Greentech Lead America: The vision of the “connected car” or more general
“connected vehicle” has been around for some time without significant impact in
the industry.
Today however, the mobile internet is growing in
importance and the topic is back on the agenda of the OEMs – but despite a more
standardized and capable infrastructure, the key questions remain the same:
What are the most relevant services for customers, OEMs, and other service
providers such as banks and insurance companies? How to position and manage
this complex ecosystem? And finally: How to generate revenues through
”connected vehicle” services?
1. Megatrends drive the connected vehicle
The car industry is facing significant changes: Besides
the heavy competition and market saturation, e-Mobility and efficient use of
natural resources are becoming ever more important and define the image of
OEMs. These developments require new tools and technologies in order to work
out. In addition, security-driven requirements (e.g. the ability to have a
crash notification send to the police; e-Call) will be required by national
legislation within the next few years, requiring connectivity in case of
emergency.
Ultimately, the growing penetration of smartphones has
educated the consumer to access information on demand wherever he is – the car
is just another logical place where this information is created, used and
stored (e.g. traffic congestion forecast, e-Mail checking etc.).
So, OEMs find themselves in a real dilemma. On the one
hand there is a need for action to fulfill the requirements of the ecosystem on
connected vehicles – on the other hand, still, there are no existing market
models that have been successfully applied – be it with respect to customer
acceptance, sustainability or willingness to pay.
2. Key questions for OEMs
OEMs have to answer a set of key questions to
successfully realize the connected vehicle.
1. What are the most important use cases for the
various user groups (e.g. driver and co-driver as private consumers as well as
commercial fleet managers)?
The amount of use cases within the connected vehicle
environment is manifold – ranging from services for the private and business
car owners to fleet managers, insurance companies and the OEM’s after service.
Therefore, it is essential that OEMs understand which services are relevant to
which group and develop an adequate portfolio of services that build on a common
infrastructure and can be seamlessly integrated into the according ecosystem
requirements….