In July, Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. provided updates on their development alliance announced in January.
The automakers plan to collaborate on autonomous vehicles, among other programs. Together, they are investing $2.6 billion in Pittsburgh startup Argo AI, which is developing a self-driving technology platform. Ford first invested in Argo two years ago.
The investment includes the resources of VW’s Autonomous Intelligent Driving Group (AID), valued at $1.6 billion. AID will become Argo AI’s European operation.
Volkswagen and Ford hope to achieve a self-driving platform that can be scaled comparatively quickly. Argo AI’s objectives are to
build for scale.
architect the software to be production quality.
have automotive-grade sensors and computers.
fully integrate their product with OEMs and automakers.
A benefit to having the Argo AI system on more vehicles means the AI will obtain data through daily operation, enabling it to grow smarter and better.
Argo AI has successfully tested its driverless vehicles in five U.S. cities: Pittsburgh, Palo Alto, Detroit, Miami and Washington, D.C.
TU-Automotive announced the 2016 winners of the TU-Automotive Awards at a reception in Novi, Michigan, held before the June 8-9 TU-Automotive Detroit trade show. The 10 winners were selected by 30 expert judges in 10 categories.
The award categories showcase specific aspects of the connected-car industry. The winners were selected by 30 top industry experts and judged based on the following criteria: innovation, industry engagement, user experience and market update.
“We launched the TU-Automotive Awards in December of last year with the objective of recognizing innovation and success across the globe from companies established and new,” said Ruthana Foulkes, managing director at TU-Automotive. “We received a record number of nominations this year — over 400 in total. And we would like to thank and congratulate every company for taking part in this process. The quality of entries as always was incredibly high.”
The 2016 TU-Automotive Awards winners are:
OEM of the year – Joint winners: Volvo Car Group and Ford Motor Company
Telematics Service Provider of the year – Wireless Car
Mercedes autonomous car on display at Mobile World Congress 2016. (Photo: Kevin Dennehy)
BARCELONA, Spain — Most attendees at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) wouldn’t mistake the huge mobile phone show to be a gathering of auto manufacturers and their suppliers. However, the show, which broke 100,000 participants this year, has seen a rise in auto companies who are outlining connected and autonomous vehicle strategies.
MWC was held Feb. 27 to March 2 in Barcelona.
At MWC, Ford CEO Mark Fields said the company is tripling its investment in new technologies over the next five years with the ultimate goal of fully autonomous vehicles.
Ford also rolled out the new Kuga SUV, which features the company’s new SYNC 3, which Fields says should be in 43 million vehicles by 2023 (SYNC 3 is upgraded to include improved voice commands and easier to get to applications on a driver’s smartphone).
Fields said Ford, which attended its fourth straight Mobile World Congress, was transitioning from an auto company to one that is a dual auto-mobility entity. In addition, just as with GM’s decision to invest $500 million in Lyft, Ford is getting into the sharing economy with its own car-sharing, ride-sharing and other mobility services.
This new mobility strategy includes GoPark, an app that directs drivers to parking spaces; FordPass, a platform that connects services and partners; and FordGuides, a problem-solving app. According to published reports, another Ford app is MyBoxMan, which allows drivers in Europe to make money delivering boxes.
At least one industry expert believes that car sharing and autonomy is the future for auto companies. “Full autonomy is coming. We will see fleets of driverless public transport vehicles on the roads due to their low overheads,” said Kevin Curran, senior member of IEEE and senior lecturer at the University of Ulster. “Regarding non-autonomy, we will see that cars ownership will change in a number of ways. We will start to see more ride sharing. Uber and other ride sharing models will rise to supersede existing traditional models. That is quite obvious even now, and a proper ride sharing model should also emerge, too.”
Ford displayed the Kuga in its main booth, and also had a booth featuring its Developer Program. One of its development partners, Magellan, showed off its SmartGPS in-vehicle technology.
The Magellan unit delivers local information to the car that is equipped with SmartGPS, including speed trap alerts, weather, traffic and lowest gas prices, said Matt Erstling, Magellan product manager, connected platform.
Magellan’s connected auto strategy was outlined, in part, by its new CEO, Pierre Parent, at CES in January. Parent said that the company will continue to put location capability in connected devices.
