Connected Cars — A Fast Brewing World in Automotive
Introduction & Navigating through History
There is a very famous saying that the cars we drive say a lot about us. I think this couldn’t be more true in the world we live in. We yearn for the best return on investment when it comes to selecting a car. Our go-to parameters to shortlist cars have been consistent over the years. A standard question which is still very valid today is “Mileage kitna deti hai?” or what is the mileage? This continues to be a major deal breaker for a good portion of the customers but most buyers also consider the size of the vehicle, expected resale value, fuel cost, after market service and off-late buyers have also started considering the safety features (Airbags, ABS). This was also a result of lenient regulations on the safety requirements. While the early adopters have added a new and a very critical parameter to this checklist which is whether the car has in-built connectivity. To understand the importance of these features, the late adopters need to catch up with these innovative suite of Connected car services else they are missing out on a very exciting yet important experience. In case the buzz word Connected Car caught your attention, read on my friend.
Let’s begin by answering what a connected car is all about?
A connected car is a car which has the ability to communicate with systems both inside and outside the car using in-car connectivity. A connected car has internet access within it which allows data sharing with devices both inside and outside the vehicle. In more basic terms, you are driving a car which is constantly sending key data points from the car to a cloud based application hosted at a secure site. Now, please don’t jump into the conclusion of your privacy being compromised, which is not the case here but surely one should have concerns. But that’s a discussion for another day which would last for years to come.
Next you want to inquire about the services which are enabled in a connected car.
Typically, the following are the broad services which can be activated using the connected car suite:
1. Car Navigation: The features under this category allows the driver to make informed decisions on reaching a destination quickly, safely, and in a cost-efficient manner using the navigation data (Current traffic information, shortest routes available, Parking lot or garage assistance eventually leading to optimized fuel consumption)
2. E-commerce: These could be an array of services enabling users to purchase goods or services on-the-fly (Now pay for your fuel from your car app, order food & beverage, pay parking, tolls)
3. Vehicle Insights: These functions enable drivers to know the vehicle condition and further help them reduce operating costs and improve ease of use (Vehicle condition, mainly referred to as telematics and service scheduling and reminders based on the vehicle condition, remote operations)
4. Breakdown prevention: This is basically predictive analytics or data you analyze to predict events. In this, using a back end algorithm predicting breakdowns and connected to a breakdown service, the car has the ability to use an outbound service intervening via phone, SMS or push notification on the connected car app.
5. Safety: These functions intimate the driver of external hazards and internal responses of the vehicle to hazards. Basically, in case you have had an unfortunate crash, your car immediately makes an emergency call (referred to as e-call) to the responsible call center and reports the incident. (Emergency breaking, lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, blind spot object identification)
6. Entertainment: This involves integrating content from various sources on the entertainment unit for the passengers (Smartphone interface, Wi-Fi hotspot, music, video, Internet, social media, mobile office)
7. Driver assistance: These functions comprise of partially or fully automatic driving. There are in-car speech recognition or voice activation systems which aims to remove the distraction of looking at your mobile or car dashboards while driving. (Operational assistance or autopilot in heavy traffic, in parking, or on highways)
8. Comfort and Well-being: This manages driver’s comfort and current state to drive (Fatigue detection, automatic environment adjustments to keep drivers alert, medical assistance)
Consider this as the base layer of a thick and rich chocolate cake being baked in the world of automotive. We’ll cover the baking involved in each layer in more detail in the next set of blogs.
It’s obvious to think at this moment that your car doesn’t do any of it, or possesses a few functions but not all. This has already become a hot space to follow and automotive OEMs are racing with one another to roll out these functionalities in more and more models, without limiting them to their premium ones.
So let’s take a step back and see how this came into existence. What was the inflection point which led to its discovery?
General Motors was the first automaker to bring the first connected car features to market with a program called OnStar in 1996. They started this with Cadillac DeVille, Seville and Eldorado. In the beginning, the program was limited to notifications of crashes to emergency responders, locating the vehicle and roadside assistance. While this began as an after-market model i.e. customers can opt for these services and choose to pay for them like they do with additional accessories for their cars, in 1998, GM improved the OnStar service with change to factory‐installed models that allow for hands‐free calling and voice recognition. During these years, other OEMs geared themselves up and launched similar suite of services. In 1999, Mercedes‐Benz launches its TeleAid telematics program with emergency response roadside assistance and location of stolen vehicles. By 2003 connected car services included vehicle health reports, turn-by-turn directions and a network access device. The OnStar program was such a huge success that in 2015, OnStar had processed 1 billion requests from customers. It is safe to consider it the benchmark program in this space.
Clearly this space has enough promise and has already delivered value in various ways in different parts of the world. The strong, steady and slow world of automotive has been totally rocked by new technology. It definitely gave it an extra pair of supersonic wings to fly faster than ever. There is a huge ecosystem of connected car services and mobility services startups, technology giants, consulting companies and finally automotive OEMs which are working tirelessly to modernize the way we commute.
Follow this space with us while we bring you the latest and hottest innovations which might just lead to your next career choice, your new passion or at least your new car.
Editing Credits — Abhijay S Sisodia
