Telematics Shaping the Future of Automotive Technology
Telematics has brought a new angle to the way we think and perceive transportation. Today automotive technology works in unison with telecommunications, computer science, electronics and informatics to deliver optimum user experience in terms of performance, safety and connectivity. But experts from the field state that a lot of developments are about to take place in the next five years that will surpass the progress being made in the last 50 years. The main areas of automotive technology where telematics will be implemented for the betterment include smart phone connectivity, driver-assistance, autonomous driving mode, navigation, infotainment, V2I (vehicle-to-internet), V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) and M2M (machine-to-machine) communications.
Future of Automotive Technology with Telematics
The vast magnitude of change that the automobile sector is about to experience in the near future can be summarized in following points:
Autonomous Driving Mode: The real-life Batmobile that drives and parks without human involvements has been in the pipeline of big business like Google and Volvo for quite a while now. Top-notch automobile organizations are now seriously considering launching the first road-ready autonomous/ driverless car once they are able to finalize such a car model for the local masses, keeping their technological grasp in mind.
Internet of Cars: Bluetooth, GPS and FM connectivity is already available in most of the cars nowadays. The next step is providing Internet connection such that one can also use the car as high-speed router that lets you tweet, chat, view and listen all the audios and videos that you would with your regular smartphone or dongle internet connection. It will also provide better safety and connectivity since all the cars in a specific network (of Internet of Cars) will be able to sense the presence of another vehicle on their route and hence will be able to avoid collisions and fatal accidents.
In-Car Infotainment: Not that the current multi-touch features with surround sound, navigation and rich -multimedia is not impressive enough but the arrival of smartphones have brought a new twist to this aspect too with Apple, Google and Microsoft signing multi-million deals with car manufacturers and offering their exclusive IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) systems in the form of CarPlay, Android Auto and Metro respectively that integrates the smartphone with the vehicle and extent the IVI capabilities beyond expectations.
Advance Sensor Activity: Humans are prone to err but behind the wheels it may prove to be fatal for them as well as for others who are travelling with them. In order to prevent such mishaps, researchers are focusing on developing such sensors that can track the heart rate, brain activity, eye movement and alcohol level in the blood stream of the driver such that it can notify the driver to rectify it if it is higher or lower than the required level and the driver lies at the risk of falling asleep or unconscious (in case of too much alcohol consumption). These advanced sensor can also alarm the concerned nearby authorities in case the driver is not responding to the constant alerts.
Remote Car Diagnosis and Repair: The next generation of automobiles will come with integrated smart-system that will be able to predict and schedule regular car repairs, while keeping you in loop with scheduled car servicing that it will be able to make via its advanced technology. This will save both time and money for you without any out of the blue car damage that end up with you stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Telematics is aimed at exploring the unforeseen potential of automobile industry and bringing forward more user - friendly, safer and advanced way for people to travel and almost eliminate the element of error that results in damages to the driver, car and the surroundings by automatizing every possible aspect of the driving experience and integrating it with the reliable network of internet of cars to avoid both major and minor troubles.
