Connected Vehicle: The Next Frontier In Digitalization

Just as phones are no longer limited to calling, cars are no longer just a mode of transportation. Along with the maturity of technologies like Electric vehicles, Internet of Things, 5G, Artificial Intelligence, Telematics, and Cloud – connected cars have evolved to become a reality in the last few years. They will play a central role in Software Defined Vehicles which will be making travel ‘smarter’ and ‘efficient’.

The numbers behind:

As per ABI Research, there are about 50 million connected vehicles and each of these could produce 4 terabytes of data depending on the number of sensors and other equipment fitted in them. Also, the connected vehicle penetration is expected to grow from about 40% in 2020 to more than 70% in 2025. According to Statista, the global connected car market is estimated to reach about 65 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, up from some 56 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. It is expected that the market will recover from the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic and grow to around 121 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

Connectivity matters:

Varying in the degree of connectivity some cars can show various technical parameters or analytics on a connected smartphone application as a starter package. As the degree of connectivity increases, cars can better respond to user needs like navigation, entertainment and even transactional commerce. Today, a connected vehicle is a hub for an entire ecosystem of connected services that come with a variety of new consumer experiences that unravel a world full of opportunities for various businesses across sectors such as manufacturing, mobile operators, OEM and more. Hence, it would not be an exaggeration to say that connected cars are offering new, refined experiences to their owners, over and above the age-old utility of point to point transportation and delivering new services which are currently new to the automotive industry. These services are ushering in newer business models.

The advantages:

Though these experiences are somewhat dependent on the car hardware, they are not limited to what the car manufacturers or OEMs offer. These experiences are creating new, on-demand business models based on the advantages they offer to various stakeholders in the automobile ecosystem.

Challenges of being connected:

Just like the advantages, which are being leveraged, the connected car ecosystem must also focus on the challenges, which have arisen as a result. These are:

QuEST Solution:

With multiple solutions and reusable components developed in connected car services, multiple path defining partnerships with cloud providers, semiconductor vendors and software solution providers (like Microsoft Azure, AWS, GCP, Nvidia, Renesas, NXP, ARM, Xilinx, and Sony) and nearly 25 years of experience in the Automotive industry with thousand plus cumulative person years’ experience, QuEST can lead your connected car journey. Some of our connected car solutions which are deployed include, Fleet management solution, Driver Rating platform, Adaptive Firmware over the Air (FOTA), Voice assisted control systems and spare parts counterfeit prevention system.

Along with these, our focused Center of Excellence in the areas of AI/ML, Cybersecurity, IoT, Digital Cockpit, Embedded and Cloud can help our customers and partners in defining, developing and deploying products and solutions under the same roof. With the ecosystem playing a big role in the success of connected cars; right partnerships and right solutions will be very critical in addressing the challenges and delivering the benefits to everyone, and QuEST will be the right partner for you.