Connected Cars DRIVE VALUE by Dale Coyner Using telematics data to deliver benefits throughout the automotive value chain Learn more about CSC’s connected car solutions at csc.com/connectedcar. 6 <strong>FORWARD</strong>: A CSC MAGAZINE
Autonomous driving and electric cars may dominate headlines about the future of the automobile, but the era of the connected car has already arrived. Fueled by demands from an always-connected mobile society, millions of cars equipped with built-in connectivity are driving off dealership lots every year. Connected vehicles enable a host of innovations that add convenience, comfort and safety, says Chris Fangmann, CTO, global manufacturing industry at CSC. “Connectivity enhances safety features such as parking assistance, adaptive cruise control, blind spot assistance, collision avoidance and improved night vision, to name just a few,” he says. “While those features are important to attract new buyers, the value of connected cars to automotive and other industries, such as insurance, extends much further.” Let’s stay in touch Data generated by connected vehicles has inherent value, whether it’s used to study the reliability and service life of a power window relay, analyze and automatically optimize engine performance in a wide range of environments, understand driver habits, communicate with other vehicles, predict failures, report an accident, or track and predict any of a vast range of specific vehicle metrics. Ford Motor Company will be using the data to customize maintenance and services, improve safety and enhance the driving experience. “With connected vehicles, we can create a custom maintenance schedule for the customer,” says Roopak Verma, Ford’s CIO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “Today, we might tell a customer to change the oil every 10,000 miles, but in reality the schedule should be based on the customer’s driving habits. With connected capabilities, you can know it’s OK to wait until 11,500 miles, and the same applies to every component in the car.” Connectivity also enables Ford vehicles to automatically reconfigure driving characteristics based on weather and road conditions. In a pilot project in London, Fords are even tapping into data from parking lots. “You enter an address into the GPS, and you can see in real time where the parking spaces are — and in London, that’s a big deal,” Verma says. Ford is conducting pilot projects for car sharing, which is made easier with connected cars. Rather than exchanging keys, drivers can simply send a code to unlock the vehicle over a mobile phone. Settings for the seat, radio, rearview mirror and more can be activated with the touch of a button on a smartphone. “I believe the biggest impact is going to be to the fleet business, because you can really optimize your costs,” Verma says. Larry Stolle, global automotive marketing director at SAP, says advancements like these are changing the fundamental makeup of cars. “I like the contrast Dr. Lawrence Burns from the University of Michigan makes: When you look at the old DNA of the industry, the automobile was fossil-fuel powered, mechanical, owned and operated by a person, and built to suit many purposes,” Stolle says. “The DNA of the car is changing — self-driving, shareable and more types built for specific uses. That future is here, now.” The power of data The collected data has great potential value beyond manufacturers, for example to third-party service providers such as auto insurance companies. Vehicle information can help insurers adjust rates based on driver performance, leading to more efficient risk-pricing models, lower claims and faster claims processing. Marketers would pay for that data, too, because they would have yet another channel to reach customers. Plus, new services could be offered based on the data — imagine drivers entering a route into their GPS and receiving a proposal for trip-dedicated roadside assistance due to road and weather conditions. Governments have begun to grasp the significance of connected vehicle data. Proposals by federal regulators in the United States, the European Union and Brazil are targeted at either encouraging or requiring manufacturers to include telematics to improve safety, report crashes and reduce incidents of vehicle theft. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is creating standards to promote connected technologies, predicting that crashes may be reduced by more than 75%. The European Union will require eCall crash alert technology on all new models by 2018, which it is estimated will save 2,500 lives annually. Governments, as well as private companies, can also use data about road conditions to focus their investments on road repairs or route planning. Retailers are eager to tap into the personal data collected, including location, but the challenge is finding services that both benefit the customer and address privacy concerns, Ford’s Verma says. “We have so many legal constraints, data privacy constraints. How do we ensure the user’s ownership of data is taken into account?” Verma says. “That is slowing us down a little because everybody wants to be extremely careful in complying with the law.” One solution is to give drivers the right incentives, according to Fangmann. “Most people are willing to give up some data privacy for a 5% to 10% better deal on services or products,” he says. <strong>FORWARD</strong>: A CSC MAGAZINE 7
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