Frank Sample.

The vehicle was used to carry dogs.

foo:record1 uco:pets dbpedia:Dog .
		

The vehicle was used for private purposes including commuting.

foo:record1 uco:usage uco:Private .
		

The vehicle was mainly parked it in a garage.

foo:record1 uco:usage uco:Garage .
		

The vehicle's main location was in Tuczon, Arizona.

foo:record1 uco:mainLocation [ a schema:PostalAddress ;
                               schema:addressCountry "USA"@en ;
                               schema:addressLocality "Tuczon"@en ;
                               schema:addressRegion "AZ"@en ] .
		

The license plate during that period was "L8 4 KRT".

foo:record1 uco:licensePlate "L8 4 KRT"^^xsd:string .
		

The vehicle was used by two different drivers.

foo:record1 uco:numberOfDrivers "2"^^xsd:integer .
		

Nobody smoked in the car during that period of time.

foo:record1 uco:smoking false .
		

Type of Usage per Period of Ownership

The Vehicle Sales Ontology (VSO) already provides a simple means for # indicating usage as a rental car for the entire lifespan of the car via the vso:rentalUsage property:

foo:car_155049 vso:rentalUsage true .

The Used Car Ontology allows making such statements at a more granular level:

• The information can be attached to a uco:OwnershipInfo node. This allows for stating ownership during periods of ownership individually.
• Instead of a binary yes/no indication, one can specify various types of usage:
  • uco:Business
  • uco:CarSharing
  • uco:DrivingSchool
  • uco:Private
  • uco:Rental
  • uco:Taxi

# Usage as a rental car 
# Example 1: The car was used for rental, business, and private purposes, in total:
foo:car_155049 uco:usage uco:Rental, uco:Business, uco:Private .

# Example 2: The car was used for rental and business purposes by Miller Inc. (see above)
foo:record2 uco:usage uco:Rental, uco:Business .
		

Inspections (MOT, ...)

Scenario: Often, the date and expiry of mandatory of optional certifications and inspections is important information for advertising a used car.

RDFa

You can use the tool at http://rdf-translator.appspot.com to generate an RDFa version of the example.

Turtle

MOT Testing

# MOT Test valid until 2013-06-15
# Carried out on 2012-06-16 at 35,000 km
# See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection for background information
# Note: This example is made-up, since a US vehicle will very rarely undergo a UK MOT test ;-)
foo:car_155049 uco:inspected [ a uco:Check ;
                               gr:name "MOT Test"@en ;
                               gr:description "MOT passed on 2012/06/14"@en ;
                               uco:mileage [ a gr:QuantitativeValue ;
                                             gr:hasValueFloat "35000"^^xsd:float ;
                                             gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "KMT"^^xsd:string ] ;
                               uco:validFrom "2012-06-16T00:00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
                               uco:validThrough "2013-06-15T23:59:59"^^xsd:dateTime ] .
		

Accident Information

Scenario:The car was damaged in an accident on 2012-03-01 in Palo Alto, CA at a mileage of 33,546 km. All damages have been repaired by an authorized service center with original parts only. There were no structural damage and none of the airbags were deployed in the accident. The owner was not at fault.

RDFa

You can use the tool at http://rdf-translator.appspot.com to generate an RDFa version of the example.

Turtle

Accident Details

                        
# Accident Information
foo:car_155049 uco:eventInformation foo:Accident1.

foo:Accident1 a uco:DamageOrAccident ;
    schema:location  [ a schema:PostalAddress ;
                       schema:addressCountry "USA"@en ;
                       schema:addressLocality "Palo Alto"@en ;
                       schema:addressRegion "CA"@en ] ;
    schema:startDate "2012-03-01"^^xsd:date ;
    schema:endDate "2012-03-01"^^xsd:date ;
    uco:mileage [ a gr:QuantitativeValue ;
                  gr:hasValueFloat "33546"^^xsd:float ;
                  gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "KMT"^^xsd:string ] ;
    uco:repaired true ;
    uco:carriedOutBy uco:AuthorizedDealer ;
    uco:originalPartsOnly true ;
    uco:totalLoss false ;
    uco:structuralDamage false ;
    uco:airbagDeployed false ;
    uco:notAtFaultAccident true .
		

Replacement of Core Parts (Engine, ...)

Scenario: Often, the replacement of core components of a car is important information for describing a used car.

RDFa

You can use the tool at http://rdf-translator.appspot.com to generate an RDFa version of the example.

Turtle

Engine Replacement

# Engine Replacement
# The engine has been replaced at a mileage of 16,000 km on Sept. 15, 2004.
foo:car_155049 uco:eventInformation foo:NewEngine .

foo:NewEngine a uco:ModificationOrMaintenance ;
    uco:partReplaced "Engine"@en ;
    schema:startDate "2004-09-15"^^xsd:date ;
    schema:endDate "2004-09-15"^^xsd:date ;
    uco:mileage [ a gr:QuantitativeValue ;
                  gr:hasValueFloat "16000"^^xsd:float ;
                  gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "KMT"^^xsd:string ] .
		

SPARQL Queries

Scenario: Find a used car offer

• offered by a dealer (no private offers, schema:AutomotiveBusiness)
• a mileage lesser or equal to 50,000 miles
• not more than two previous owners
• assertion that it is a non-smoking car (i.e. not just the absence of information)

Note: It is relatively easy to make the query compatible with different units of measurement for the quantitative properties, but this is not shown in here. You can try the query against the sample data provided at http://ontologies.makolab.com/uco/examples.rdf.

