Interview
Have Seen The Emphasis Shift From Historical Data Analysis, Towards Real-Time Analytics And Alerting
Charles Smith
CEO and founder CMS Founded in 2012, CMS’s award-winning data aggregation and risk management solutions makes connected vehicle data actionable. Its hardware-agnostic, SaaS offerings are licensed globally by leading telematics providers, OEMs, and insurance organisations.
Telematics Wire talks with Charles Smith, CEO and founder of Collision Management Systems (CMS). Excerpts of the interview: What is driving data explosion in connected vehicle? The first wave of mobile technology radically changed the way we move around our cities and beyond. By assimilating masses of data points, on vehicle position and relative road speed, it created new ways of managing fleets of vehicles and enabled real-time navigation. Today, the humble vehicle of old, with its mechanical controls and switches, has been transformed with embedded and aftermarket sensors and on-board computers into a hub capable of delivering the next wave of mobile technology. There are now over 330 PG.30 | Smart Automotive | Nov - Dec 2018
million vehicles, connected via telematics or by in-vehicle apps[i], each with more processing power than put a man on the moon. The current data explosion is being driven by sophisticated ADAS systems, the precursor to fully autonomous vehicles, which generate masses of new data points and utilise real-time video. Commercially available aftermarket systems are also sending information on vehicle faults, lane departure, driver fatigue, tailgating, proximity to other vehicles, etc. According to McKinsey, connected cars create up to 25 gigabytes of data per hour, more than a month›s worth of 24-hour music streaming. Looking to the future, fully automated vehicles will take this even further. They will have to gather enormous quantities of data from a huge variety of sources in order to think for themselves; to function and respond like a ‘human brain’; and make complex driving decisions in realtime. There is then the vast amounts of data that will be needed for third-parties to review issues and incidents should anything go wrong. Multiply this with the millions of vehicles on the roads and it’s easy to see how data volumes will be pushed off-the-scale. Will connected vehicle data assist in the growth of Insurance telematics sector? Young driver insurance has been the bedrock of insurance telematics for several years now. The reality, however, is that while there are many new drivers taking out telematics policies, people are going into mainstream insurance just as fast so total connections are plateauing. In addition, the cost of professional or even self-fit telematics makes the economics unsustainable for insurance companies as they fight to stay profitable against rising claim
costs. Yet CMS believes that connected vehicles can deliver new growth for this sector. With lower cost embedded OEM devices, the economic challenge falls away. Customers will be able to link their data to their insurance policy seamlessly and their previous driving history can be unlocked to help them get a better price. All of this depends on data quality. At present, retro-fit telematics devices are rich in data, but embedded devices are often simpler which can affect data quality. Insurers will be reliant on motor manufacturers for data sourcing, with no guarantees on what data will be available, in what format and, importantly, at what cost. At present many motor manufacturers haven’t worked out their commercial models for data-sharing. What can be the other use cases “Data” in the automotive sector? For automotive OEMs, there’s huge value in having real-time access to connected vehicle data to help control the customer experience around a breakdown or accident. Fast response and recovery, with rapid turnaround or replacement vehicles, can all drive revenue in the OEM’s own dealer/repair network. Sending data ‘over-the-air’, opens up two-way data communication between the OEM and the vehicle to springboard new applications. For example, diagnosing and adjusting tuning and ratio settings in real-life driving situations to improve engine and gearbox lifetime. OEMs are even using the data to analyse exactly how and when drivers are using specific features, such as sun roofs, helping them to respond to the voice of the customer more intelligently. When autonomous vehicles eventually become the norm, there will no longer be a ‘driver’ experience only a ‘passenger’ one. www.telematicswire.net
