I just spent the last two days at the Telematics Munich event. It’s great to see the overnight growth and abundant options for innovation and change in this industry. For those of you who may not be familiar with this event, it is not just telematics. Although it was when the event initially launched, it is now so much more and really a connected-car event, with a little bit of autonomous driving thrown in.
Let’s touch on some highlights and bits of data from the event. There was a lot of talk about data. Who’s gathering it, storing it, analyzing it and taking action on it? Whether the OEM, the telecom operator or a systems integrator of some type, many options will present themselves in the near future. Could there be a couple of new business models coming into play where there are companies that are brokerages for trend implications from the data gathered from the vehicle that could be sold to interested parties to help them plan future products? Customers could be OEMs, insurers, and government agencies for a few examples.
And there’s privacy concerns. Here’ s the question I’d like to pose related to this topic – why are we causing such a stir about this topic? News and controversy, that’s why. Think about this is context – as a society we freely share our lives’ happenings and whereabouts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, FourSquare, the list goes on. Users have come to understand that you cannot have an expectation of privacy in these formats. Next is the smartphone. In order to improve your smartphone experience you keep your location data turned on in order to use location-based applications. Now we start talking about the car gathering data on where we’re going and when, what apps we’re using, what we might buy and it’s suddenly a potential crisis. And let’s not forget, the chances are quite high that you have your smartphone in the vehicle with you and turned on, so this information is already shared. Here we go again.
Context is king. How well should your car know you and where do we draw the line? Do I want the car to know where I am and provide parking suggestions, gas station locations and pricing suggestions and the like? Do I want a profile in my car related to the different users in my family? Do I want the car to know my daily commute and proactively offer options based on traffic? What about sending a text to the person I’m meeting based on my phone book to say where and when we are meeting and then update if the traffic situation changes? HERE does all of this and more. I went for a test drive with HERE to see the functions coming in the next release. We will see a more sophisticated offering coming in vehicles in Q2 2015 incorporating these functions and more. A live example of the vision for the future is their partnership with Mercedes-Benz to make autonomous driving a reality.
Who is the telco in the vehicle? The majority of telecom operators talk about the connected car. Whether it’s in an “Internet of Things” (IoT) group, Machine-2-Machine (M2M) group, connected-car group or some other name, they are all moving at different speeds and have different areas of focus. So there are those who just want to provide transport connectivity and those who want to provide an end-to-end solution. But what about the OEM as an MVNO? This was a pretty active topic on Day 1. Do we foresee BMW telecom services in the future? I personally don’t think so, but not everyone aligns on this topic.
Integration of the home and the automobile
There was a lot of discussion around the different geographic regions and the consumer view of the connected car. The reality is Americans spend a lot more time in their vehicle than in Europe and with their family along for the ride. They want to drive around in their living room. Think about it – watching entertainment, using the Wi-Fi hot spot, drinking, eating, having a comfortable chair, being able to control the lighting and temperature in my house, etc. Driving your “living room” around doesn’t sound so far fetched when you think about it. Whereas, Europeans don’t spend as much time commuting in cars as there’s a much higher availability and use of public transportation. And in Germany specifically, there is still a view that a car is for driving and the enjoyment of that experience.  Different offers and marketing programs will be required.  A one-size-fits-all for the connected car won’t work.
I had one idea posed to me by an OEM as a vision for autonomous driving integration that is really amazing if you think about it. Sensors in your steering wheel that can tell when you’re not feeling well to the point that your driving is compromised and take over. This isn’t about falling asleep at the wheel, this is related to blood pressure and heart function, etc.
Is the Cloud really the answer for big data in cars? Everyone talks about the car in the cloud, how all of the data points, personalization functions and soft features will be in the Cloud. Both OEMs and telcos have “Car in the Cloud” teams. One player with a telecom infrastructure background I spoke with said this will never work. As more data and functionality come on board the latency will become too long for the consumer to have a good experience while in motion, so what about “Car in the mobile network edge?” Stay tuned on this topic.
Shopping while driving? The highlight of Day 2 was a keynote by Alibaba to discuss its vision for bringing e-commerce to the vehicle. Putting aside the thoughts of shopping while driving. Think of the implications to the mobile economy of in-app/in-vehicle purchases that could arise and the implications to security. This opens some huge doors for innovation of new payment and business models in the future.
Great show. I’m looking forward to the next one. Keep an eye on RCR Wireless for some deep-dive interviews from the show over the next few days.
