It is safe to say that the connected car is here – so far as Europe and the US are concerned anyway. Walk into any dealership and you can buy a vehicle which will integrate with your smartphone seamlessly.
That’s all well and good, of course, but where do we go from here? Melding the capabilities of your smartphone with your vehicle is fine, but having a car that comes with said functionalities already built in is the industry’s new goal.
The intelligent car is the next step in automotive connectivity: no longer will vehicles be limited to the functions of – or tethered down by – a smartphone accomplice.
“The connected car really has to do with the physical attributes of connecting,” says Joel Hoffman, Automotive Strategist at Intel. “The intelligent car takes a more holistic look at the entire vehicle electronics. This is a bigger area of exploration for the industry, and it’s one that is going to make a much bigger impact than anything we’ve done to date.”
In the intelligent car, connecting to your digital life moves up a notch to cloud capability, making vehicles function wirelessly, without the need for a smartphone platform. While many use the example of cars setting the heating or turning the oven on as you drive home, the business case behind the intelligent car is far more sophisticated: it is all about OEMs gaining control over their in-car technology again.
“The connected car has more of a journey than a destination,” says Hoffman, “but it’s going to be more dramatic than introducing a mobile phone into a car.”
Intelligent cars, autonomous drivers?
So what does the automotive industry actually need to do to get from the connected to the intelligent car?
“The first step is underway, with the desire that people are creating for the connected car,” Hoffman comments. “That desire gives people the idea that they can have these usages. And, unfortunately, they’re limited to certain markets or cost levels of the vehicles.
“The next step is to get the industry to agree that they will collaborate much more than they do today, because in order to get a common set of hardware and software elements, OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers all have to agree that certain parts of their design are going to be commonised much than today.”
However, Hoffman hints that human attitudes will need to change if they are to truly benefit from the intelligent car of the future: “Most people will admit that they like advanced tech if it makes them look smarter, but they don’t want it to be smarter than them.
“You’re going to be the one who decides if it’s going to self-drive, partly self-drive, or if you’re going to drive. In most cases, people will want that choice because the car is a servant to the person.”
Behind the scenes
However, it is not just viewpoints of consumers and OEMs that need to develop: looking at the smart car’s internal system, Dean Miles, Senior Vice President of automotive at Symphony Teleca, points out a clear issue that must be resolved before the intelligent car can become a reality: processing power.
“There are 100 different definitions of intelligent: is it self-driving or is it just being aware of other vehicles around it and giving you the correct warning? We’re on a line between a connected vehicle – a vehicle that is reasonably aware of its environment, like most Volvos now – and a self-driving vehicle. The real crux of the issue is the quality of the software, the speed of processing and the amount of processing in the vehicle.
“For me, it’s probably to do with the amount of processing power and the affordability of that power within the vehicle. If you look at the Google self-driven car, for example, the processing power that would be required is tremendous – it’s similar to an Apache helicopter!”
