Cars Poised to Become ‘A Thing’

March 1, 2016

Terry Costlow

The Internet of Things (IoT) will be the next transformational aspect of connectivity, enabling machines to communicate with each other without human intervention. Autos are becoming a major player in the IoT era, talking to cloud computers and potentially to other vehicles.

IoT connectivity requires automakers to adopt common standards and rely on independent service suppliers. This openness brings significant benefits — but also risks.

“While the benefits of the connected car are undeniable — enabling features like cloud-based services, downloadable apps, integration with personal devices of consumers, and vehicle data analytics — unwanted intrusions are becoming a growing concern as hackers have an increasing number of entry points into the car,” said Alon Atsmon, Vice President of Technology Strategy at Harman.

The high bandwidth of 4G LTE has made it practical for cars to communicate even in rush-hour traffic when cell phone usage is high. Many information technology suppliers are gearing up to support vehicles and machines that will all have phone numbers or URLs. This trend’s already well underway.

“At the end of 2014, in the US, there were 355 million wireless subscriptions with a population in the US of 320 million,” said Joe Averkamp, Senior Director of Technology and Technical Strategy at Xerox. “There are more cell phones in use than people, meaning machines, including vehicles, are connected.”

Monthly costs may be one gating factor for automotive’s links to the Web. OEMs may not offer free connections for a vehicle’s lifetime, and consumers won’t pay for vehicle connections unless they perceive value. Cellular providers are already creating plans for machines, which typically don’t send huge amounts of data.

“Machine-to-machine plans are typically used for smart-home power meters, home security systems, and other IoT types of functions,” said Robert Gee, Head of Product Management, Software & Connected Solutions at Continental Automotive. “These plans are also suitable for remote vehicle services such as remote vehicle status like diagnostics, location tracking, or remote door unlock. The automotive industry would certainly benefit from low-cost plans.”

The connected-car era is still in its infancy, but the transportation industry is already a leader in machine-to-machine communications. Many commercial vehicles already utilize the Web.

“Automotive is at the forefront of IoT,” said Scott Frank, Marketing Vice President at Airbiquity. “There’s a high level of network connectivity for service delivery and increasingly to take data from the car. There’s also a lot of activity in vehicle fleets.”

Bright outlook

The cloud may eventually become a principal factor for many vehicle features and functions. Activities as diverse as voice control, infotainment and safety can be improved by leveraging the vast capabilities of remote servers.

“The cloud and connectivity can be leveraged to enable services that would not be possible on the vehicle systems standalone,” said Michael O’Shea, CEO of Abalta Technologies. “Take natural language processing. This is much more effective when done on the cloud where vast computing resources can be leveraged. Similarly, we can take advantage of huge content databases to enable users to consume virtually unlimited content, such as music, on demand.”

IoT connectivity will eventually play a major role in both the push to autonomous driving and the drive for more infotainment options. Cloud services can offload many functions so on-vehicle electronics can focus on real-time computing.

“The in-vehicle head unit cannot manage everything, it has limited capabilities,” said Pradeep Seetharam, Director of Programs at Excelfore. “Non-latency sensitive decisions like slowing down the vehicle for an upcoming intersection can be made in the cloud. Moreover, for older vehicles with connectivity, more services can be added, like updating navigation and providing location-based services.”

Many observers believe clouds and connectivity will reduce the need for dedicated vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. These links can provide many low-latency benefits, which can improve safety during the long startup cycle that will occur if or when regulators mandate V2V technology.

“V2V is a huge requirement,” said Shrikant Acharya, Excelfore’s CTO. “Consumers want safety that can be delivered through V2V. But V2V does not have a critical-mass of deployment. By integrating with web services, most V2V can be delivered now.”

Seeking transformers

The Web’s transformative nature will alter many aspects of vehicle design and usage. Human-machine interfaces (HMIs) will have to evolve, service providers will gain a major role and some business relationships will have to be revised.

“Automakers used to put together a bill of materials, then when the vehicle was sold, responsibility transferred to the dealer,” Frank said. “Now when a connected car is sold, the automaker can maintain a relationship with the customer without competing with the dealer. They can leverage that to enhance vehicle performance and service recalls and other software issues.”

Data management will also become a major issue. Automakers will be able to gather volumes of information from vehicles, collecting usage data that can be mined for further research. Automakers and drivers alike will be able to use data that moves through the cloud.

“Connecting to the cloud lets you use data from a ginormous sensor,” said Andrew Poliak, Global Business Development Director for QNX Software Systems. “It also makes it easy to send data back to the OEM and other services. Everything does need to be done with protections for privacy.”

Privacy and security are critical aspects of any Web-related technology. In automotive, those factors are complicated by the need to provide HMIs that help drivers remain focused on safety.

“First, security over-the-air must be established via appropriate encryption and certification,” Gee said. “Second, the server system itself must be secure in case the functions provided are driving-related. And third, the cloud-based service itself must be designed with all of the other HMI elements and functions in mind that will be in the vehicle, in order to reduce driver workload and enable safe usage.”

Web-based standards are helping automakers alter display imagery so users can customize some aspects of the HMI. These standards make it easier for engineers to adjust visual elements, showing drivers information that suits driving conditions.

“With HTML5, you can easily change the look and feel; an older person who wants big buttons or only a couple radio stations can easily change things,” Poliak said. “It’s also easier to alter the HMI as speed changes, showing some things at low speeds and different things at higher speeds.”

Showing this type of contextual information is also a key to reducing driver distraction. As more driving-related data comes from the cloud, user interfaces are being revamped to make sure information is easy to understand.

“Cognitive overload has a lot to do with how information is presented,” Frank said. “As services get more data-intensive, you need to present data in a way that’s digestible. That will require changes to the HMI. You don’t want to give the driver three options, you want to offer the best one.”

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