Connected Car Telematics and Autonomous Vehicles

Connected car telematics are vehicle-based applications that monitor driving behavior and provide feedback in real-time. They can also save you money on car insurance by helping you improve your driving habits.

Car telematics collect and generate vast amounts of data. This data can benefit drivers, insurers, and manufacturers in a variety of ways.

Self-Driving Vehicles

In the future, we will have vehicles with Level 5 automation, meaning they can drive without human monitoring or control. These autonomous cars will have onboard sensors to create a map of their environment.

They will be able to communicate with other vehicles, traffic lights and road signs to determine their location on the map and exchange information about weather conditions or roadway hazards. This will help to keep them on the right path and prevent them from getting lost in a fog or other poor driving conditions.

Autonomous cars can also monitor vehicle performance and make recommendations for maintenance. This will reduce downtime and operational costs. Vehicle manufacturers are already offering Level 2 semi-autonomous features like Audi Traffic Jam Assist, Cadillac Super Cruise and Tesla Autopilot. These systems can control speed, lane position and spacing with other vehicles as well as automatic braking in various situations.

However, despite this technology, human error still causes most accidents in the US. In fact, more people die each year in driver-error related accidents than from terrorist attacks or natural disasters. As with any new technology, there will be bugs and software issues that need to be addressed by engineers before these vehicles are ready for the public. It will be important that these issues are tested in a controlled environment before they are put on the streets.

Telematics

Telematics systems allow fleet managers to collect, analyze and transmit data from vehicles. These systems connect to a vehicle’s computerized systems through GPS tracking, wireless cellular communications or in-vehicle Wi-Fi. They can offer features like remote vehicle functions, roadside assistance and vehicle firmware updates.

Telematics can provide valuable insights about a vehicle’s performance, and it can also help improve driving and safety. It can also reduce maintenance costs. For example, a vehicle can be alerted when a tire is low or the engine needs service. The telematics system can then automatically order a replacement and notify the driver when it arrives.

Another key function is the ability to remotely disable a vehicle’s engine, lock or unlock doors and even start and stop the car from a smartphone. It’s an ideal way to reduce theft and other crimes. This is becoming especially popular with EVs.

Connected vehicles also offer advanced navigation and routing capabilities, including live map updates, points of interest and dynamic rerouting that takes current road conditions into account. This can improve efficiency and avoid traffic congestion. Some also provide driver assistance features, such as lane departure warnings and adaptive cruise control. Others offer well-being features, such as air quality sensors and wellness monitoring, to make long journeys more comfortable and enjoyable.

Connectivity

The connected car revolution presents opportunities for telecommunications providers and vehicle manufacturers, but it also creates new risks. Data safety is a top concern, especially as self-driving vehicles become more common.

As cars get smarter, they generate massive amounts of data that will flood telecommunications networks. To ensure connectivity and performance, providers must invest in private 5G, fiber, WiFi, and edge infrastructure solutions to handle the load.

For example, vehicles will need to communicate with each other, logging road conditions and sending them to the cloud for analysis. This requires high-speed and reliable connections that can cope with the data load without compromising vehicle or driver safety.

Moreover, as vehicles become more autonomous, they will need to communicate with each other and other infrastructure—vehicle-to-infrastructure communication will reflect traffic congestion, street lights, estimated arrival times, construction and maintenance hazards, and so on. To do so, they will need to be linked via high-performance, low-latency cellular networks that can scale as needed.

In addition, auto makers want to tie their vehicles more closely to the dealer network via telematics to offer new onboard services. This is challenging for the aftermarket, which will need to develop its own telematics solutions that are compatible with the OEM system. This will require close collaboration with automotive vendors to avoid fragmentation of the connected car ecosystem.

Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are an exciting prospect for the future of transportation. The ability to remove the driver from the equation, transform commuting into productivity time or leisurely relaxation and improve road safety could revolutionize travel. But for autonomous vehicles to reach their full potential, they must be connected to the world around them. That’s where telematics comes in.

Wireless technology allows autonomous cars to transfer data instantly from one vehicle to another, or even to infrastructure. For example, if a car detects an emergency situation like a crash or pedestrian crossing the road, it can communicate this information to other drivers via the connected vehicle network, potentially saving lives.

Aside from connecting to a network, autonomous vehicles also use sensors to collect and analyze data about the vehicle’s surroundings. These sensors include radar that can track other vehicles, video cameras that read road signs and traffic lights, and Lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors that bounce pulses of light off the vehicle’s surroundings to measure distances, identify lane markings and spot other objects in the vehicle’s path.

The collected data is then processed by advanced AI systems to fulfill descriptive, predictive and prescriptive functions. Ultimately, these technologies will allow autonomous vehicles to make complex decisions that would otherwise require human attention.