Large industry players make MWC auto announcements
At its press conference, Hans Vestberg, Ericsson president and CEO, said 5G will provide the latency needed for autonomous cars. The company is jointly developing a connected car with Geeley Automobile Holdings, the Chinese owners of Volvo. Besides Ericsson, Nokia, SK Telecom and others believe that 5G, which is expected to rollout in 2020, will be critical for mobile Internet applications — and, therefore, for better safety in connected vehicles.
Qualcomm announced its partnership with Audi to integrate the Snapdragon 602A into the automaker’s 2017 vehicles. The company showed off connected car technologies with Formula One Team Mercedes AMG Petronias.
One of the cooler pieces of equipment at MWC was the folding steering wheel developed by Harman and Rinspeed. The companies are also co-developing an autonomous car.
Harman showcased its new folding steering wheel at Mobile World Congress 2016. (Photo: Kevin Dennehy)
Besides rolling out Galaxy S7 phones, Samsung announced its Connect Auto dongle that adds LTE connectivity for older vehicles. The dongle plugs into a diagnostic port to let drivers monitor a vehicle’s performance. It also makes the vehicle a Wi-Fi hotspot. It should be available in the second quarter, with AT&T as the U.S. wireless partner.
Saying the partnership is a giant step toward driverless vehicles, Panasonic and Ficosa announced at MWC that they were developing a Smart Connectivity Module that enables passengers to be securely connected through a vehicle’s own internal connection. The system provides both inside and outside connections and works in V2V and V2X environments.
“A lot of people don’t know that 33 percent of our business is in auto and industrial systems. Consumer is only 14 percent,” said Tony O’Brien, deputy managing director, Panasonic Systems Solutions, Europe.
Inside the Mercedes autonomous vehicle. (Photo: Kevin Dennehy)
In other MWC news:
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which automakers and their suppliers are heading to in droves, now has 115 exhibiting companies. While far fewer in numbers, and with so many large wireless and device manufacturers involved, auto execs realize that MWC is an important stop before the Geneva Auto Show.
At MWC, I could actually talk to people, even see folks again at events and sometimes passing by in the huge exhibit halls at the Fira Grand Via. You can’t say that about CES. Unfortunately, MWC is getting huge…more than 100,000 people with the requisite traffic congestion, public transit strikes, expensive housing and airfares.
Join Lyft, BMW Group, HERE and 25 other speakers at Driverless, The Business of Autonomous Vehicles, which is March 22-23 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, San Francisco Airport. Panels feature new technology, executive insights on the future, investments, legal and cyber security and mapping. For more information, go to www.driverlessmarket.com or [email protected].
Ford took center stage at the Mobile World Congress (MCW) for a series of announcements. CEO Mark Fields unveiled the new Kuga SUV and confirmed that Ford’s SYNC 3 connectivity technology is coming to Europe. SYNC 3 allows drivers to control audio, navigation, and climate functions plus connected smartphones using simple, conversational voice commands. MCW is being held Feb. 22-25 in Barcelona, Spain.
Fields also said Ford commits to tripling its engineering investment in semi-autonomous vehicle technologies as the company continues to expand its Ford Smart Mobility plan.
Fields discussed Ford’s transition from an automotive company to an auto and a mobility company through Ford Smart Mobility — the company’s plan to be a leader in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience, and data and analytics.
“As we look to the future, it is clear we are on the cusp of a revolution in mobility – from car sharing to autonomous driving to the customer experience,” Fields said. “Technology and innovation provide us with the opportunity to address these trends and to make people’s lives better by changing the way the world moves.”
The Kuga will offer several new technologies and updates, including Ford’s new SYNC 3 communications and entertainment system and innovative driver assistance technologies. The Kuga has hands-free perpendicular parking; an enhanced version of the Active City Stop collision avoidance system; an adaptive front lighting system; and intelligent all-wheel drive.
Ford’s drive toward a fully autonomous consumer car includes rolling out traffic jam assist and fully active park assist in the next three years.
Ford CEO Mark Fields discusses the company’s move to fully autonomous vehicles at MWC.
Traffic Jam Assist helps the driver with steering, braking and acceleration in heavily congested traffic situations on motorways. Fully Active Park Assist helps drivers by steering and controlling the transmission, throttle and brake to seamlessly pull into a parking spot at the touch of a button.
