Imagine being able to find the cheapest bargain at Wal-Mart, order lunch at McDonalds, and find the quickest route from McDonald’s to Wal-Mart without taking your eyes off the road, or your hands off the steering wheel.
Today's automobile navigation systems don't have this kind of advanced functionality. Yet this, and other kinds of possible scenarios are not too-far off, it is not a question of if, but when, currently available commercial telematics systems will be redesigned for the consumer market.
What Began as a Fleet Management System to Save Fuel is Providing the Foundation for Telematics Car Technology.
Advanced GPS-based telematics technology is primarily deployed in commercial fleet management applications. Some of the U.S. largest companies save money by using telematics to monitor fuel consumption, vehicle maintenance, and driver safety.
Insurance companies comprise a large percentage of telematics customers and telematics applications are revolutionizing the way insurance companies do business, such as permitting them to offer customizable insurance options based upon driver safety profiles. According to Lauren Fletcher and Grace Lauron (February 2009), in a businessfleet.com article titled “How Can Telematics Help Your Fleet,” telematics is a $2 Billion business that is in huge demand across industries to limit liability and reduce operating costs.
Telematics Technology is Moving Fast to go Mainstream
Telematics technology easily integrates with other systems. In addition to monitoring fuel consumption, driver safety and vehicle maintenance, telematics-related software enhances business productivity and expands mobile communications. An article by Chris Brown (July 2008) titled “The Future of In-Car Communications.” carries an insider summary of an interview with Erik Goldman, President of Hughes Telematics, who predicts advanced, interactive GPS car technology will be commonplace by 2015.
According to Chris Brown, Erik Goldman says automobiles will eventually have a fully-customizable personal web portal that provides a broad array of services. Furthermore, Erik Goldman says the basic design is already now available in many telematics applications such as “Ford Work Solution,” Chrysler “uconnect,” or GM’s “OnStar.” Hughes Telematics is leading industry development with “conversational voice recognition” software that adds unparalleled fluency for telematics units to receive, interpret, and execute commands based upon verbal cues.
The newest version of Hughes Telematic’s voice recognition software is part of the first release of Mercedes "mbrace" technology found in all 2010 or newer Mercedes-Benz models. Mbrace features integrated GPS-based emergency response, anti-theft tracking, navigation assistance, vehicle locator, vehicle info, real-time weather and traffic, plus a concierge service to book flights or go shopping.
The Mercedes Owners Club of America web site is a great place to get detailed info on mbrace. The Club’s blog Web page carries a quote by Sascha Simon, Director of Advanced Product Planning at Mercedes who says: “This [mbrace] is the first phase…Going forward, we will have more applications and in two year’s time, a new hardware platform.”
The Next Step is Happening Now. Telematics is Reaching Across Markets.
A good litmus test to see how far the telematics industry is advancing is to note recent developments unveiled at the September 2010 first-ever, annual Insurance Telematics USA Conference.
The conference made industry headline news in a number of ways. One notable event is insurance industry deployment of the Telit Wireless CC864 dual-band receiver module. Certified to run on Verizon’s CDMA open-access network back in July, the Telit CC864 can operate on the two biggest wireless technology standards nationwide, CDMA and GSM.
According to Telit Wireless Solutions, July 21, 2010, the CC864 “enables integrators and OEM’s to seamlessly swap Telit modules without costly redesigns and take advantage of global coverage…”
Other significant industry news from the conference includes:
- Announcement by Hughes Telmatics that three big, well-known U.S. Corporations will deploy “In-drive”
- GM’s announcement that “OnStar” will be subscription-free starting in 2011
- Apple Computer’s decision to permit App developers to use open-source development tools
When Erik Goldman made his prediction to Chris Brown that by 2015 advanced telematics in cars would be commonplace, he said:
“ We’re rolling out a business model where it makes sense to put telematics in every vehicle…whether there’s a subscription associated with it or not…The OEM’s are marching in that direction, and we will see that in the next few years.”
The move toward wider adoption of telematics systems, competition becoming non-subscription-based, plug and play receiver technology, and loosening restrictions on App development are further evidence OEM’s are changing strategy
The Key to Success of Advanced Telematics in the Consumer Car Market will be Marketability Equals Usability
Telematics is not in its infancy, but is simply not as refined as it could be, and is generally viewed by consumers as a technology associated with expensive cars. Technological refinement and market adoption go hand-in-hand.
A good model for future telematics systems might be mbrace or OnStar. What makes mbrace a viable competitor with OnStar is its easy to use interface, just three main buttons to access its many different services. Mbrace and OnStar are still not the fully-interactive and intuitive systems that car telematics is predicted to become. When the system can’t help you, they offer live customer service.
Nonetheless, something may be learned from mbrace becoming the natural successor to OnStar in-line with another Erik Goldman prediction. The most successful telematic systems in the consumer car market will be systems that match value-added features with an easy to use interface. Consumer demand and consumer preference will consequently guide future telematics development and ease-of-use will become a primary selling point in new models.
Sources
- Brown, Chris (July 2008). The Future of In-Car Communications.businessfleet.com
- Fletcher, L. & Lauron, G. (February 2009). How Can Telematics Help Your Fleet ? Telematics has proven useful to fleets in reducing fuel consumption, idling, and emissions, and keeping track of company vehicles. Businessfleet.com
- Ramp, Gene (Jan 21,2010). MBRACE replaces TelAid.[Weblog entry]. Mercedes-Benz Club of America Forum.Mbca.org
- Telit Corp. (July 21, 2010). TELIT TECHNOLOGY CERTIFIED TO CONNECT SMART DEVICES OVER THE VERIZON WIRELESS NETWORK, (September 9, 2010) NEW WALSH WIRELESS USAGE-BASED CAR INSURANCE DEVICE FUELED BY TELIT WIRELESS SOLUTIONS CELLULAR MODULE[Press releases]. Angela Hein, Bob Gold and Associates. Telit Wireless Soutions
- Tolve, Andrew (September 16, 2010) Highlights from the Insurance Telematics USA Conference. social.telematicsupdate.com
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