Explosive growth is at hand for connected vehicle “infotainment” systems, says a new report from Juniper Research. And these systems likely won’t need smartphones.  

New apps will flood the market to help drivers and riders deal with traffic, optimize routs – and also to play games, says the report “Consumer Connected Cars: Telematics, Insurance & In-Vehicle Applications 2015-2020.”

The report says the current market for such services will swell to $600 million by 2020, up from a $60 million market today.

“The penetration of smartphone usage has led to an integration with the telematics industry,” a whitepaper from Juniper reports.

“Applications can easily be transferred into the vehicle in such use cases as infotainment. One example is Apple CarPlay; where selected applications are available on the in-vehicle head unit once the device is tethered. The interoperability between devices will be viewed as a major selling point in the consumer market. OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) are recognizing the demand from consumers for increased connectivity within the car.”

  • What are telematics? What are the uses?

Telematics definition: The use of wireless technologies and in-vehicle IT to relay information to and from vehicles, with the aim of improving the driver experience or providing additional information and analysis to the driver or a third party.

Commercial Uses

The demand in the commercial market has been around longer than that of its consumer counterpart. Logisitics companies became aware of the benefits far sooner, and have considerably fewer reservations about any potential loss of privacy. As such, the commercial market is far more developed with many players already establishing a foothold. Telematics enables real time fleet management and route optimisation through vehicle location, and a more efficient way of vehicle maintenance through advanced engine management.

Consumer Uses

Demand for consumer telematics is increasing, and there are a variety of business models. At present, there is no definitive value chain which manufacturers and service providers have adopted. However an increasing number of vehicle manufacturers are including the hardware at the point of manufacture through third party partnerships.

Source: Jnniper Research

Apple Google are also among the infotainment/telematics leaders, the report concludes.

“On-board systems with integrated wireless functionality will eventually push ahead of systems requiring the presence of a smartphone,” Juniper adds.

“OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] will seize the opportunity of greater independence, better integration with other in-vehicle systems by including directly integrated units such as Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and BlackBerry’s QNX.”

Among recent developments:

  • “Amazon’s recent announcement that their voice controlled smart home service, Echo, will now be able to interact with Ford’s SYNC in-vehicle system signals the merging of the connected car and the smart home space.”
  • “Apple and Google are set to deliver a new application ecosystem for the vehicle environment where consumers are able to download new services and functionalities directly through the head unit. As they compete in this new space, end users will expect similar levels of speed, functionality and features that they experience in the smartphone ecosystem.”

However, fully autonomous cars are still sometime away.

Juniper predicts “nearly 20 million fully autonomous or self-driving vehicles on the road by 2025” but consumer adoption won’t really “take off” until 2021.

In the interim, a white paper from Juniper notes that “consumer usage of ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistance System) technologies such as adaptive cruise control and automated braking will become key. Juniper believes that these systems will help prepare drivers for the psychological change from the role of driving a car to operating a driverless car.”​

Read more at:

https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/apple-carplay-and-android-auto-to-drive-connected?utm_source=juniperpr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Connected_Cars_15_PR2