In years to come, you will be working, shopping, planning, and traveling in your car. Big Data will make your vehicle more than just a tool for commuting and make it a connected car.
But what is a connected car? In layman’s words – any vehicle connected to the internet is called a Connected Car.
According to Ben Barber, Managing Director at XA Group it is no longer about merely moving from point A to point B, but as Ford CEO Mark Fields has put it, one of “changing the way the world moves.” Connectivity is integral to all of this, driving several innovations that are either here now or work-in-progress.
Barber explains that demand for greater connectivity coupled with the rollout of 5G will make connected cars the new norm. GSMA estimates that by 2025 when 100% of all new vehicles will be connected, there will be more than 400 million connected passenger vehicles alone. Furthermore, Gartner revealed that in 2023, the automotive industry would become the largest market for 5G Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
How will this benefit users?
Firstly, the term “users” is not limited to passengers but also – fleet owners, smart cities, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original equipment suppliers (OESs).
For passengers, connected vehicle technology will provide many advantages, including driver assistance, safety features, entertainment, well-being, and vehicle and mobility management. Automobiles could receive prompt product upgrades over the air to enhance software functions further. According to the UN, approximately 1.3 million people die every year due to road traffic accidents, with 20-50 million suffering non-fatal injuries. The majority of all casualties are vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists. Users will be automatically connected to ecosystems to enable more effortless road charging and reactive traffic monitoring and management, significantly improving the driving experience.
For businesses, connected vehicle technology will bring new avenues for monetizing connected-car data with big data analytics. In addition, connected vehicle ecosystems will enable the mass use of fully autonomous vehicles and provide scheduled maintenance and regionalized fleet-management features while significantly enhancing vehicle condition monitoring, predictive analytics and optimized fuel/hydrogen/electricity consumption. In the long term, several of these benefits will support the shift towards the vehicle-as-a-service model, where subscription models based on usage rather than ownership gain market share.
The opportunities and potential for businesses and passengers alike to unlock the future of mobility are evident. However, we are moving towards a more interconnected world that individuals build, engineered to thrive on interoperability, sustainability and convenience. One can only speculate what the actual future of the automotive industry holds, given the pace at which technology keeps evolving.