Further semi-autonomous technologies already introduced by Ford include Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection, a camera- and radar-based system that detects vehicles and people in the road ahead; and Intelligent Speed Limiter, which could help prevent drivers from exceeding speed limits, and potentially from incurring costly speeding penalties.
Ford is seeking to deliver autonomous capability that does not require driver input described by the SAE International as Level 4 of automation. At this level of capability, autonomous vehicles will likely be offered first in climates that support optimal sensor performance and in areas that have been mapped in high-resolution 3D. Ford has tested fully autonomous vehicles in winter weather, including snow.
“We are committed to making autonomous vehicles available for millions of people,” Washington said. “Within well-defined areas and with favorable environmental conditions, we predict that fully autonomous driving will be possible within four years, and that autonomous vehicles will play a significant role in making travel safer, more enjoyable, and more accessible.”
U.S. auto sales may drop about 40 percent in the next 25 years because of autonomous vehicles hitting the road, reports Bloomberg. In particular, shared driverless cars would force mass-market automakers such as General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. to slash output, a Barclays analyst told Bloomberg.
Vehicle ownership rates could be cut almost in half because many families would only need one car. However, driverless cars would travel twice as many miles as they return home between trips to ferry a different family member. As a result, automakers would have to shrink their production in order to survive.
The numbers are outlined in a new report by analyst Brian Johnson.
Ford Motor Company and Telogis have expanded their exclusive partnership to bring Ford Telematics powered by Telogis to Ford’s commercial customers in the United Kingdom first, with other European markets to follow later this summer. Ford Telematics uses real-time information from Ford vehicles to enable businesses with workers in the field to have insight into vehicle location, driver behavior and fuel consumption.
The telematics can save companies up to 20 percent on fuel, according to a 2012 Frost & Sullivan report.
Since 2011, Telogis has been the exclusive technology provider to power Ford Telematics (formerly Ford Crew Chief) in the U.S. and Canada, with comprehensive and scalable telematics for commercial customers. The UK expansion of the Telogis-Ford partnership leverages the success of Ford Telematics in the U.S. and Canada and will meet the demand from current and new Ford customers in the UK for in the visibility into day-to-day operations including Ford vehicle diagnostics.
“Ford Telematics is an innovative system that can deliver reductions in cost of ownership for businesses that operate Ford’s Transit commercial vehicles,” said Paul McDermott, manager, CV aftersales, Ford of Britain. “Real-time vehicle location and diagnostic data provides fleet customers with a powerful tool to manage their vehicles more effectively and also encourage safer driving.”
Making its debut at the 2015 Commercial Vehicle Show, Ford Telematics will be available to fleet customers in May as a dealer-installed option, offered through Ford’s network of specialist Transit Centres.
Ford Telematics functions by securely transmitting vehicle data and metrics from the vehicle to a dedicated Telogis website via an embedded cellular connection. The telematics system’s ability to access proprietary Ford vehicle data enables operators to track details such as oil change warnings, water contamination in diesel fuel, tire pressure, safety belt usage and airbag status.
“The reality of being able to visualize field staff and the performance of each Ford vehicle — all on one screen — is here,” said Paul Reynolds, automotive director at Telogis. “This visibility enables Ford commercial customers to provide better service for their own customers and run their businesses more productively and efficiently — it’s no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘have to have’ solution.”
Based on the real-time data, the Ford Telematics powered by Telogis software platform delivers a comprehensive range of actionable business information that enables fleet managers to operate their vehicles in the most efficient way and to help ensure drivers are following safe and economical driving practices.
Advances include a suite of more than 80 pre-loaded reports, integration with established business operating systems and fuel card services. Ford Telematics and the Telogis platform also allow for a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) approach, helping to further reduce hardware costs and increase productivity.
Ford Telematics is compatible with Ford’s latest range of Transit commercial vehicles — including the all-new Transit, Transit Custom, Transit Connect and Transit Courier — as well as the Ford Ranger pickup. Additionally, the same Telogis hardware can be fitted to any other vehicles on the fleet, regardless of manufacturer, allowing informed fleet managers to view the whole fleet in one place, with all the usual driver performance and vehicle tracking information that they expect.
