Disruptive technologies are revolutionizing the ways in which vehicles operate, thus changing the face of the automotive industry. Take IoT for instance. Right from the value provided by vehicle telematics, to managing street lights and traffic jams in rush hour traffic, IoT has the ability to herald the rise of connected vehicles. When vehicles are well-equipped to stay connected with the outer world, the passenger-driver experiences elevate to a new level. This, in turn, drives new opportunities for advanced services in key areas like safety, vehicle maintenance, travel experience and more.
Whether it’s the car manufacturer, telematics operator, or vehicle insurance provider, every entity in the automotive sector would want a car that optimizes key aspects of performance, maximizes maintenance, and ensures safety for travelers, and this is what IoT provides.
Connected Cars – The Current State
Avenues for Automobile Manufacturers
The interest around connected vehicles is increasing each day, and with that, we will come across diverse use cases.
So, what can IoT deployments do for auto manufacturers? With the introduction of IoT in automobiles, they do have ample business opportunities in the following areas:
Infotainment solutions
Passengers will have the opportunity to use media apps to listen to their favorite tracks, check out news podcasts or breeze through the latest audiobooks.
Navigation and safety
IoT has a lot to offer when it comes to navigation and car safety. With diverse security features, car controls, and V2V communication, automakers can ensure optimum vehicle safety.
– Vehicle tracker
Owners can get instant updates whenever safety speed limits or locational boundaries are being crossed by the vehicle. This way, they can keep track of the cars driven by other staff or family members.
– Risk notifications
IoT can analyze data on speed, traffic, road conditions, or proximity to pedestrians and enable preventive measures such as timely automated braking or timely driver alerts. This helps avoid mishaps which would’ve been otherwise inevitable due to human limitations.
– Voice recognition
Hands-free services result in increased driver convenience and concentration. The presence of contextual voice identification facilities and features will lead to easy and hassle-free driving.
– Self-driving controls
Self-driving autonomous vehicles will get the right impetus from IoT embedded into the autonomous cars. Tesla EVs are a prime example.
Challenges That Impact IoT Adoption in the Automotive Sector
In spite of the several opportunities and applications introduced by the Internet of Things, stakeholders in the automotive sector are facing critical challenges that act as a barrier in mainstream adoption. Although the landscape is diverse and expanding each day with new innovations, you just can’t ignore the complexities completely. Let’s outline the challenges faced by automotive manufacturers and connected vehicle startups –
Information protection
All 3 forms of data analytics – descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive analytics – of the connected car need to be bound by appropriate security to prevent hacks or breaches and secure data-in-motion.
Challenges in data streaming
The underlying architecture of automotive IoT involves constant communication between cars, servers, and client applications, via sockets and sensors that relay data every second of the drive. Be it traffic conditions, road conditions, tracking, or navigation, every data point needs to be smoothly relayed. But the presence of physical barriers like tunnels or remote locations, or bandwidth issues will impede the smooth transmission of vital information.
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