Who is really driving the connected car revolution?
Automotive brands are rushing to embrace the idea of “connected car” from everyman models to the high-end luxury brands. They are drawn by the allure of clear differentiation from lagging competitors, and the promise of engaged consumers who invite their brand into a deeper connection in their day-to-day lives.
The concept of the connected car is not new. In fact the earliest car phones and sat nav systems date back over 30 years. So you’d expect mature, well tested seamless technology, right? Sadly still some of the simplest and mainstream features are a clear pain point for drivers. I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve been frustrated by the user experience involved with onboard navigation systems and it’s telling that the mobile applications provided by Google and Apple are significantly more intuitive and enjoyable to use than luxury brand proprietary systems. There’s also the experience of using your mobile phone with your car — I struggle to switch a call to my car speakers while talking to someone, and don’t even get me started on voice recognition and trying to retrieve contacts from my address book
So the result, and the risk, is not so much engaged consumers, as enraged consumers.
Security is major area of concern — as we move away from passwords and keys, to contactless entry, the press and online forums are awash with horror stories of top end marques being hacked to open the doors whilst in motion. Just this week there were reports of a young guy with a $15 gadget, managing to hack into a connected car from “one of the larger brands” — in seconds he could start the car, access its critical systems and even play music from his own mobile phone through the car speakers. Automotive manufacturers are not alone in the desire to move away from antiquated security systems. RBS and Natwest recently announced the move to use fingerprint touch id to access banking apps, but the risk is that we rush into the utopia of frictionless connection, and lose sight of the security risks and user experience pitfalls along the way.
The motivation is clear — with an expected 220 million connected cars on the road by 2020, and hardware and software expected to account for more than $150 billion in revenue, the market is enormous. Early pioneers in this space are Fiat with their eco:Drive telematics offering, and then later Tesla who took their premium connection service to a whole new level- maintaining a free and constant wireless connection to all their new models, for life. Now in 2015 even non automotive brands want a piece of the pie with Google and Apple going head to head over electric cars and dashboard systems.
The connected car is a dead end
Brilliant Basics was formed around the principle of customer first design, with the intention of delivering products that make life simpler for the user first and foremost. To create a successful “connected” proposition, it’s important to think in terms of the “connected driver” not the “connected car”.
The market is a sprawling early adopter mass — and companies are moving fast to join the dots. Connectivity providers are looking for propositions beyond that of their core business and the Internet of Things is a very attractive draw. The successful proposition however is not just a mesh of functionality but a consistent, intuitive and comprehensive user experience that feels agnostic of the technology or even the product.
Data is also at the heart of that proposition — telematics hardware and software plays an increasingly important role, with machine learning around market demands, more and more individual profiling is becoming possible. Both macro and micro approaches must be actively used to improve the ultimate experience of the user, which is ultimately what will drive sales.
Connecting the car itself
The actual experience of a “connected car” doesn’t start inside the car. Though we spend 6.5 hours a week on average inside our cars, the experience extends beyond the driver’s seat and to our offices, our homes — even while we sleep.
When we’re not in our cars, our predominant need is for peace of mind. Is our car secure whilst it sits on the drive — or in the carpark? As we move towards a model of constant connection, there is the opportunity for the manufacturer — or approved third party — to provide easy monitoring services through GPS tracking, through in car cameras and sensors pick up unwanted activity. It’s not so far-fetched to imagine motion triggered sensors detecting a would-be car thief and using inbuilt cameras with live facial recognition, reporting the location to authorities and, with the advent of driverless cars, being able to gain remote control of the car and delivering the thief into the arms of the law, whilst streaming a live feed of events for evidence.
It’s not all about security
There have been a few occasions I’ve arrived at my car to find that there is an oil leak, or flat tyre and it’s always when you really don’t have the time. Constant connectivity allows easy notification of problems, and even proactive monitoring of the vehicle through your favourite handheld device. Imagine a future when the process is automated and your approved service provider takes care of the problem, according to your subscription service, before you’ve even realised. Frictionless car ownership is certainly a holy grail to aim for, when the technology involved is useful and reliable.
There are a number of areas of vehicle use that could be improved through connectivity. Some are already in fledgling stages of uptake. From the Nest/Hive style capability to manage climate control before you even enter the car, to keyless entry through fingerprint ID. With security there’s the obvious need to provide more than one level of protection — and additional biometric identification is becoming more and more practical; facial or voice recognition to open or start the car — or even retina or iris pattern recognition. It’s possible already to monitor stress levels and emotional state — opening up the potential for intercepting car-jacking attempts or kidnapping.
Constant connection to a central control allows for support in case of distress — where more than standard roadside assistance is possible. With the advent of technology such as Microsoft’s HoloLens and service based offerings such as Fiat’s virtual showroom experience, it’s possible to see a point not too far away where you can be talked through how to make simple repairs to your car by the side of the road. Provided by an expert who can see exactly what you’re doing and advise accordingly. Beyond a central control, could lie an independent self-governed peer to peer system where vehicles are connected to each other and can alert each other of important information like traffic updates, or warn of large vehicles braking sharply ahead. Or even as a cyclist, inform the lorry next to you that you are in their blind spot.