Ford Telematics also provides a gateway to the broader cloud-based Telogis platform that includes a suite of connected vehicle technologies including route optimisation and planning, commercial-grade navigation, work order management and mobile applications to drive additional efficiencies and productivity for mobile enterprises.
“Ford Telematics is another example of Ford facilitating the delivery of smart technology to help our customers enjoy the highest quality, safest and most sustainable operation of commercial vehicles available today,” said Nick Themistocleous, director, Fleet Operations, Ford of Britain.
Start of the 550 mile piloted drive from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas: Ricky Hudi, Executive Vice President Electric/Electronic Development, (left) and Ewald Gössmann, Excecutive Director Electronic Research Lab California (ERL), (third from right) drop the flag for the Audi A7 piloted driving concept car. Photo: Audi
In the wake of CES and the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it’s clear that times are a-changing. Self-driving concept cars filled three football-field-sized areas to show off what lies ahead. Verizon and Ford did a cosmic switcheroo, with Verizon morphing into the auto space and Ford starting a transformation into a mobility company. Automated reality/augmented reality isn’t as big as would be expected, and is suffering from a lack of content. Wearables continue to do remarkable things, notably in the health and fitness sector, and smart watches will become more exciting with interaction to vehicles and home.
Janice Partyka
When Mark Field, current CEO of Ford, announced the Ford Sync from the CES stage in 2007, attendees found the presence of an auto company at CES to be out of place. The auto industry was considered Neanderthals of tech. Today, the most exciting mobile technology is vehicle related, and more exciting developments from the auto industry were seen in Las Vegas, rather than Detroit.
Field was back at CES with a visionary perspective that Ford isn’t going to be just about cars and trucks. He is broadening Ford’s focus to mobility in preparation of the changes in transportation that will occur in response to global megatrends of urbanization, growth of the middle class, air-quality issues and evolving consumer attitudes. To test out new ideas of flexible user-ship and collaborative transportation, Ford is operating 25 experiments around the world to test out solutions for specific mobility challenges. Ford is looking to be a leader and enabler of a market where people may be sharing or swapping vehicles or relying on crowd-based transportation. It is refreshing to see out-of-the-box thinking from Detroit.
Ford Mobility Experiment in London — driving-on-demand with Ford fleet. Photo: Ford
Far from its beginnings in 2007, Ford announced SYNC 3, an updated version of its in-vehicle communication and information system. SYNC technology is already in 10 million vehicles on the road. SYNC 3 will be released in new car models this year and will include more conversational speech recognition, a more smartphone-like experience with a touch screen and easier-to-read graphics. In addition, AppLink 3.0 will roll out and give drivers the ability to access their navigation app — much as they do on a smartphone — on in-vehicle touch screens.
SYNC 3 has been designed to keep the drivers eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, even when controlling their favorite phone apps. Photo: Ford
You may recall that GM had announced OnStar would be dropping Verizon for AT&T communications staring in 2015. The announcement of Verizon Vehicle, a new connected vehicle service that duplicates some of the features of OnStar, must be the impetus. The subscription-based service will be compatible with all vehicle models sold in the U.S. since 1996. The service will include GPS-directed roadside assistance, crash notification, emergency assistance with a live agent, a hotline to connect with mechanics on vehicle issues, maintenance alerts, and stolen vehicle location assistance. Notably, the offering doesn’t include navigation, a mainstay of OnStar, but readily available on smartphones. The service uses an OBD II dongle and a head unit that can attach to a visor and contains a Bluetooth speaker and call buttons.
Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW all showed advances in self-driving vehicles. Mercedes-Benz demoed the F015 Luxury in Motion concept car, which is fully autonomous and completely powered by a battery and fuel cell. Audi impressed by having its own concept vehicle drive itself from Palo Alto, California, to Las Vegas. BMW offered demonstrations of its i3 electric car, with ActiveAssist technology, able to prevent collisions at speeds up to 15 mph.
Delphi and Valeo technology suggest that current adaptive cruise-control systems may soon add self-steering. Drivers could allow the car to take over in stop-and-go traffic and on long highway segments. Although unlikely to see production in the short term, Delphi showed the full capabilities of its self-driving technology in an urban environment.
