When you get to a certain age, technology seems to become a topic that moves too fast to understand. You don’t even need to be that old to reach this stage… thirty-five to forty is the norm. So when someone poses the question of connected cars, your first instinct may be that which was tested by Google and Volvo and other car manufacturers.
With cars communicating with each other so that they follow the same route, keep the same distance and speed and create a safer more enjoyable automated driving experience. Well for once you are correct but there is so much more to the connected cars term and the possibilities of interaction, communication, entertainment and information delivery.
Services and technical updates to your car are so wide reaching that whole events and technology festivals are set up to incorporate the growing trend surrounding cars that use the latest gadgetry. Whether in-built at purchase or as add on and on sale in shops or online.
What Exactly Is A Connected Car?
The buzz phrase used to be the connected home but even now we are realising the future has far from arrived in respect to both the car and home. While the technology for a truly connected home and car has been around for a decade, the cost for entry and the mass market has simply been far too high. Until now…
The connected car will grow with much thanks to the telematics industry. Telematics is a combination of telecommunications and informatics. In short, the convergence of both markets wishes to give the user or in this instance, the driver, the ultimate experience in whatever they want. Hopefully by using the information gleamed, they will give the driver of a car or user of a service exactly what they need, when they need it, even forecasting when they need something before they actually do.
The connected car is all about driving without driving, saving fuel without thinking about it, talking out loud and your car working automatically. Telematics offers the opportunity to truly deliver a connected car in every way possible, using personal information everything inside your vehicle can be personalised, from streaming music and entertainment to advertisements and even enable car sharing thanks to GPS and integrated online network facilities like facebook.
In recent weeks, people have proffered that big data will reduce invention and thought. Whereas in real terms and when it comes to telematics and especially connected cars, we’re finding they’re giving people more time to think so minds can be applied to other forms of problem solving or simply enjoying life to the fullest. Inventions are being born from the use of big data and solving problems thanks to informatics.
So Stuff, Stuff And More Car Connected Stuff?
Take a look at the trials that are occurring now. Driver less vehicles or rather cars that can drive themselves. Using Siri or Nuance voice recognition and Microsoft Tell Me to engage voice activated operations. Analogue radio stations bringing more variety, internet radio stations offering more personalised streaming and listening services. Entertainment for the passengers and streamable films. Or just the ability to plug and play your mobile phone or ipod into the dashboard and have a fully activated car with apps driving the vehicle for you.
There are of course worries on the part of car manufacturers and those who would build parts for cars, that integrated technologies could just be a piece of software in an app that can be in-putted or downloaded into a car’s computer. But that’s the excitement with a connected car, the openness of the market, competitive and bringing inventions and the future we have witnessed in films, to cars now.
It’s not just fun to be had but safety and security also. Vehicle telematics offers better and faster contact with the emergency services should there be an accident. There’s no need for motorway landlines, one button press and breakdown services are called to your GPS position with all data about the car and specific problems sent to the AA or RAC. And your insurance premiums will come down thanks to automated systems which advise of your driving habits – or on the other hand, they could go up.
Car stolen, no problem, talk to the thief as he drives away. Instant GPS tracking with police in pursuit within minutes. Car sharing is also a possibility. We mentioned earlier about the ability to connect a facebook app with your car’s current GPS position. A friend could be alerted that you’re nearby or visa versa and you could offer them a lift or they could ask. A whole new flyby car sharing network could be set up.
A connected car is about bluetooth, wireless, integrating technologies, easily shared information between devices, downloading your home to your car and your car to your office. A driver less, self drive, voice activated journey where children and family are entertained by their favourite personalised music streams, films and proffered interesting local information.
And while advertisements may be directed to you roadside and at garages thanks in no parts to the telematics device in your dashboard, you’ll also receive prompt updates on your health, your car’s health, your driving abilities and be able to instantly ask for emergency help or get a roadside repair in minutes without having to explain anything.
Telematics and the connected car and doing the conga down the motorway with other cars while you’re chatting to the rest of the world is just the tip of the melting iceberg. Read your newspaper on the windscreen while the car drives itself, watch a full screen film. Your car talking to the one behind, social networks dialling other cars when they’re on the same road or in the same area and alerting you to different social services.
Just when you thought information was boring, it gets fun again. Integrated services and connections will make the connected car the first part of the journey to a connected home and ultimately, a truly connected world.
