1innovate

Cars in the networkConnectivity is one of the most powerful trends in the automotive industry today. in future, cars’ inter-net access will be one of the factors that affects various automakers’ market share. Manufacturers will not only vie with apple, Google and other companies to offer new entertainment services via networked vehicles; they will also strive to reduce traffic congestion and accidents. this will be the first step towards autonomous driving — and it will open up new markets for suppliers

Text: Volker Marquardt

innovate

Phot

o: N

avid

Bar

aty

59events

DrivinG the Future

58events

DrivinG the Future

2

3

6

5

4

innovate

when Chris Barker envisions the near future, he sees a driver whose smartphone is auto-matically connected with the on-board com-puter of his or her car. via a gigantic display in the central console, the driver can listen to mu-sic on itunes or spotify. in addition, a gentle voice can point out possible problems due to the tyre pressure, for example, and promptly guide the car to the nearest authorised work-shop. if congestion develops on the way, the appropriate app will automatically launch itself and recommend alternate routes. Meanwhile, the driver can use gesture-based controls to let family members or business partners know he or she will be late.

Customer demand for such services has grown tremendously — and it’s already influ-encing buyers’ choice of a new car. “Five years ago, cars were selected on the basis of their horsepower or body design. today, features such as music streaming, real-time mainte-nance information, location-based recommen-dations and dynamic congestion forecasts are playing an increasingly important role,” says Barker, who works at the us consulting com-pany C3 to organise group conferences con-cerning car connectivity. he is known as an insider in the automotive industry. a recent survey conducted by Mckinsey confirms Bark-er’s assessment. a fifth of the respondents said they would change their car brand today in order to be able to use more connectivity

1 Vehicles that communicate with one another may soon prevent conges-tion in major cities

2, 3 BMW i drivers are connected with their cars’ control system via a smart watch. This remote app shows the battery charging process, the range, the cooling system and the locking of the doors and windows

4, 5 “Luxury in Motion” is an autonomously driving saloon from Mercedes-Benz. The interior has a lounge feeling

services, and 13 per cent said they wouldn’t even think of buying a new vehicle if it didn’t have internet access. as a result, Barker esti-mates that the global market for connectivity will more than quadruple, from €30 billion to-day to €128 billion, by 2020. More than a third of this amount (36 per cent) will be earned in asia. the influence of car connectivity on mar-ket share is even greater. according to Barker, this issue is becoming a key competitive factor for automakers.

as a result, all auto manufacturers are cur-rently working flat out to develop the connec-tivity of their car models. Daimler has declared that the digitization of its cars is one of the company’s top priorities. “whereas e-mobility is only slowly picking up speed, another revo-lution is already under way: the digital revolu-tion,” says Dieter Zetsche, the Ceo of Daimler aG. the Ceo of audi, rupert stadler, has also stated that connected cars are a must. in this area, audi aims to focus on China, which is the most important growth engine for car con-nectivity besides Germany and the usa. au-di’s parent company, vw, also recently gave the public a preview of its connected car pro-jects and presented its Golf r touch. the spe-cial feature of the new model is that many of its functions can be controlled through

gestures. in addition, this Golf offers interfac-es with all current smartphones, such as Mir-rorLink, apple Car Play and Google’s android auto. today car connectivity is a must for all automakers, because this way they won’t ex-clude any target groups.

through the mass networking of smart-phones with on-board electronics, automak-ers’ relationship with customers is entering an entirely new era. whereas previously the au-tomakers came into contact with end users only during the sales process and in connec-tion with repairs, a more intense daily connec-tion is now coming into being. “we’re becom-ing ongoing partners,” said Jon w. suh, executive Director hyundai ventures, at the Connected Car Conference in new York. “the key factor in all current and future business models in this area will be the question of

6 Chris Barker, the main advisor regarding connected cars and transport technologies at the consulting company C3 Group, is recognised as a pioneering thinker in the area of connected mobility. He has helped airlines, aerospace companies and freight forwarders to enter the digital age. He focuses on the interfaces between traffic and IT

›››››

Phot

os: B

MW

Gro

up (2

), M

esse

Fra

nkfu

rt E

xhib

ition

Gm

bH/J

oche

n G

ünth

er, h

ttp:

//med

ia.d

aim

ler.c

om (2

)

60events

DrivinG the Future

7

8

innovate

whether companies can successfully protect the customers’ data and their privacy,” he add-ed. he was referring, among other things, to hyundai’s competitor BMw, whose “Connect-edDrive” system was recently revealed to have a security hole that allowed thieves to use sim-ple technology to open the car doors. the problem affected a total of 2.2 million vehicles of the BMw, Mini and rolls-royce brands.

a further key challenge is the fact that au-tomakers depend on the innovations of the tech industry, but apple, Google, Cisco and other it companies operate on a completely different production cycle. whereas automak-ers develop new models every three years, new smartphones are launched on the market every six or nine months. Chris Barker also points out that the two industries have differ-ent basic aims: “For telecommunications companies the main aim is to provide services faster or more simply, but for automakers the top priority is safety.” as a result, automakers are forced to make sure the it does not dis-tract the driver from his or her main activity, namely driving. according to Barker, in the future the key question will be “how, and how

soon, can we incorporate a new technology into a car while at the same time ensuring safe driving?” everyone involved agrees that the two industries can be harmonised only through increasingly close co-operative projects. they’ve already taken the first steps: Last year Google joined audi, GM, honda and hyundai to establish the open automotive alliance (oaa), whose aim is to make it possible to incor-porate technological innovations into new models more quickly and smoothly. and at the first Connected Mobility Conference, which C3 and Messe Frankfurt are planning to stage in santa Clara, California, pioneering thinkers from the areas of automaking, technology, re-search, politics and media will share ideas about how technologies will change transportation in future.

according to Chris Barker, autonomously driving vehicles are in-creasingly becoming a focus of interest so that the many new services can actually be used by drivers. the average us citizen spends a total of three weeks per year inside a car, and us drivers want to use this time for working and relaxing as well. “that’s why autonomous driving on designated sections of streets and roads will be completely normal as early as 2020,” Baker predicts. there will be mixed forms of autono-mous driving, he adds. at times the driver will no longer need to steer the car and can do other things instead. at other times, the driver will have to take the steering wheel in hand, depending on the traffic or the safety situation. that’s why, according to Barker, automakers already have to make an effort today to offer drivers and passengers as much freedom and flexibility as possible. that’s the only way they will con-tinue to have buyers for their vehicles tomorrow.

7, 8 The Golf R Touch has three big displays and very few switches. It is almost exclusively controlled via gestures

||||| Phot

os: V

olks

wag

en A

G (2

); Ill

ustr

atio

n: A

dam

Que

st

62events

DrivinG the Future