Every day there are new announcements related to connected car functionality. This topic continues to be hot. Announcements come from the auto OEMs, aftermarket players working toward late model cars, app developers, mobile operators and on and on.
Some topics that have peaked my interest recently include start-ups in Europe focused on this space such as High Mobility, from Estonia — not a country you think of when you think about automotive markets. Just a sign of how widespread the opportunities in this segment are.
High Mobility claims to want to change the way we ‘interact with our cars’ by providing connections between people, locations and automobiles. OK, maybe we’re going to go to lunch together? There are three elements required for it to work. A car kit for the OEM to incorporate into the vehicle in order to keep all safety data securely separate from the information being accessed by the user. Wearable architecture described as the ‘Internet of Me,’ to allow the user to interact with the vehicle, access data and give it commands. Lastly, beacons that can tell when you’re in its personal space and also if there is a security or safety issue in its personal space. A car that never sleeps. Well its website is admittedly high level at this point, but they’ve done a great job of marketing that left me wanting to know more.
What if you have an older car? A company called Automatic is tackling this challenge and claims to support nearly every car manufactured since 1996. It is using a service called If This Then That (IFTTT) to make it work.  Automatic has created a channel on IFTTT that allows for triggers related to your driving experience to be implemented via an app on your smartphone and the use of a small device that plugs into the data port on your vehicle. Then everything connects via Bluetooth to your device. The video below shows some of the applications that can be included, unfortunately including posting to Facebook when you arrive at home. OK that last one is going overboard and I shutter to think about how many people will actually start doing this.
At the moment Automatic is only offered in the United States. And if you’re wondering about the level of acceptance of this type of solution, Ford and Automatic just announced a partnership to bring Siri to the dashboard through this product.
Lastly, a little fun for Freitag. What if you have a really old car? In early August Nokia teamed up with Deutsche Telekom to provide in-car video over LTE at the annual AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix taking place at Germany’s Nürburgring. Two videos highlight the experience. OK, not really a connected car per se, but a really innovative use of LTE by Nokia and Deutsche Telekom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgn0tdKo3g8
There is a second video discussing the details of the project that can be viewed here, but it is in German, from recent TV coverage of the event.
