Connected Car Technology to Wire Up in 2019 Experts Say

Top industry experts are weighing in on the connected vehicle sector for the year ahead, with CalAmp’s team making bold predictions.

Here’s what they had to say on a several key trends:

Connected Car, IoT

• Device as a service (DaaS) offerings will accelerate: We’ve already started to see this in recent years but in 2019 and within the next 5 years or so, we will see data and connectivity become a part of the vehicle purchase. As a result, we will see a lot of device as a service (DaaS) offerings emerge as opposed to single piece hardware sales. Telematics providers that offer complete solutions will make more compelling partners for enterprises and OEM’s. – Frank Schneider, Director of Product Management for CalAmp
• Data monetization will aid in further innovation: In 2019, we will see even more OEM’s start to monetize data by selling it directly on to third parties services providers as a means of offering insight or furthered vehicle/connectivity innovation. More data = more valuable insights.  – Frank Schneider, Director of Product Management for CalAmp

• The vehicle sharing trend will continue to grow in sophistication: The car-sharing market will continue to grow with new car sharing programs at a local level. While OEM’s continue to beta test different peer to peer sharing programs, local dealerships will begin to evaluate these programs being ran on their own with their used vehicle inventory and rental fleet. This continues to drive a need for inventory (fleet) management and stolen vehicle recovery products – Steve Manzi, LoJack Director of Product Management
• Vehicles will start to talk to each other: Otherwise known as V2V, similar to applications like Waze but technology prompted. We will start to see more solutions that alert vehicles and mapping applications of broken down motorists in the area to avoid vehicles on the side of the road in late night conditions. – Kinana Hussain, Vice President of Product Line Management for CalAmp
• Connected vehicles will have their own 4G Wi-Fi hotspots: High dependency of Wi-Fi enables vehicle entertainment to the family while allowing the driver to utilize streaming applications like Spotify or iHeartRadio while being less dependent on their personal cell phone. This will also allow for a higher quality of content to the center console, with higher resolution maps and images from providers like Google, right to their navigation units. 2D will quickly become a feature of the past. – Steve Manzi, Director of Product Management for CalAmp

Fleet Management

• IoT data collection will become much more streamlined: IoT vulnerabilities are a definite area of concern in recent years. In 2019, we will see companies streamline and integrate data from additional sensors on to a single data stream to simplify data handling and security. – Frank Schneider, Director of Product Management for CalAmp

• Cameras, cameras, cameras – With the increasing focus on driver safety, we will see cameras play a much bigger role in ensuring driver and passenger safety and will act as a means of proactively detecting issues before they arise. – John Elsner, VP of sales in North America for CalAmp
• Build vs. buy debate comes to fleet management – similar to the ongoing analytics debate, build vs. buy will become a bigger conversation within fleet management and telematics in 2019.  Companies considering building their own telematics offering will need to evaluate both the investment and time needed to implement a complete solution.  Infrastructure elements such as mapping, data management, security, and connectivity, are fundamental but not innovative. Companies will look to ecosystem partners to provide these foundational pieces to help simplify and accelerate the launch of their offering. – John Elsner, Vice President of Product Management for CalAmp

Supply Chain:

• Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) will continue to gain popularity within supply chain: Blockchain has been the buzz of 2018 but there are a number of practical use cases for supply chain. Within the cold chain, specifically, food and pharma, we are starting to see major, high-profile pilots of block chain solutions. Some industries, like legalized cannabis, digital currency is the main driver for transactions throughout the journey. We will start to see to see blockchain apps, smart contracts and other blockchain functions in place so service providers can take care of all the necessary tasks and activities relating to the infrastructure.  – Jeff Newman, Vice President of Business Development and Supply Chain Visibility Solutions Sales for CalAmp
• Smart Sensors for Monitoring Quality of Shipments – We are starting to see the move to smart sensors on individual shipments in food and pharma markets. The technology now exists for a totally integrated view of the quality of the shipment from manufacturer or producer to the point of final delivery. Well-known international shipping companies are starting to implement this technology to gain a total view of their shipping supply chain. – Jeff Newman, Vice President of Business Development and Supply Chain Visibility Solutions Sales for CalAmp
• Supply Chain Transparency as a Business Differentiator – We are starting to witness total integration of the supply chain — from the vehicle to trailer contents across multiple related parties in a single view. The same multiple parties are also sharing specific information regarding their deliveries. Transparency throughout the supply chain is becoming a business differentiator.  This view includes the drivers experience, vehicle/truck information and cargo information with surrounding data on the environment of the journey. Regulation continues to drive the need for visibility and traceability through the supply chain. Supply chain providers are trialing technologies that track perishables from distribution centers to retail stores. We expect to see more pilots and implementations in 2019. – Jeff Newman, Vice President of Business Development and Supply Chain Visibility Solutions Sales for CalAmp

Category: Connected Fleet News, General Update, News