IoT in the driving seat of Automotive Industry transformation

IoT solutions are increasingly permeating the transportation sector and coming into everyday use. This trend will transform the way that personal transportation functions and nowhere will this be more evident to the general public than in the automotive sector.
Intel, the technology company, has predicted that by 2020, 152 million connected cars will be on the road, equipped with a range of new technologies and systems that will change the way cars inform, operate, entertain, and assist drivers, passengers, and other motorists.
From Moving to a Mobile Sensor and Communications Hub
If previously a car could be seen as seats attached to a metal frame and an internal combustion engine, the more appropriate image — now and in the future — is of sitting inside a mobile communications device equipped with sensors, which is in touch constantly with other systems and devices.
The principles at operation with devices in a car are similar to those of other IoT systems. IoT devices communicate through the communications infrastructure (e.g. through cellular, WiFi, hotspot, and other IEEE 802.11p enhanced products). Data can be therefore collected and processed, and then information provided or actions taken as appropriate.
These sensors and communications devices enable multidirectional vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to/from-driver, and vehicle-to/from-cloud information and data flows. As they are used, vehicles collect data on their surrounding operating environment, and can transmit or process this data.
The range of data that can be collected is considerable and can cover road conditions, vehicle relative positioning (vis-à-vis other traffic), obstacle detection, driver and internal systems monitoring, among other aspects. The image below, from Cisco, highlights some of the types of sensors that can be present that are just those concerned with vehicle safety.

There are many aspects that will be transformed through the integration of IoT devices and systems. These include the enabling of smart predictive maintenance, improvements to safety, and enhanced driver / operator experience.
Smart Predictive Maintenance
With the installation of sensors that monitor the condition of internal car systems, predictive maintenance is likely to become considerably more effective. Rather than scheduling maintenance around a pre-determined calendar or distance point approach (e.g. once a year or every 12,000 km), maintenance can be based on the actual condition of key parts.
To give an example, monitoring the tyres and brakes can be undertaken more effectively, with wear determined, tyre pressures monitored, and braking effectiveness calculated. This enables replacement to be undertaken when it is actually needed and not just at the nominal servicing appointment.
For companies, this predictive maintenance approach has already been rolled out for fleet management. The World Economic Forum estimates that around $44 billion could be saved over 10 years through the use of in-vehicle diagnostic systems, smart components and continuous connectivity. The number of critical or unanticipated failures is expected to drop substantially, and — at an industry level — reduce the frequency and requirement for recalls.
Safety
This is the big one. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington has stated that connected infrastructure and technology could address 80% of crashes involving unimpaired drivers.
The sensors outlined in the figure from Cisco above show the range of potential safety tools that IoT systems could put in place to increase driver alertness and situational awareness on the one hand, while also potentially being used to automate driver functions in an emergency situation to avoid a collision. Clearly, there will need to be ongoing discussion between automotive and IT companies, regulators, governments and the public as to what level of automation is viewed as acceptable and under what conditions — for instance, the idea of ‘self-driving autonomous cars’ is well known, with large scale trials being run on the roads in several countries, notably in the UK and USA.
Data, Data, and More Data
The quantities of data that could potentially be generated by IoT sensors and systems are considerable, with Hitachi claiming that over 25GB/hour of data could be generated by a single connected vehicle. Processing, storing, tracking and understanding this data will place major demands on IT and telecommunications companies. But the insights that can be gained may well be considerable and consumers have indicated that they would be interested in IoT insights.
One study from Deloitte showed that consumers in particular would value real-time traffic/weather and navigation information (with around 40% of respondents placing these as the most important aspects), automated diagnostic and maintenance information (28%), and access-related systems (23%).
Conclusions
IoT systems are only just beginning to be exploited within the automotive industry, but they have the potential to result in major changes to the way that people interact with their vehicles and in the way that vehicles operate in the local environment.
In 2014, 60% of consumers said that they would be willing to pay for connected car solutions. As IoT application development companies widen the array of services and their IoT solutions are increasingly deployed, this figure is only likely to rise as consumers see for themselves the benefits that can be gained.