The next big feature to be commercialized during our wait for automated driving is self-parking. As demonstrated by BMW, the driver arrives at a parking garage entrance, gets out of the car, and sends it to find a parking place. When ready to depart, the driver summons the car, which drives itself to a special pickup zone in front of a parking garage. BMW says it will be offering self-parking cars in one to two years.
The Sony Walkman, now $1,100. Photo: Sony
Unfortunately, augmented reality hasn’t quite lived up to the hype, but Hyundai is showcasing a production-ready augmented reality heads-up display concept. It’s an easy-to-understand system with animated information and warnings to describe road conditions ahead. For instance, it provides warnings when another car is about to unexpectedly enter the car’s lane, and shows arrows leading to exit ramps, highlighted street signs and one-way street markings. Hyundai has linked the augmented heads-up display to a wearable band that will vibrate with warnings. The band includes a heart-rate monitor that can notify 911 if a driver’s heart rate changes rapidly.
I don’t want to neglect the things in life that don’t change. It is comforting to know that Palm Pilots, record players and Walkmans are back at CES. The new Sony Walkman will set you back $1,100. So things do change.
Mark Fields, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company, delivers the opening keynote address at the 2015 International CES. (Photo by: Sam VarnHagen/Ford)
Ford Motor Company highlighted the semi-autonomous vehicles it has on the road today and fully autonomous vehicles now in development at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
“We’re already manufacturing and selling semi-autonomous vehicles that use software and sensors to steer into both parallel and perpendicular parking spaces, adjust speed based on traffic flow or apply the brakes in an emergency,” said Raj Nair, Ford chief technical officer and group vice president, Global Product Development. “There will be a Ford autonomous vehicle in the future, and we take putting one on the road very seriously.”
Ford’s semi-autonomous vehicle features available today include lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection and active park assist — with Traffic Jam Assist coming.
A fully autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid research vehicle is undergoing road testing. The vehicle uses the same semi-autonomous technology in Ford vehicles today, while adding four LiDAR sensors to generate a real-time 3D map of the surrounding environment.
The vehicle can sense objects around it using the LiDAR sensors, and uses advanced algorithms to help it learn to predict where vehicles and pedestrians might move.
“Our priority is not in making marketing claims or being in a race for the first autonomous car on the road,” Fields said. “Our priority is in making the first Ford autonomous vehicle accessible to the masses and truly enhancing customers’ lives.”
Ford Smart Mobility
The automaker also laid out its Ford Smart Mobility plan for connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and big data. Included are 25 experiments set for this year — eight in North America, nine in Europe and Africa, seven in Asia and one in South America.
Each experiment is designed to anticipate what customers will want and need in tomorrow’s transportation ecosystem. “We see a world where vehicles talk to one another, drivers and vehicles communicate with the city infrastructure to relieve congestion, and people routinely share vehicles or multiple forms of transportation for their daily commute,”said Ford President and CEO Mark Fields. “The experiments we’re undertaking today will lead to an all-new model of transportation and mobility within the next 10 years and beyond.”
The 25 experiments address four global megatrends — explosive population growth, an expanding middle class, air quality and public health concerns, and changing customer attitudes and priorities — challenging today’s transportation model and limiting personal mobility, especially in urban areas.
Fourteen of the 25 experiments are Ford-led research projects, and 11 are part of the company’s Innovate Mobility Challenge Series. The experiments include:
With the Innovate Mobility Challenge Series, Ford invited innovators and developers around the world to create solutions for specific mobility challenges in North America and South America, Portugal, Africa, India, China, England and Australia. Challenges included finding technology solutions to identify open parking spaces in urban areas, better ways to navigate crowded cities and the use of navigation and other tools to help people gain access to medical care in remote areas.
SYNC 3
Also at CES, Ford is demonstrating SYNC 3, the company’s new communications and entertainment system that is faster, more intuitive and easier to use with enhanced response to driver commands. SYNC 3 has more conversational speech recognition technology, a more smartphone-like touch screen and easy-to-read graphics to help drivers connect and control their smartphone while on the road.
The next-generation system builds on the capability of SYNC technology already in more than 10 million vehicles on the road globally. SYNC 3 begins arriving on new vehicles this year.
