What Can IoT Tech do for the Automobile Industry?

IoT Solutions are improving our lives in remarkable and unexpected ways. With the emergence of trailblazing development in this tech, users can get updates about various functionalities of their machines with only a few clicks.

The application of IoT is unfurling daily, and the more refined its use cases are becoming, the more sophisticated the way we interact with our machines will be.

The automobile industry, for that matter, is one such sector that could use some inventiveness in the light of the Internet of Things technology. But unfortunately, the annual production in this industry in the last decade has been relatively stagnant. According to an international assessment, the global turnover of the Automotive Industry has been somewhat fixed since 2016.

One reason why the Automotive Industry is incapable of making a breakthrough in its yearly sales, and production record, is the lack of technology-triggered innovative features in automobiles.

In a market where tech giants rule, buyers seek more than just four tires and a steering wheel in a car. They look not just for comfort but also for a buzz and the sense of excitement associated with using a futuristic vehicle that can interact as well as connect to their applications.

Luckily, the Internet of things is one such brilliant technology that has listened to the clarion call of the Automotive sector by helping build next-gen vehicle batches.

The dawn of IoT in the Automotive Industry has welcomed new avenues for buyers and car makers alike. Whether it is automated transport systems or connected cars, the applications of IoT have made a deep dent in the universal automotive market. As a result, IoT has become an eminent hotspot for multi-purpose applications in every industry, let alone automobiles.

Where can you use IoT in cars?

Predictive Maintenance for Car Repair

You can exploit two common approaches in car maintenance for your cautious car owners- Predictive and Preventive.

For instance, when people estimate that their oil or bearing will soon wear out, they go to the service station for replacements or inspection, this is called Preventive Maintenance.

On the other hand, IoT for automotive service offers Predictive Maintenance, where the system scans the status of various functionalities and their parameters in a car in real-time. Further, this system alerts the driver when vehicle service is needed. For example, alerts about the level and purity of engine oil from quality sensors and the estimated oil change date are calculated by real-time indicators.

Therefore, as a manufacturer, you can employ this tech for better maintenance of their vehicles before significant repair costs are required.

Commercial Fleet Monitoring

Companies like Cisco, IBM, AT&T, and Intel are industriously developing IoT and Automobile Management networks to generate controlled data flows.

But what exactly can fleet owners do by using IoT?

• Immediate and real-time location monitoring of the fleet
• Route management
• Driver and Time management
• Track weight/volume of cargo that the fleet is carrying
• Record statistics Trucks' performance like fuel and mileage
• Timely maintain and optimally calculate the distance left
• The track traffic situation on a particular road
• Efficiently distribute the vehicles
• Establishing better safety of the driver and the vehicle

A fleet operator can make use of this information to monitor and analyze various parameters related to his or her fleet.

Trucks functions are nowadays consolidated with various sensors that store data gathered from a large fleet of trucks into a cloud application. This sensory data is then processed through different analytics features and actualized into a visual or condensed format.

Car and Smartphone Integration

Another exciting way that you can let your car users enjoy IoT applications is by creating a sophisticated network between their smartphones and cars.

Predictive Maintenance: As mentioned, IoT can assist car owners by giving them feedback in advance about the upcoming technical conditions, these feedbacks can, in turn, be sent through smartphones allowing an even better chance for users to solve issues before the appearance of these problems.

Analytical information to manage: The manufacturer and the owners can monitor all the linked vehicles directly via smartphone, as they are available in one network and available for data transfer all the time.

Real-time monitoring: IoT tech allows the exchange of information regarding maintenance decisions between the car owners and manufacturer, enabling speeding up the maintenance and production processes throughout the vehicle's life cycle.

In-vehicle Infotainment and Telematics

4G LTE-powered In-car Wi-Fi Capabilities have enabled telematics features in IoT-based automobiles.

Telematics is the integrated use of vehicular technologies (road safety, road transport, etc.), telecommunications, computer science (Internet, multimedia, etc.), and electrical engineering (instrumentation, sensors, etc.).

Using telematics, car owners can keep an eagle eye view of their vehicle from a whole different location. Plus, through a smartphone-enabled dashboard, you can let your car users ensure surveillance, connect to external sensors and cameras and send information to a mobile application. The telematics system enabled with IoT can even alert the owner's phone on forceful entry into the vehicle without proper access.

Google and Apple are partnering with several Automobile Manufacturers to provide IoT use cases like infotainment, including google assistant for hands-free assistance during driving, authenticating cars to open and close, and self-start using just the mobile phone.

Equipment Theft Detection During Car Manufacturing

It is important to observe the state of equipment while the cars are manufactured in addition to monitoring its infrastructure generally after purchase. In the factories, there is an obvious possibility of theft of equipment. RFID tags can help indicate what equipment is missing and when it happened.

Along with IoT in the equation, it is now possible to even track where the equipment is located in real-time. This way, a shop floor supervisor can keep track of the equipment on their balance sheets and check for its presence.

Autonomous Vehicles

In the course of time, it is forecasted that the automotive industry will evolve to produce autonomous vehicles. However, this prospect is still under continuous development even though IoT-infused semi-autonomous cars have already been released in the industry.

Such vehicles take on-the-spot decisions while they partly control vehicle operations.

Car users can get support from such vehicular infotainment systems while performing various activities like lane changing or parking.

The stride of autonomous vehicle production and development for commercial purposes is accelerating. This technology is set to revolutionize how people commute.

Driver Behavioral Management

This excellent tech solution can be configured to track and identify sudden acceleration or braking, frequent stopping, high-speed turning or jerking, rash driving behavior, and slow driving on a per driver basis. In addition, supervisors or car owners can use this feature to track individual drivers' conduct and flag and identify fatigued drivers or unsafe driving practices.

The phenomenon can be achieved using internet-connected devices that monitor everything from accelerator movements to speedometer readings.

Such data gathered on the driver’s behavior by IoT sensors can be used to prevent and detect accidents that are likely to happen due to abnormal driving behavior. As it is already no news that most automobile accidents occur due to human error, this technology can be used to monitor fleets to ensure safety behind the wheel.

Conclusion

The AI and ML tech in the IoT-backed networks can enable automobile manufacturers to build and offer better connectivity solutions.

These over-the-air software updates, embedded systems, cloud connections, and vehicular electronics will allow vehicles to self-drive themselves unassisted and communicate to drivers boundlessly.

This collaboration of the Internet of Things with the automobile industry can unlock new values and creative solutions for all parties involved. Of course, there are still many facts to know about IoT Technology. But after the burst of its role in the Automotive Industry, the prospects have indeed steered toward a paradigm shift.