The impact of the “connected car” is being explored this week at a major conference organized by the leading analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. The industry experts say the impact on the in-vehicle experience will be “colossal” as more innovative services will be delivered to drivers in real time, forever changing our perception of what it means to be driving.
“By 2014 every new car will be ‘connected’, either via an embedded or a tethered platform, making the car the third most connected ‘device’ behind mobile phones and tablet computers globally,” says Frost & Sullivan Mobility Programme Manager, Martyn Briggs. “The impact this will have on the industry could be colossal, facilitating innovative services delivered to drivers in real time, and equally providing manufacturers with ongoing revenue streams such as automotive app stores, continuing well past the point of sale.”
Trends around mobility and the impact on transportation are some of the themes being explored this week at Frost & Sullivan’s Urban Mobility 3.0 conference.
The company says there is one underlying trend that is leading to the convergence of products, technologies and indeed whole industries: Connectivity. With a forecast of 80 billion connected devices by 2020, or 500 devices per square km by 2020, the Internet of things is set to continue to impact every sector; and it will certainly affect mobility.
Frost & Sullivan’s annual event, entitled ‘Urban Mobility 3.0: OEMs New Mobility Offerings and New Business Models Linking Web 2.0′ aims to provide a platform for representatives and thought leaders of all industries to assess the impact of connectivity on the future of mobility.
The two-day event, takes place in London on 13th and 14th June 2012, focuses on four targeted panels to facilitate a visionary thought-exchange on global mega trends, the future of mobility, new mobility business models, governments’ visions for an inter / multi modal transportation, as well as mobility infrastructure trends.
It is not only the connectivity inside the vehicle that will drive such a paradigm shift in the industry. The rise of smartphones in itself has provided numerous opportunities for mobility products and services to flourish.
“An example for such a business model is car sharing,” Briggs explains. “The use of location based services to pinpoint nearest vehicles accurately, applications to reserve and unlock vehicles, and even ways to pay for the service via a smartphone, is facilitating rapid growth in the industry.”
Similarly, this gives rise to a more integrated and multi modal transportation network, with smartphone users able to access real time information, scheduling and payment information on the go and at the touch of a button, breaking down some of the key barriers to using other modes of transport, and well aligned to most governments’ vision for a sustainable transport network.
“In addition to vehicles and devices, complementing infrastructure is set to become a lot smarter in the future, ranging from small step changes in the short term, such as connectivity in signalling and urban traffic management & control, to more radical changes in the longer term, such as fully automated vehicles,” says Briggs.
“Connectivity in infrastructure will leverage a range of next generation Intelligent Transport Systems, allowing efficient traffic flows, and a rise in opportunities to deploy billing and enforcement (through usage based insurance, taxation, or congestion charging for example), and even to distribute power to and from a smart grid, in the case of electric vehicles,” he concludes.
Visit the event website for more background information: www.gil-global.com/urbanmobility