“Ford is delivering an easier way for customers to stay connected,” said Nair. “SYNC 3 is another step forward in delivering connectivity features customers most want, and they tell us this kind of technology is an important part of their decision to buy our vehicles.”
“Even as we showcase connected cars and share our plans for autonomous vehicles, we are here at CES with a higher purpose,” Fields said. “We are driving innovation in every part of our business to be both a product and mobility company — and, ultimately, to change the way the world moves just as our founder Henry Ford did 111 years ago.”
According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Europe was 3.65 million in Q4-2013. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.2 percent, this number is expected to reach 7.10 million by 2018.
A group of international aftermarket solution providers have emerged as the leaders on the European fleet management market. Masternaut reported an active installed base of close to 350,000 units in July 2014, mainly in France and the UK. TomTom Telematics was the fastest growing vendor also in 2014 and has now surpassed 400,000 subscribers in August 2014.
The two companies share the number one spot in terms of active installed base in Europe. Digicore has also joined the exclusive group of fleet management providers in Europe having more than 100,000 active devices in the field. Transics is number one in the heavy trucks segment with an estimated 85,000 active units installed.
A major trend in the past three years has been the announcements of standard line fitment of fleet management solutions among the HCV manufacturers. Scania, Daimler, Volvo and MAN now experience fast growth of telematics subscribers thanks to these initiatives. FleetBoard by Daimler, Dynafleet by Volvo and Scania Fleet Management are the most sold systems with cumulative shipments of 150,000 units, 135,000 units and 100,000 units respectively as of Q4-2013.
A recent trend is that LCV manufacturers increasingly work together with aftermarket players to offer fleet management solutions. PSA Peugeot Citroën has for instance launched a new fleet management service on the French market in partnership with Orange Business Services in April 2014. Ford and Telogis recently partnered to deliver fleet management solutions to Ford customers in Europe. Teletrac has moreover for a long time collaborated with OEMs on the UK market, including Citroën and Mercedes Benz.
M&A activities on this market continued with full force in 2014. “Seven major mergers and acquisitions have so far taken place this year among the vendors of fleet management systems in Europe,” said Johan Fagerberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. At the beginning of 2014, Qualcomm finally divested also the majority of the European arm of its fleet business to Astrata Group, a fleet management company headquartered in Singapore.
Later in February, WABCO acquired Transics and the transaction valued the company at about €100 million. Lysanda acquired UK-based TRACKER Network in February and plans to establish Tantalum Corporation from the combined business.
In April, TomTom also acquired the French FM provider DAMS Tracking, adding another 27,000 subscriptions to the installed base. Francisco Partners, moreover, divested Masternaut to Summit Partners and FleetCor in the same month.
In July 2014, Zucchetti Group acquired a majority share of Macnil from its founders. The latest transaction was done in October 2014 when Finder acquired its Polish competitor Autoguard to form the largest FMS provider in Poland. Fagerberg anticipates that the market consolidation of the still overcrowded industry will continue in 2015.
The highest court in the European Union has granted the right to be forgotten by a search engine. Will location privacy be next on the docket? We are seeing the beginnings of the in-car smartphone-type apps market and are watching for approaching hockey-stick style growth that is a year or two away. Google has added rich, engaging features to maps. And we take a look at results from indoor location advertising. Read more.
The European Court (EU) of Justice, made a curious and powerful ruling on privacy. The court stated that upon request, Google is obliged to remove reputation-hurting information that is generated by searching a person’s name. Like Mr. González, who brought this case to court, many of us have things in our distant past that we don’t want to be aired each time we are Googled. Perhaps it is an old bankruptcy or a youthful prank gone bad. The continuous re-airing of this information can make it hard for people to move forward in their lives. But while the court rule serves a purpose, it is poorly conceived and vague. The administrative complexity for search engines to comply is staggeringly onerous. And the information that it seeks to shield will still reside in websites.
How does this relate to location privacy? The EU Court of Justice is in the mood for privacy restrictions, and the use and handling of location data may be in their scopes. Also, sensitive location information can turn up in Google searches. A person in the EU will be able to request to have it shielded. Location information can be revealing. There may be records of check-ins from the café outside a rehab center or other treatment center, for instance.
