Connected car features are already in high demand among prospective car buyers, but consumers’ willingness to pay for those varies.
Connected vehicles will account for 55 percent of annual global new vehicle sales in 2020, according to IHS Markit. By then, the analyst firm expects that nearly half of the global fleet of vehicles in operation will be connected. In 2035, 21 million vehicles with some form of autonomy are expected to be sold. Connected car features are already in high demand among car owners looking into buying a new car. Yet, that many consumers say they want connected car features to be included in their next car purchase does not mean they are ready to pay to get those. IHS Markit found that while Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are the most desirable connected car features among prospective car buyers, those are reluctant to pay for such features. “Traditionally packaged within vehicles as part of optional features like leather seats and high-end infotainment systems, consumers expect advanced safety systems to be included in new vehicles at no charge – since electronic stability control systems and pre-charged brakes have become standard equipment on a global scale,” stated IHS Markit. U.S. consumers would be willing to pay between $427 and $505 at the time of vehicle purchase for ADAS, making them the most willing to pay among all respondents.
In comparison, consumers’ willingness to pay for software updates is higher, across all surveyed countries. A total of 74 percent of respondents currently owning a vehicle with an infotainment system stated they would be willing to pay for this feature. That figure is even higher among millennials in the U.S. (89 percent) and in China (90 percent).
Unsurprisingly, navigation apps rank highest for in-car use of smartphones, with 52 percent of respondents globally stating they used such apps. Their popularity is highest among Chinese consumers (56 percent). Apps for weather come in second (41 percent), followed by music and news apps (37 percent). “Not surprisingly, these features are the most popular for embedded displays in audio and navigation systems. Interestingly, podcasting apps registered very low among the audience surveyed, despite a recent resurgence in popularity,” said IHS Markit.
The analyst firm also found that nearly a third of respondents would be willing to ride in a self-driving vehicle and purchase one, with an additional 25 percent stating they would be willing to ride such a vehicle but not purchase one. Millennials’ willingness to drive and purchase a self-driving vehicle was however much higher at over 50 percent. In that age group, 75 percent stated they are comfortable with artificial intelligence (AI) driving the vehicle.
The analyst firm surveyed more than 4,000 vehicle owners intending to purchase a new vehicle within the next 36 months in the U.S., China, Germany and the United Kingdom.
IIoT News Recap: Mobileye and Tesla end collaboration on self-driving cars; Singtel and Ericsson eye 5G with pre-standard LAA live trial; Engie partners with IBM on smart city solutions; SK Hynix to ramp up investments in self-driving car chips
Autonomous driving: Mobileye and Tesla end collaboration on self-driving cars
Mobileye’s co-founder, CTO and chairman Amnon Shashua said on Tuesday that Mobileye would end its collaboration with Tesla, Fortune reports. Referring to an unnamed source within Tesla, Fortune says Tesla is to transition to an internally developed software for the camera function of its Autopilot feature. “Mobileye’s ability to evolve its technology is unfortunately negatively affected by having to support hundreds of models from legacy auto companies, resulting in a very high engineering drag coefficient,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk later said in a statement. “Tesla is laser-focused on achieving full self-driving capability on one integrated platform with an order of magnitude greater safety than the average manually driven car.”
Road to 5G: Singtel and Ericsson eye 5G with pre-standard LAA live trial
Singtel announced that the operator, together with Ericsson, successfully conducted a live trial of pre-standard License Assisted Access (LAA) on Singtel’s network earlier in July. LAA enables listen-before-talk (LBT) to ensure coexistence with other Wi-Fi devices on the same unlicensed spectrum. “The trial showed that Wi-Fi users are better off with LAA as a neighbour and maintained consistent downlink throughput with and without LAA introduction,” said Singtel in a statement. The new service will be deployed in Singapore over the coming two years, starting in the first half of 2017, and should enable customers equipped with LAA-capable handsets peak download throughput up to 450 Mbps.
Smart city: Engie partners with IBM on smart city solutions deployments
France-based energy transition specialist Engie announced it is partnering with IBM to help cities collect, analyze and manage data from Internet of Things (IoT), social media and other systems in order to prevent risks, alert authorities and organize rescues. The technological and commercial alliance is non-exclusive and will result in the combination of Engie’s expertise on cities with IBM Watson IoT and IBM Bluemix.
Autonomous driving: SK Hynix to ramp up investments in self-driving car chips
Amid declining sales and falling prices of DRAM chips, Korean chipmaker SK Hynix announced it would increase investment in self-driving car chip manufacturing, the Korea Herald reports. SK Hynix’s car business accounts today for over 10 percent of the company’s DRAM sales. “We are also producing chips for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and self-driving cars since 2015,” the company said in a conference call. “We will continue to focus resources into the futuristic technologies.”
