Technology is impacting every sector of the consumer world – but automotive is arguably the most hotly anticipated. There are many industries working hard to bring the fully connected car to life – innovative automakers, software developers and technology companies are racing to develop new technologies, and redefine existing ones, to give people a driving experience beyond imagination.
But what does this new and improved driving experience entail? Just like the Internet of Things (IoT), connected cars is another buzzword found everywhere, but what does it actually mean for consumers?
Taking your hands off the wheel
Put simply a connected car is a car that uses mobile technology to control functions remotely via a smartphone or another device. For a customer, this means the ability to pre-heat or pre-cool your car ahead of getting in it, or checking from your phone if you remembered to lock it.
Although it sounds futuristic you’ve probably already been driving some form of a connected car without realising it. Connected cars have been around for almost 20 years, but until relatively recently, capabilities have been largely limited to emergency help, location tracking, remote diagnostics and audio-visual entertainment. If you can connect to your car’s radio or entertainment system via Bluetooth, that is considered ‘connected’, albeit in a primitive form.
However, with major advances in parallel technologies such as cloud infrastructure and edge computing, connected cars have become more than just a mode of digital transportation. They have become more progressive, with a focus on comfort and communications – a growing numbers of cars are being offered with additional features such as Amazon Alexa as an in-car assistant. This will further proliferate with the arrival of 5G and ultra-high bandwidth connectivity.
Of course, the industry is aiming to go one step further than this and create a driverless car which would be the ultimate technology for connected cars. These cars would allow a driver to summon a car when required, have it park itself and even drive long distances with no assistance from a human, making it completely autonomous.
Car assistance through technological developments
Fully autonomous cars are still a way off but with technologies such as 5G developing at a rapid pace, they aren’t far away. The implementation of 5G scheduled for later this year will undoubtably transform the automotive industry, providing not only an endless range of potential applications, but also leading to the evolution of smart technologies pivotal in enabling smart transportation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will also have a big role to play in developing the connected car. AI will be involved in many aspects, but particularly the in-house entertainment system – it will serve as a virtual personal assistant with the ability to respond to voice commands and proactively guide drivers in collaboration with its navigation system.
With this technology and connected car internet access combined, the way we travel will be revolutionised; the concept of human mobility is being engineered to maximise human experience.
Keeping it under lock and key
Of course, all of this innovation is incredible but with personal data accessible through a car – there is a question around whether your connected car could be hacked. As anything connected to the internet can be comprised, companies need to ensure they are using the most secure connections to transfer data between relevant parties, without risk.
To succeed, companies will need to address issues such as updating legacy infrastructure – introducing levels of decentralisation, consumerisation and personalisation, that can only be delivered by interconnection – the private exchange of data. Equinix’s provision of interconnection enables companies to bypass the public internet and connect directly to one another, keeping all data connections private and far more secure. By implementing secure links in this way, automotive players will be able to collect and share data, so they can exchange and process information in real time, and thus run an advanced connected car.
It won’t be long until we see big advances in the connected car arena, and it will be interesting to see the autonomous vehicle journey. Just think, a child born in 2019 may never need to pass a driving test!
By Russell Poole
Russell Poole is Managing Director, UK and The Nordics, at global interconnection and data centre company Equinix