Automotive made Automatic with IoT
The invention of wheel is said to be the first most revolutionary idea of the man-kind. It made life easier by making transportation faster. From then till now, we have seen a variety of advancements in this field, namely, the invention of steam engine and aeroplanes. The advancement (or replacement) for these can be witnessed by listening to almost any technological talks that is going to revolutionise the galaxy, the invention of which would alter the world altogether, the current trend and hot topic — “Electric Vehicles”. But what if I told you that the delay in the welcoming of this technology can simply be solved by finding its answer in another advancement taking place simultaneously? What if you could summon your car just by calling it? How is it possible, you might wonder. The answer is IOT — Internet of Things. It is simply a system of interconnected devices that transfer and exchange data over a wireless network without any human intervention. Oh wait, before getting into the technicalities, let me give you a small situation for you to realise how different, simple and easier life could be, with IOT.
Imagine just another day in your life when you are in a hurry to go to your office. But you woke up late and have lost your key somewhere, in your unorganised, messy house. You keep searching for it, cursing every object and person next to you. Once you find it, you rush over to your garage to take off but your neighbour decides to make small talks exactly at the right moment, not moving the car that stands right in front of yours. Pretending to smile in this very difficult situation, you somehow manage to take off to your work. There are a couple of calls from your boss who is absolutely ready to smash your head off, the minute he sees you. You forget to put on your seat belt and are riding beyond the speed limit in a very crowded street. As the third call comes from your boss, you attend it from your phone, inventing a couple of useless lies in your mind already. You get scolded for being irresponsible. But in that instance, a cop stops your car and you are fined for not wearing your seatbelt, for riding beyond the said speed limit and for using the phone while driving. The cop takes a couple more minutes than needed. You pay the fine and move on, only wanting the day to be already over. But to your bad luck, a drunkard decides to hit his bike in your car. The rear part of your car is damaged. After managing not to beat the hell out of the man, you stand there waiting for your insurance team to arrive. Once they check it, they tell you to come the next day to report the incident in their office. Somehow, shaken, you finally manage to reach the office an hour late and when you think your day can’t get any worser, you notice there is not a single place to park your car.
Oops, a little too tragic, isn’t it?
But what if I told you that the whole situation could have gone rather smoothly? How about we take a look at the same situation at hand, but now with IoT?
You are fast asleep in your bed when you feel a slight vibration in your hand. As you slide your eyes open, you hear a loud voice that says “Your car will be set ready for you in 5 minutes to meet Mr Jablonski”. You get ready on time and wait in front of the garage and whisper to your waist band to bring on the car. It being semi-autonomous can connect itself to your waistband and with a couple of sensors can drive itself to the place you stand, without colliding with any object or person. You wave a good bye to your neighbour and give him a big smile from your car. There is an alert for you to wear your seatbelt which you comply to. There is a call from your boss and you attend it comfortably from your car speaker which always connects by itself at 1m radius distant to your phone. You tell your boss that you are on your way to the client’s place and give him the exact details of the location that is shown in the GPS of the screen that is set on the car. The boss appreciates your punctuality and you notice that the road is filled with traffic, so you take a different road than the usual. Once the road is free, you rise on the speed to the maximum extent but you are warned again to drive within the speed limits. But a drunk man decides to hit your car with his bike. As soon as it happens, after a 5 minute wait, you notice a drone flying towards you that reads the name of your insurance company. It quickly captures all the angles of your car and in the next moment, there is a call from your insurance company for the renewal of your money. A car mechanic also arrives at your place to take your car to a workshop and a taxi is booked for you from the insurance company, all in a matter of time. As you climb into the taxi, you notice a message in your phone asking if you have got hurt anywhere from the hospital you regularly visit. Clicking a quick no, you are taken to your office ON TIME!
It felt like reading a far fetched science fiction, didn’t it? The point is for you to know how far the IOT can alter our daily life for the better.
Let me just sum it all up in a few sentences. You will simply be able to use IOT to
Remember your schedule when you have forgotten your own.
Be cautious of your safety by making sure you travel within speed limits, wear seatbelt and not use phone while driving.
Connect your car to a GPS system that shows the shortest and less crowded road to travel in
Autonomous, or at least semi-autonomously drive your car.
Link it with the insurance company.
Connect it to your hospital in case of a sudden accident.
Provide safety for your car and being alerted if there is a break-in.
Make sure your car is not in any repair and reminds you when there is less fuel or gas.
Put shortly, the IoT is the DNA of new-generation automotive. For the moment you have your vehicle in your pocket. With a single tap on the app, you can control and know your vehicle’s stats.
These are just a few fields that are already being worked on. But you can surely imagine the greater need of IOT in Automotive industry, don’t you? If electric vehicles were to take over this industry, IoT technology can be used to integrate data from a power generating, storage, and supercapacitor unit to enhance regenerative braking efficacy. If IOT can bring such a huge change in just your car usage, can you see how much transformations would occur in the trains and aeroplanes? There is a possibility that the accidents that occur now might be completely stopped.
It is known that the technology that has been advancing for the past thousand years will converge with each other in just hundred more years. Yes, the future is much faster than what you think it is. The hundredth year might be today, tomorrow, a year or a decade later. It does no one any good to wait for change to come and then adapt to the situation at this point but rather, a smart man would already know by now, the tomorrow.
