The future of telematics: key insights from Telematics conference CEEurope
What is the future of telematics? When will it become widespread? These were the questions that a group of experts led by the session host, Den Demianikov from Navixy, had to discuss in the framework of Telematics conference and expo CEEurope, part 1.
If you couldn’t be there or missed the conference or want to remember how it went, we’d like to share some of the key takeaways from the event.
Is telematics mass-market?
While a number of IT-products turned out to be quite popular throughout the industries, e.g. CRMs and ERPs, telematics is not there yet. Den Demyanikov starts with a straightforward idea: If you ask a random person on the street, ‘What is telematics?’ most certainly they won’t understand you. In business terms, it means companies don’t realize the value of implementing telematics.
So, what stops telematics from becoming widespread? The panelists singled out three major challenges.
Market difference
Countries have different telematics penetration rates and therefore require different solutions. For Latin America and Africa, the main issue is still security. For Europe and North America, the focus is on efficiency and tech progress.
Lack of standardization
Den Demianikov shares: “Telematics is all about the data. But now, as I see it, telematics is a bit chaotic. There are no specific rules or a single standard”. The same idea was supported by Colin Sutherland of Geotab in the previous session. All the participants understand these concerns. The data should be stored, but who shall be responsible for it?
Small companies are not ready for API
No software provider can build a solution that fits all the specific requirements. API can easily help with that. Unfortunately, not all businesses are ready to hire developers and use this amazing tool. Armands Viksna shares, that for small businesses it’s a struggle.
Knowing the challenges, now we can focus on the ways out.
What might be the remedy for telematics?
There are many applications and solutions on the market. Which one of them is the future?
Electric vehicles and wireless. Though it seems to be an absolute trend, the conference attendees were divided in their opinions. In North America, emerging technologies and OTA are gaining momentum. Yet for many other parts of the world, EVs are too futuristic.
Working with OEMs. Aftermarket sales need separate GPS devices. When it comes to new vehicles, some manufacturers apply telematics by design as they wish to offer their clients more high-tech features. A lot of software companies now collaborate with OEMs to complete the business workflows.
Free/ open-source telematics. Can telematics data become free of charge? Vojtěch Honetschläger, of CEDA maps, suggests: the data might be free for non-commercial applications and paid for further developments by businesses or the government.
Data as a service. A few platforms offer anonymized location-based data. It works great for big solutions, like connected cities, but requires extra efforts for smaller companies.
Answering the main question: what’s the future of telematics
So, is the future of telematics a particular tool? Creating separate features is not a trend anymore, you should create an impact, Den Demianikov says. Adaptive and advanced API fits the description.
Creating separate features is not a trend anymore. Focus on creating opportunities instead.
We can’t neglect the generation of millennials and their favorite tool — smartphones. But businesses love mobile technology just as much. Den Demianikov explains, “Many telematics stakeholders see cell phones as hardware”. It can be a game-changer for price-sensitive regions, where GPS trackers and IoT hardware installation can be quite costly.
Many telematics stakeholders see cell phones as hardware.
We’d like to thank the panelists and organizers of the Telematics conference and expo for the great event and a wonderful networking opportunity. As for the future of telematics, do you agree with the experts’ predictions? Leave your comments in the section below or on our Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter communities, we’d love to hear your opinion.
This is an abridged version. Full text and video of the discussion are available in the original Navixy article: https://navixy.news/920