Awareness of the immediate environment
We are maturing beyond the age of parking sensors and reversing cameras, into more and more advanced sensors which even alert you if you drift out of your lane or are likely to hit something. It’s easy to see how we can transition into a world of automated vehicles. But, far from being a forced removal of our ability to drive, it’s a future which embraces technology to enhance the driving experience and provides a safety net to ensure the experience is as risk-free and enjoyable as possible. Cameras which are triggered to record on abrupt braking, or even collision, providing accurate documentation of incidents; warnings based on monitoring of the driver’s health and state of alertness. Imagine a car which takes over should you fall asleep, or which recognises that you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and prevents you from causing harm to yourself or others. Even so far as to allow automation when you take a phone call — ensuring you can focus on the conversation without the risk of the distraction impacting your driving ability. Consider a service that as I drive, my car updates a cloud-based database of road conditions, local weather and visibility, determining a recommended speed limit that is updated in my car and communicating to others connected to the service. It could be the end of road specific speed limits in favour of a more useful and ultimately safer system.
It goes beyond safety and into improved driving
What if gamification made improving your driving efficiency fun? If your fuel efficiency and driving within approved safety parameters led to lower insurance premiums? This opportunity is already being realised by companies such as Drive Like a Girl. If your road tax was mapped to usage rather than a flat fee — even to the point where payment was done through regular micropayments triggered by mapping your actual distance covered. In a future where car ownership is less essential and shared ownership becomes more commonplace, could we see a future where the vehicle you use knows who you are, who is in the car with you and can spread the cost of ownership/usage between you seamlessly.
With all this automation and reliance on technology it’s easy to see how those of us who love to drive might be somewhat apprehensive about the role of the driver in this somewhat sterilised utopia. There are however clear areas where personalisation of the experience is pleasant and rewarding. It’s fairly usual now in more modern cars for the vehicle to store your preferences around steering wheel and car seat position. It’s not a huge leap for us to imagine the car storing all of this along with the temperature preference, rear view mirror preference and then adjusting all of this to the approved driver closest to the vehicle, so when you open the door, everything is already as you like it.
That personalisation can extend to the other touch points within the car — potentially using a portable device as the brain of the car. We carry a frightening amount of computing power in our smart phones which are becoming more and more multipurpose devices. I can see a move away from “smartphone” ownership and into “smart device” ownership where its primary purpose is to host your personalised preferences. The usage of that device then becomes about connected peripherals — such as phone hardware, or a connected vehicle, or many other uses.
We love the ability to personalise our digital world — from our desktops to our phone wallpaper. It’s important to us as humans to put our individual stamp on things. Soon there will come the ability to personalise our in car dashboards beyond simple cosmetic changes, to complex user interface layout customisation based on custom or off the shelf configurable products. Tesla’s large central display is ripe for customisation and open API’s for the car controls will eventually become commonplace.
There’s also the automation and seamless connection of the car to the rest of our lives — already our cloud based calendars can alert us to meetings and warn us of travel times to get there, so why shouldn’t my car understand my calendar and be prepped for my destination from the moment I open the door. No more waiting for my sat nav to boot up and enter a destination, whilst I google for an address on my phone…the address is already entered — the car could even drive me there if I so desire. Pull my contact lists easily from my phone and adjust volume based on road noise not just acceleration, or switch seamlessly between voice over IP connection and standard cell connection. Know when I am approaching my car, and allow me to easily switch between handset and vehicle without making me hunt for obscure menu options. Understand that when I’m on the phone, it’s harder for me to adjust things so make it easy for me. And why should I have to connect to my preferred entertainment app when I enter my car? I just want to listen to music. Recommend choices from my playlists, my cloud based store — or even compile real-time playlists based on my emotional state, my current environment and my desire to be prompted with new things. If there are others in the car, how can we build a shared experience based on our individual profiles and personalised needs. Understand our needs as people — don’t let our experience be driven by how the apps want to work, or how business needs to monetise this service provision.
Better products, not behavioural shift
This is about building products which support how we want to live, not about trying to provide new ways for us to change our behaviour. We’re clearly welcoming of technology as consumers, and we look for novelty, for efficiency and for solutions to problems that technology creates. Monetisation is an important factor but as a consumer base we’re ready to pay for connected services. Nearly a third of us are prepared to pay through additional fees in the initial car purchase price and another third via monthly subscription. We’re even prepared to tolerate adverts if it gets us access to streaming entertainment, and internet connectivity, but more interestingly there’s a large interest in safety features.
The future is about Connected Driver not Connected Car. As a company founded on what we call ‘the business of products’ we believe this is about understanding the product is the experience. It’s exciting if you think about what this means for channel-agnostic digital experiences, and the transition from device-centric to user-centric design.
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