Connected car technology made huge advances in 2014, both in terms of the pace of innovation and increased consumer awareness of its benefits and drawbacks. Significant milestones of the past 12 months included Google and Apple invading the dashboard, autonomous driving and vehicle-to-vehicle communication getting ready to hit the road, and automakers promising to protect driver data and privacy as cars get progressively more connected.
1. Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Quietly Becomes Available
The federal government acted last year to mandate vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology in future vehicles. But some automakers won't wait for infrastructure and frequency-spectrum standards for V2V and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) in the U.S. to be sorted out before embedding the technology into model-year 2016 vehicles. Toyota has already indicated that it will start to integrate V2V and V2I technology into its domestic market vehicles, since automakers and regulators in Japan have already determined standards. Here in the U.S., GM CEO Mary Bara announced that Cadillac claims will begin offering V2V and V2I technologies in its vehicles beginning in MY2017, although I wouldn't be surprised if the tech quietly found its way into GM vehicles sooner.
2. Driver Assists Come to More Mainstream Cars
A truism in tech is that consumers typically get more for their money each year, since features that were once found only on high-end products trickle down to the mainstream. This is now happening with driver assist technologies, but the benefits are much bigger than with, say, other car tech such as power windows and keyless entry. Moritaka Yoshida, Toyota's chief safety technology officer, said last month that the automaker's "goal is to introduce affordable technologies in mass-volume nameplates." He pointed out that automakers "have reached a point of diminishing returns from improvements in passive systems such as seat belts" and added that "faster gains will come from technologies that prevent crashes in the first place." Research shows this is accurate, and as Toyota offers live-saving driver assist systems in lower-priced cars, others will follow to remain competitive.
The first half of 2014 began with both Apple and Google announcing that their own respective device-integration solutions for the car, CarPlay and Android Auto, would be available by the end of the year—but ended without either becoming available. Before the year was out, the move also caused German auto executives to balk at giving up their dashboard displays to the tech giants and, more importantly, potentially lucrative connected car data. German Chancellor Angela Merkel even entered the fray. The eventual advent of CarPlay and Android Auto likely won't sound the death knell for OEM infotainment, but will more likely signal a detente. As Dr. Wolfgang Epple, director of research and technology for Jaguar Land Rover, told us at the recent unveiling of the brand's justDrive smartphone integration solution, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto can coexist with automaker's OEM solutions—and give drivers more and better options instead of a single solution.
4. Over-the-Air Software Updates Become More Common
Although the pieces have been in place for years, with the exception of Tesla, over-the-air (OTA) software updates are still not common in cars. But that could change as more vehicles gain connectivity in many different forms. Ford was the first automaker to offer infotainment software updates for its Sync system. But owners had to download the update from the Web onto a USB drive and then upload it to the car. With its new Sync 3 system, Ford added Wi-Fi capability to allow OTA updates from an owner's home network. This isn't yet on par in terms of ease and frequency of Tesla's OTA updates for the Model S, via either the car's embedded connectivity or built-in Wi-Fi capability. But as more cars have either—and some have both—expect to see other automakers introduce OTA updates, especially in light of the rash of recalls in 2014 that could potentially be solved with OTA updates. And save automaker's millions.
Technology has only just begun to shake up and reshape the auto industry, and the next 12 months will bring further disruption in the quickly evolving connected car space. As we've seen in other areas and industries, the upside of this transformation is that connectivity will continue to enrich our lives and give us capabilities that were previously not possible even a year ago.