How To Envision The Future Of Connected Cars For Smart Mobility

envisioning

automotive futures

connected cars for smart mobility

Cars inspire passions and opinions like few other

products. With every new model, manufacturers

celebrate design and the driving experience. But

behind the beauty of the line, a fresh theme is

running strong: digital intelligence. From now on, a

new breed of connected cars will inspire ever more

enduring relationships between driver and maker.

All cars will be

connected cars

Within the next three years, every new car will, to a greater or

lesser extent, be a connected car. When most drivers already have a

smart-phone in a cradle on the dashboard, this deeper connectivity

is inevitable. The real question is not ‘if’ – it’s a question of ‘how far can

you go?’

Connectivity is a sliding scale. Children in the back playing games online is one thing – but real-time connectivity between car, driver and a full eco-system of partners is another altogether. In our discussions with automotive clients, it’s clear to Atos that this extended connectivity now takes on primary strategic importance. It is set to become the foundation on which automotive companies develop and sustain profitable relationships with their customers.

It does not stop there. Connectivity also becomes the catalyst for an entirely new range of collaborative business opportunities with partners. These include insurance providers, fuel companies, retailers and civic authorities. Today, we can only begin to imagine the ultimate potential of connected cars. One thing, however, is sure. In the past, the business of automotive companies focused largely on vehicle sales. Post-sales opportunities, mostly associated with vehicle service, were limited. This now changes. In the immediate future, the connected vehicle will become the key to extending customer relationships. It will create a more rewarding experience for the driver and at the same time establish sustained revenue streams both for the manufacturers and their eco-system partners.

A new driving experience

When envisioning how connected cars will change the way we experience driving, it’s essential to keep right up to date with the technology radar – and as business technologists, Atos naturally maintains a keen focus on technology development. But as always, behavior comes first. It’s worth thinking about two perspectives:

Communications

People expect constant connectivity, communication and content. This is not just about being able to take and make calls. With family, friends and colleagues, the social network is always live – disconnection now feels like social exile.

We want content in context too. We expect on-board route planners, for example, to provide real-time alternatives as they take roadworks and sudden traffic build-up into account. And we expect integration. Our phones, tablets and laptops are in synch. In the internet of things, domestic security and power consumption will soon be in the mix – and so too will the cars we drive.

Cars

Attitudes to ownership are not fixed. Some people will always want to own their car and for their car to say something about them. For others, especially in busy urban environments where off-street parking can cost a small fortune, people are increasingly accepting of car-share schemes.

Environmental awareness increases too, and people are keen for clean. Electric vehicles and their associated charging infrastructure are just beginning to gain real momentum.

Put these two perspectives together, and one thing becomes clear – the car is no longer a capsule:

„For drivers and passengers, the vehicle must be a safely connected extension of their environment

„For automotive manufacturers and their partners, connectivity drives a shift from product to service relationships.

New landscapes

New opportunities

New partnerships

The landscape for connected cars is new territory. Although some

of the individual aspects of the connected driving experience are

reasonably well-established, the integrated whole is not. There is no

reason why automotive companies should not fast track connected

car opportunities, however – as long as the right IT and process

partnerships are in place.

You can look at the landscape for connected cars from two clear perspectives:

„B2C – how can integrated connectivity enhance the experience of those who own and use the vehicle?

„B2B – how can the manufacturer exploit connectivity with other businesses to create and sustain new streams of revenue? Both propositions are also built around three core technology and process realities – easy to list, but not necessarily quite so easy to implement, integrate or manage:

B2C

Sell a subscription fee

For innovative service access

B2B

diagnosis Carmanufacturer

Auto dealer Retail Insurance Fleet rental car Information provider Better user control

The car manufacturer

as a service provider

Value

Location

Context

Connectivity

Devices know where they are – and we know where they are too. It’s true for the vehicle and it’s true for whatever devices drivers

We can build a picture of the situation at any given time. This may be about who is driving, and how. It may be about how the

We can make this information work together to make good things happen for the driver; to strengthen the bond between

Freedom!

Every car owner thinks about cost and depreciation, about insurance, about fuel and parking. But despite all this, the enduring mythology of

Imagine the journey

Let’s not limit ourselves. With the advent of connected cars, Atos sees

a real “what if” moment. As business technologists, we want to push

imagination to the limits with our automotive clients.

We are ready to balance imagination and practical application. As business technologists with a strong engineering heritage, we are laying the foundation for the world of connected cars – taking full advantage of our deep presence beyond automotive in sectors including insurance, retail, transport and telecommunications. As consumers, we have high expectations but are increasingly reluctant to pay for services. The connected car experience must provide clear and quantifiable value. Continuous advance is essential: what we are prepared to pay for today, we will expect for free tomorrow.

The data stream from connected cars is worth a lot. When automotive companies begin to partner with other businesses, you create opportunities to add value for your customers and open new and sustainable revenues.

Safety must always come first. Whatever consumer applications you make available for the connected car must always take road safety and traffic conditions into complete account.

Journey

plan

Whether it’s for business or pleasure, a little planning reduces stress and makes journeys more enjoyable. Plan in comfort on the tablet or laptop at home; add points of interest; click save and go to bed. Journey plan automatically loaded onto vehicle system ready for the morning.

Navigation

and route

planning

Traffic is alive. Conditions change constantly. If you turn off to avoid congestion ahead, are you still going to be driving through the backwoods long after the jam has cleared? Navigation and route planning tools must do more than spot trouble and consider alternatives – they need to weight benefit and probability in real-time.

Smart

parking

Parking could get so much smarter. The cost and frustration of urban parking could be transformed if we made the right connections between who has a space and who needs one, supported with simple non-cash payment mechanisms.