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> 
PREFIX schema: <http://schema.org/> 
PREFIX xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> 
PREFIX pto: <http://www.productontology.org/id/> 
PREFIX gr: <http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#> 
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> 
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> 
PREFIX owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> 
PREFIX dbpedia: <http://dbpedia.org/resource/> 
PREFIX vso: <http://purl.org/vso/ns#> 
PREFIX uco: <http://purl.org/uco/ns#> 
PREFIX foo: <http://ontologies.makolab.com/uco/examples.rdf#> 

SELECT ?dealername ?dealerwebpage ?offer ?deeplink ?price ?currency ?vin ?mileage
FROM <http://ontologies.makolab.com/uco/examples.rdf>
WHERE
{
?d a schema:AutomotiveBusiness .
OPTIONAL {?d gr:legalName ?dealername } 
OPTIONAL {?d gr:name ?dealername } 
OPTIONAL {?d schema:name ?dealername } 
OPTIONAL {?d foaf:page ?dealerwebpage }
?d gr:offers ?offer .
?offer gr:hasPriceSpecification ?p .
?p gr:hasCurrencyValue ?price .
?p gr:hasCurrency ?currency .

{
 { ?offer gr:includes ?car }
 UNION
 {
  ?offer gr:includesObject ?bundle .
  ?bundle gr:typeOfGood ?car .
 }
}

?car a vso:Automobile .
OPTIONAL { ?car vso:VIN ?vin }
?car vso:mileageFromOdometer ?m .
?m gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement ?unit .
?unit bif:contains "KMT" .
{
 { ?m gr:hasMaxValue ?mileage }
UNION
 { ?m gr:hasValue ?mileage }
}
OPTIONAL { ?offer foaf:page ?deeplink }
OPTIONAL { ?car foaf:page ?deeplink }
?car uco:numberOfOwners ?o .
?o gr:hasValue ?owners .
?car uco:smoking false .

FILTER (?mileage <= 50000) .
FILTER (?owners <= 2) .
} 
LIMIT 10
		

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1. Classes

• uco:Check
• uco:DamageOrAccident
• uco:ModificationOrMaintenance
• uco:OwnershipInfo
• uco:ParkingType
• uco:PropertyValue
• uco:Species
• uco:UsageType

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2. Datatype Properties

• uco:airbagDeployment
• uco:countryOfOrigin
• uco:countryOfRegistration
• uco:from
• uco:indicationOfOdometerRollback
• uco:licensePlate
• uco:notAtFaultAccident
• uco:numberOfDrivers
• uco:numberOfOwners
• uco:originalPartsOnly
• uco:partAdded
• uco:partRemoved
• uco:partReplaced
• uco:propertyID
• uco:propertyName
• uco:propertyValue
• uco:repaired
• uco:smoking
• uco:structuralDamage
• uco:to
• uco:totalLoss
• uco:unitCode
• uco:unitText
• uco:validFrom
• uco:validThrough

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3. Object Properties

• uco:carriedOutBy
• uco:contains
• uco:currentLocation
• uco:currentOwner
• uco:driver
• uco:eventInformation
• uco:feature
• uco:hasOwnershipInfo
• uco:inspected
• uco:listPrice
• uco:mainLocation
• uco:mileage
• uco:mileageEnd
• uco:mileageInitial
• uco:owner
• uco:parking
• uco:pets
• uco:usage
• uco:valuation

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4. Individuals

• uco:AuthorizedDealer
• uco:Business
• uco:Carport
• uco:CarSharing
• uco:DrivingSchool
• uco:Garage
• uco:IndependentDealer
• uco:MoneyBack
• uco:Private
• uco:Rental
• uco:Street
• uco:Taxi

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5. Contact Information

Dr. Mirek Sopek Makolab S.A. Demokratyczna 46 Łódź 93-430 Poland Phone: +48 42 6837461 eMail: info@makolab.pl Web: http://makolab.pl/

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Hepp Hepp Research GmbH Kuppelnaustrasse 5 D-88212 Ravensburg Germany Phone: +49 751 2708 5256-0 eMail: contact@heppresearch.com Web: http://www.heppresearch.com/

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6. License

The Used Cars Ontology is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work; to remix/adapt the work (e.g. to import the ontology and create specializations of its elements), as long as you attribute the work and link back to http://purl.org/uco/ns#.

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7. Acknowledgements

This documentation has been generated automatically from the most recent ontology specification in OWL using a Python script written by Alex Stolz and Martin Hepp. Our script uses the RDFlib library for parsing and handling RDF and the Jinja template engine for generating the HTML document.

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References

Hepp, Martin: GoodRelations: An Ontology for Describing Products and Services Offers on the Web, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (EKAW2008), Acitrezza, Italy, September 29 - October 3, 2008, Springer LNCS, Vol 5268, pp. 332-347.

Hepp, Martin: From Ontologies to Web Ontologies: Lessons learned from Conceptual Modeling for the WWW, keynote talk at EKAW 2012, video recording available from http://vimeo.com/51152934.

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Change Log

2012-12-31: Version 1.0:A release

• Added uco:countryOfRegistration property
• Bugfixes

2012-10-27: First official release

• Added examples and queries
• Bugfixes

2012-10-17: Initial version