Wireless M2M Communication and Automotive Telematics

Wireless M2M Communication and Automotive Telematics

At the turn of the century, automotive telematics, or bringing the Internet into the car, was believed to very quickly grow into a multi-billion dollar business for the car industry. Car companies, and others, made considerable investments in telematics, hoping for increased revenues from equipment and service sales resulting in improved profit margins and higher growth in their tough business. After some disappointments in the volume car market, like the closing down of OnStar Europe and Signant, the premium car segment has now taken the lead in the market development of European telematics.
Traditionally the car manufacturers have had the in-house competences and resources to develop, manufacture, market and support their complete product offerings. When it comes to telematics, the situation change and cooperation and partnerships become important. The complexity of hardware and software solutions increases and that needs to be handled through the complete life cycle of the car. Customer support needs to be offered 24 hours a day and all days of the year. The sales and service organisation need to be trained in order to be able to sell, support and maintain the telematics solutions. Examples of partners to the car manufacturers in the supply/value network for automotive telematics are solution providers, service providers, content providers and wireless operators. The main tasks for the service provider are to connect the telematics system to the service network, deliver the service content, perform billing and customer relation management. The content provider provides the service provider with traditional content like map data, traffic information, directory services etc, but it can also be more physical content like breakdown assistance companies and emergency services.
The automotive telematics area is affected by public regulation and initiatives. The European Union has stated that an efficient and safe transportation system is a prerequisite for European integration and competitiveness. There are annually over one million traffic accidents within the European Union, causing 50,000 traffic deaths and close to two million injuries. In 2001, the European Commission set up the target to reduce the number of road death by 50 percent by 2010. The European Commission has launched the eSafety Initiative in cooperation with the European motor vehicle industry and other involved parties. The objective is to facilitate the development and use of IT based intelligent safety systems, in order to reduce the number of dead and injured in traffic. The first priority is to facilitate the creation of a public pan European in-vehicle e-call system. In February 2005, the European Commission and industry representatives agreed upon a time table where all new cars should be equipped with e-calls capabilities from 2009. Besides public initiatives, the industry is also involved in cooperation like ERTICO focusing on automotive telematics and intelligent transport systems in Europe, e.g. standardisation issues.
The European passenger car market consists of about 15 million new cars sold annually and the studied premium brands represent 2 million cars or 13 percent of the total European market in 2003. Satellite navigation, traffic information, and safety and security services are the telematics services which are most in demanded among consumers. Potential market drivers for telematics services include increased demands from consumers and car manufacturers, public regulations and technology development. Another market driver for telematics is the increased use of electronics and software in the car. In order to maintain these complex systems during the complete life cycle of the car, the car manufacturers have to be able to remotely supervise and upgrade these systems. Warranty costs can be reduced by detecting potential problems at earlier stages and by so avoiding more costly damages and recall activities. Furthermore public regulations and initiatives, like the pan-European standard for e-calls, will create a volume market for basic telematics hardware, which will drive down the cost. Technological developments of telematics systems, including standardisation, that bring down prices on hardware will also be of importance.
The major market challenge for automotive telematics is the lack of awareness among consumers about the concept itself and the potential benefits for the driver. Another aspect of this challenge is the general immaturity of the market for data services in mobile phones.
Another challenge in the European market is to efficiently being able to achieve sufficient geographical coverage of the services in order to create economy of scale and increased customer value. Most of the European countries have several wireless operators, different language, legislations and taxes making the task even harder. The lack of standards and open systems is also a major challenge for the telematics market. Proprietary solutions can at worst lead to increased cost for production, integration and testing, as well as consumers worries about future upgrade possibilities.
Automotive telematics should be seen as an enabler, where car manufacturers and service providers focus their offerings on services that are linked to the driving and travelling situation. Car manufacturers need to communicate a clear value proposition for their telematics services and define pricing schemes, combinations of subscription and usage fees that consumers are willing to pay for, that can be efficiently billed and that support a viable business case for all involved parties.

Wireless M2M Communication and Automotive Telematics