Market, Fast Approaching. Companies are falling over each other for a piece of a new market about to burst open — software apps within vehicles. Analysts at IHS Automotive expect there will be 370 million smartphone apps for cars in use by 2020, a hefty growth from the 6.9 million units projected by the end of this year. Aha Radio is in Honda cars. General Motors is embedding Pandora, the music streaming app. 4G Internet connectivity will be in some GM and Audi models next year. BMW is opening app stores, this year in Europe and next year in the U.S.
The Players. Google and Apple (Google Projected Mode and Apple CarPlay) are poised to together dominate the market for auto apps integration, but other companies are in pursuit as well, including MirrorLink, Aha by Harman, and Ford Sync AppLink. North America is ahead of the global rush. Let’s hope some money flows into Detroit.
Google v. Apple. Information about Googles’ Projected Mode is scarce. Daimler posted an ad for a software engineer to help implement Google’s new in-car system, referred to as “Google Projected Mode.” The employment ad described Project Mode as a way to “seamlessly integrate” Android smartphones into a dashboard’s head unit. There is no mystery about Apple’s CarPlay, an extension of IOS. CarPlay simplifies the in-car experience by offering the same look and feel as an iPhone.
GM Pulls Ahead. Ford was the early automotive leader to offer smartphone-type apps with its Sync system, but more recent versions of the offering have had issues. They weren’t alone. Other car makers have had confusing interfaces that often contained annoying bugs. IHS now predicts that vehicle OEM adoption and integration will be led by General Motors. “Apps for autos are growing rapidly and will have a profound impact on auto infotainment and connectivity in the next decade,” said Egil Juliussen of IHS Automotive. “Auto apps will influence the competitive landscape among auto manufacturers and will even change the brand market share between them. OEMs will have to keep up to remain competitive.”
Better Google Maps. Google’s navigation system will now offer less congested or otherwise quicker routes during navigation, a byproduct of Google’s purchase of Waze. In addition, the navigation system will now advise on the best traffic lane, replacing less precise directions such as “keep left at the fork.” Google has partnered with cab provider Uber to show how long it would take to get home via cab when searching for public transit or walking directions. Google maps also now enable users to save entire cities for offline use.
Indoor Location Pays? In order for retailers to adopt indoor location technology, there needs to be clear returns. “A body of information is now gathering that verifies the effectiveness of these technologies,” reports Dominque Bonte of ABI Research. “We can see how limited trials are showing increases of advertising local search click-through rates from 0.1 to 3.5 percent, indoor location applications increasing basket sizes 10 percent, and how smartphones are significantly changing the cross channel shopping habits of users.”
From CES to the Detroit Auto Show, it has been a big month for in-car connectivity that enables vehicle diagnostics, streaming entertainment, telematics and navigation. Ford, GM, Google and Audi unveiled new connected vehicle platforms and features, and AT&T stole the carrier limelight with LTE Connected Services.
Plus, two industry giants announced that they are working to enable vehicles to continuously record road position at accuracies of eight inches or less. Shoppers are becoming more open to sharing their personal location with retailers. And the U.S. GAO issued a report on location privacy related to vehicle technology and applications. It has been a busy month.
The first mass-marketed connected vehicle system was Ford Sync, which now boasts one million users and seems poised to grow rapidly with the release of an updated version. The Mustang will be the first of the company’s models with the new Ford Sync, which lets drivers use voice to activate iPhone and Android apps. New voice activated apps include Parkmobile, a parking space finder, and the Domino app, which lets me command my car to order a pizza, just the way I like it. GM announced its first LTE-enabled vehicles for about 10 of its models. Fast connectivity in vehicles will transform in-car experiences and hopefully not kill us.
Carrier Ringmaster. AT&T wrangled itself into the center ring of car connectivity announcements. The carrier has won a multi-year exclusive agreement to enable Telsa with high speed connectivity. Despite Audi’s collaborative relationship with T-Mobile, AT&T was able to steal some work away from T-Mobile by getting a deal to supply connectivity for some Audi models. AT&T has also teamed up with Ericsson, Amdocs, Jasper Wireless and others to create AT&T Drive, a mobile platform for developing LTE connected vehicle services.
