The dawn of the Internet revolution never predicted a possibility so wide. From just a place where we were unable to track the fleet vehicles, today with innumerable opportunities we can remotely monitor the location, status, health, and activity of vehicles. We can say that the recent catchword for the automobile industry is Vehicle telematics.
What is Vehicle Telematics?
Telematics is a word with the concept of Telecommunication and Informatics together. In Simple words, Vehicle Telematics is a system of remotely monitoring and obtaining data from any Mobile assets like Car, Van, Trucks, or Ship by using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and onboard diagnostics. This involves the collection of a large amount of data every second.
This can be a turning point in the automobile industries which are experiencing slow growth in recent years. The Automobile industry faced a rough time in the last two decades. For instance, India's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki has posted a 36% drop in the sale and has axed thousands of jobs. This is mainly due to the new trend of cab culture, carpooling, crowded cities, and uneasy Car loans.
By 2025, the United States will have 1160 lakh cars connected with Vehicle telematics technology. And according to a forecast by Hitachi, each of these cars will upload data to the cloud (25 GB per hour). Annually it will amount to 219 TB of data. By 2025 it will worth approximately up to 25000 million TB of total car data annually!
The new fuel for the Automobiles Industry
The industry can record all the data pertaining to the vehicle and it is stored in the cloud. The data like Speed, direction, Vehicle status, Odometer value, Power voltage, and Fuel usage are monitored every moment. The advanced data like engine load, Engine hours of operation, Fuel level, Cruise control switch, and ambient air temperature can also be recorded for better results. This magnanimous data can be analyzed for meaningful insights. Artificial Intelligence comes into the picture at this juncture. Artificial intelligence with telematics can be used to analyze the driver's behavior and can be beneficial to Insurance Companies too.
Reduced Vehicle Maintenance Cost
Another Aspect is the precautionary maintenance of vehicles. The event of vehicle breakdown or discovery of a serious vehicle defect can be corrected at a very initial stage. This will help to reduce the maintenance cost of the vehicles. Thus, it is useful to the Fleet management companies. According to a study by AAA, a new car’s routine maintenance and repairs could cost an average of $1,186 each year. The AI algorithms can proactively help to identify the defects that are likely to occur.
The Challenges
Like every good innovation, even Vehicle telematics face some challenges. Firstly, the major problem is BIG Data. Conventional analytics platforms cannot keep the generated voluminous data or can't deliver a real-time alert. Data wrangling for such an emerging technology may also be a stumbling block. For this new system, the dedicated old pipelines for the data won't work. It demands a high hardware base, and it cannot be used to absorb the new data and turn it into an analytical system using existing database solutions.
Vehicle telematics can be misinterpreted as just a GPS solution but it is more that. It involves the processing of the data to give an actionable diagnosis which can minimize many foreseen costs and helps in easy coverage of Insurance. A car with an integrated telematics system will save up to 30 percent on insurance premiums based on driving habits. India's Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has approved telematics as a medium for logistics firms to save money while staying safe.
To Conclude with
This engaging technology crosses the limitations of a traditional Automobile Sector. This will make a breakthrough for other sectors like Telecommunication, Government sector, etc. Vehicle Telematics if properly harness can bring a new wave in the Industries. Though this technology faces some challenges this will evolve to be a better inevitable part of the system.
The future of the Automobile industry can be molded by this technology.
