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For every person at the automotive manufacturer, advertising agency or a technology partner supporting the customer experience, one question remains unanswered when discussing the value proposition of connected cars: How can we maximise the use of the data being transmitted from the vehicle?

It makes sense to ask. As cars become integrated into broader Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems of mobile devices and connected products, they will not only begin to detect data coming in from devices and objects outside the vehicle, but also begin to transmit data from the vehicle to external endpoints. The sheer amount of data that cars will store and send via the cloud is unprecedented. 

Such a dramatic change in the way cars interact with drivers, brands and the world around them presents a series of benefits for businesses, consumers and even governments. To explain the opportunities in store, here is my take on the most important data trends to expect as cars become connected to the things around them.

Data-driven insights and improvements

A number of models on the road today already capture and send information about the car’s performance to automakers. There are substantial information privacy issues surrounding the use of this data, which can also include sensitive data on driving habits, vehicle location history, and the use of in-vehicle entertainment and communications systems. Eventually, all vehicles will be transmitting such data and more.

This information can be used by automakers to help design higher quality and safer vehicles, as well as by highway departments to improve roadways, and by insurance companies to customize policies and plans based on actual and predicted driver behaviour. These are just a few parties expected to benefit from automotive connectivity.

Certain major automakers have already adopted guidelines around the use of this information, including requiring individual consumers to opt into its use. This self-policing is a start towards protecting automakers from customer dissatisfaction and even legal allegations over perceived data misuse. While marketing teams will be tempted to use location data and in-car preferences to provide targeted suggestions to drivers, there is a risk this could alienate customers – so the opt-in mechanism for data collection will be crucial.

Driving away distractions

The proliferation of in-vehicle systems and applications has created a myriad of potential driver distractions. The interfaces and software buttons for in-car navigation systems, entertainment systems and operating systems are all located on the center console, pulling the driver’s attention from the road. This year, we will continue to see simpler and more easily navigated interfaces. But even more promising is the coming use of gestures – aka motion data – to initiate system and applications actions with less risk of driver distraction.

When cars are truly smart and equipped to sense data in real-time, they won’t need a central command screen anymore. Frost & Sullivan’s automotive and transportation senior research analyst, Ramnath Eswaravadivoo, recently noted that gesture pads or built-in sensors on the steering wheel will soon likely replace distracting central consoles. Imagine streaming an album via the cloud on your car speakers with the wave of a hand – or changing the directions on your GPS without even looking at a screen.

Geo-fencing integration

Finally, there is the very promising merging of capabilities with geo-fencing technology that will help integrate a car and its data with other aspects of the owner’s life for increased efficiency and safety.  Here are several examples of how this capability would benefit the driver:

• This example that would benefit anyone currently on the East Coast: as an owner drives home from work and moves within a ten mile radius of his/her home, thermostat within the home is alerted by the car so it may warm up the house automatically before arrival.

• If a father wants to prevent his  teenager from driving into the city for the evening, he may set a geo-fence to alert him if his teenager drives the family vehicle further than a set number of miles from home.

• Or, if local jurisdiction prevents use of a connected feature, a notification may be sent to the owner on his mobile device, or may flash up on the head unit of the car to indicate that the car has prevented usage of a feature until it is out of that location.

Bringing it all together

As you can see, the benefits of connected car data will go both ways – it’s not just about automakers getting insight into how to improve experiences for their products and customers, it’s also about consumers making use of the data to simplify and secure daily driving activities, and benefit from new data-driven tools as well.

In the coming years, data policies and standards will be enacted to ensure vehicle and driver safety. Steps will be taken towards defining and creating the highway infrastructures and cityscapes of tomorrow to accommodate connected vehicles. And new life-enriching, intelligent services will emerge in force – creating additional revenue streams for businesses, added value for customers and smarter, smoother experiences all around.

 

If you are interested in IoT, please visit IoT Tech Expo Europe in London's Olympia, December 2-3 2015.