Competitive Analysis Top Connected Car Overview
Connected car market growth is buoyed by increasing demand of internet access, infotainment systems, advanced safety functions, driver assistance programs, and other advanced technology based features. Hence, the global connected cars market is expected to propel in the near future. The first connected cars were made by General Motors working with Motorola Automotive, in 1996 with the introduction of OnStar. Further in 2001 remote diagnostics was introduced and in 2003 it was marked as the introduction vehicle health reports, turn-by-turn directions and network access device. Further, in 2007 Continental introduced data-only telematics. Moreover, Audi A3 was the first automaker to introduce 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspots access in 2014 and the first mass deployment of 4G LTE was by General Motors.
Competitive Analysis – Top 10 connected car companies
- General Motors
- BMW
- Audi
- Mercedes Benz
- Tesla
- Volkswagen
- Volvo
- Jaguar Land Rover
- Porsche
- Nissan
General Motors had developed interest in connected car over the last 20 years, with the launch of OnStar and still continues to deliver innovative solutions. In year 2017, there are about 12 million connected vehicles on the road and about 4.5 million of those are 4G LTE connected vehicles. Furthermore, General Motors data mining concept is still theoretical just has generated keen interest in the advertising and broadcast communities.
BMW connected cars are available in 45 countries and over four million customers worldwide are using BMW connected stated by the Dieter May, Senior Vice President Digital Products and Services BMW Group. Further, BMW is planning to use IBM’s cloud infrastructure to deploy its new platform for collecting data from connected cars.
Although Audi is known for developing networked and internet savvy cars, the company thought it needed a boost so the company signed memorandum with Huawei that have collaborated to work on intelligent connected vehicles. The companies haven’t provided any specific goals or long term roadmaps, however they brought attention to the partnership that took place in 2017 which tested LTE-V, a 4G data variant optimized for fast moving vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz released its first experimental API for developers in January 2018, which currently works with High Mobility simulator and company plans to open up the API to vehicles in the future.
The competitors are involved in experimentation as car manufacturers, software providers, and commerce players together build the connected vehicle ecosystem. As in May 2018 Volvo cars announced it is working with Google to embed the voice-controlled Google Assiatant, Google Play Store, Google Maps and other Google services into its next-generation Sensus infotainment system.
Furthermore, Amazon and Apple are also finding a way to enter the connected cars competition. As Toyota announced that its 2019 Corolla will include Apple’s Car Play and Amazon’s Alexa. Hence, it is essential for competitors to continue with their experimentation and bring new innovations to the market to stay in top ten competitive lists of connected cars.