Pathway to a Jetson Car. Two industry biggies, Continental and Here, are working together to create an end-to-end connected high-precision mapping and vehicle system offering for OEMs. The system will serve as the basis of highly automated driving functionality with the first objective of continuously determining road position to within three to eight inches. That’s quite a task. The maps will include road information that will feed vehicles with information to allow them to react to changing road conditions or speed limit changes, automatically. Continental was the first automotive supplier to be granted a test license for automated driving on public roads in Nevada.
See Me Now. The percentage of consumers willing to share their current location via GPS with retailers nearly doubled year-over-year to 36 percent, according to a new IBM study of more than 300,000 global consumers. The study distinguished four distinct groups of consumers, differentiated by their interest in and use of social, location and mobile technologies while shopping. The largest group, 40 percent of shoppers, use social, location and mobile technologies, but don’t utilize them for buying products. The second largest group, almost 30 percent of shoppers, will use these technologies for making purchases. The rest of the shoppers sit on either pole of being tech laggards or hyper technology users.
In-Car Privacy under the Microscope. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has looked into privacy issues for in-car location-based services. The GAO examined how 10 companies are using location data and if they share it, and how the policies and practices of these companies align with industry recommended privacy practices. Each of the companies stated that they do not share personally identifiable location data with marketing companies or data brokers. The GAO found that not all of the companies were following industry recommended privacy policies. The report was prepared for the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law of the Judiciary Committee. The companies that the GAO chose to examine included TeleNav (ScoutGPS Navigation), Google Maps (Navigation), TomTom (LIVE Services), Garmin Traffic, Ford Sync, Chrysler UConnect, Honda AcuraLink, GM OnStar, Toyota (Lexus Enform and Toyota Entune), and Nissan Infiniti Connection and CARWINGS.
Retailers are Getting Closer. Qualcomm has made its Gimbal proximity beacons commercially available, which are reportedly accurate to one foot and work indoors and outdoors. Gimbal is a proximity platform for brands to engage customers’ mobile devices with contextual communication, using a combination of physical location, activity, time and personal interests. The intent is to increase the relevance of content delivered to end users’ devices to allow retailers, content providers and developers to send personalized high-value content to mobile devices.
ABI Research forecasts that the global market for Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) will reach 64.8 million units by the end of 2020 with the majority of shipments being accounted for in vehicles sold in the Asia-Pacific region. These findings are part of ABI Research’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Research Service and includes detailed installed base and forecasts of ADAS systems [advanced driver assistance systems] by regions.
Driver Monitoring Systems were first introduced as far back as 2006 when Toyota launched its innovative Driver Attention Monitor system. Toyota’s system functions by directly monitoring the driver’s face using a discrete in-dash camera and was initially offered as an option in the company’s luxury Lexus models. Other OEMs soon followed suit and announced their own DMS systems which were typically based on monitoring the vehicle rather than the driver’s face.
“DMS systems such as Mercedes-Benz’s ’Attention Assist’ and Volvo and Volkswagen’s ’Driver Alert’ systems were the first ADAS systems to be offered as standard equipment by OEMs, albeit only in a small selection of models,” comments Gareth Owen, principal analyst at ABI Research.
Today, an increasing number of ADAS systems are gradually becoming standard equipment in new cars, particularly in some European and Japanese brands such as Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan Infiniti, Lexus, and Mazda, and more are being offered as options. Although some of the big U.S. brands offer ADAS features in their European models, they typically do not offer the same features in their U.S. models, although this is beginning to change. Ford is a good example of this with its Ford Focus model.
“Another very observable trend in 2013 is that ADAS features are migrating from the luxury brands into B, C, and even A segment cars. Typically, the focus here is on offering ADAS systems, mostly as options, designed specifically for low-speed urban driving,” adds Owen.
Prices are decreasing, too. For example, the European Ford Focus offers an emergency braking system plus lane departure warning and lane-keep assist, driver alert, and blind spot monitoring as an optional package for £550 ($880) in the UK. Meanwhile, Volkswagen offers its City Emergency Braking System for £225-£405 ($360-$648), depending on model, on its budget A segment Up! car. This uses a laser sensor to detect the risk of an imminent collision and is active at speeds under 30 km/hr (18 mph).