Social

networker

The car itself becomes another device in social and business networking. Meeting a new business contact in a town neither of you know? Let your cars do the business matchmaking.

Synchroni-zation

Phone? Check. Tablet? Check. Laptop? Check. Onboard systems? Check. Nobody wants the hassle of synching all that stuff. Data and application integration and synchronization across all devices has to be built in to your connected car proposition. The cloud will feature increasingly.

Insurance

Manufac-turers

Analyze the streams from every vehicle and model, and your marketing and R&D teams gain a new seam of actionable intelligence.

Dealer

networks

Remote monitoring and intervention can reduce wear and service costs for the individual owner and strengthen the dealer/driver relationship. Maintenance is simplified: when components are due for inspection or change, the car can advise the dealer or suggest a local service provider for the owner.

Fleet

operators

Real-time status information for every vehicle helps maximize availability and minimize the total cost of operations.

Leasing

companies

Accurate vehicle and driver information contributes to optimized asset management.

Fuel retail

Civic

authorities

Improve traffic flow by providing relevant real-time information to drivers on hub connections and congestion control systems, with automated payments if desired.

Atos – partnership

for connected car

initiatives

Atos is ready to partner with you on your most ambitious

connected car initiatives right now. We have invested in the

skills, the resources and the intellectual capital needed to take

a unique partnership position with the most ambitious and

visionary automotive companies.

We have over 30 years’ experience in automotive IT. We also have 25 years’ focus on embedded software development, with a one-thousand strong specialist team. Our connected vehicle vision and capability, however, rests on an extended range of complementary capabilities.

Context Broker Platform (CBP)

Our smart mobility proposition is highly developed and is already being used today by clients in numerous sectors to create value from context in mobile applications. Examples include job planning for the mobile workforce or location-specific offers for retail.

The Atos Context Broker Platform sits at the core of our smart mobility activity, and has a clear fit with any connected vehicle initiative. The CBP allows you to handle multiple streams of data, often machine-to-machine, in order to manage location and context-specific events. In a connected vehicle, for example, the CBP could manage route planning to avoid congestion charge zones, advising at the same time on parking and public transport options while synchronizing connection to the requisite payment systems.

Connected vehicle platform

As fully integrated connected car programs gain traction, connected vehicle platforms will play a crucial role in ensuring seamless service as vehicles cross regions and national boundaries. For the vehicle manufacturer, failsafe telematics services must deliver wherever people drive their cars. The platform must be able to manage different connectivity technologies – including brought-in SIM and smartphone tethering – along with multiple onboard devices types and regional content providers.

Back-end platform capability must be massively scalable, and must be able to process and integrate real-time data from millions of vehicles in motion without missing a beat. As a system integrator Atos will ensure that all tier two supplier data is in scope.

The Atos platform is highly modular. Deep systems integration skills mean we are also well-positioned to help automotive companies combine and rationalize telematics resources. We have an aggressive roll-out program, aiming to complete full coverage in all European, American and emerging economy markets within the next three years.

Secure transaction management

Billing is absolutely critical for connected vehicle success. You need to manage multiple sales channels – online, in-car shopping, and dealer network – local tax, various payment methods, and multi-partner settlements. High adoption hinges on transaction capability, ensuring that services are paid for according to agreed allocation.

You also need to handle vast volumes of CRM and vehicle data. This must be processed, filtered and turned to usable intelligence for both driver and provider, always in compliance with local privacy regulations.

Atos is Europe’s leading provider of Hi-Tech Transactional Services, and is already actively involved in numerous connected car and smart mobility projects.

Drive onwards

Connected cars will fundamentally change automotive business

models. Your customers’ expectations regarding communication,

content and context make connected cars the key to your extended,

service-oriented relationships.

Atos is the European leader in connected car solution design and implementation. We will help you take ideas to market rapidly, and ensure that today’s implementation is also a secure foundation for future development. We are ready to help you explore and develop both B2C and B2B connected car initiatives. Atos is already working with all major OEMs.

We are also keen to involve a wider range of appropriate partners, including both specialist application providers and telecommunications and insurance specialists.

How we drive this exciting story forwards demands an equal mix of vision and hands-on engineering inventiveness. Join us for some genuinely creative thinking – put our connected vehicle experts together with your own product and business development team for a day, and see what happens.

Atos and connected cars

uConnected vehicle platform used by leading European car manufacturers uPlatform integrates content from

existing connected vehicle systems u30 years’ automotive industry

experience

u25 years’ experience in automotive embedded software

uSkilled in mobile application development and management uDeep telecommunications and

machine-to-machine knowledge

uContext broker platform manages sophisticated contextual mobility uLeader in secure high-tech transaction

for credit card and internet payment uPartnership approach sharing risk

and reward

uSystem integration and globally secure 24x7 operations

uLocal knowledge in Europe, North America and emerging markets including Brazil and China

uOne of the first to integrate payment from the car – enabling eCommerce

About Atos

Atos is an international information technology services company with annual 2011 pro forma revenue of EUR 8.5 billion and 74,000 employees in 48 countries. Serving a global client base, it delivers hi-tech transactional services, consulting and technology services, systems integration and managed services. With its deep technology expertise and industry knowledge, it works with clients across the following market sectors: Manufacturing, Retail, Services; Public, Health & Transports; Financial Services; Telecoms, Media & Technology; Energy & Utilities.

Atos is focused on business technology that powers progress and helps organizations to create their firm of the future. It is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and is quoted on the Paris Eurolist Market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting & Technology Services, Atos Worldline and Atos Worldgrid. For more information, visit: atos.net