Today’s roads are increasingly driven by data. While the race towards total automation has left many worried about future cars’ cybersecurity, automotive manufacturers are taking these concerns in stride. Nowadays, the focus of the industry as a whole is on 5G and the IoT, both seen as tickets to a safer and more comfortable future.
IoT and car connectivity
The Internet of Things is a vast, interconnected web designed to provide car manufacturers and a myriad of other companies with data regarding their production line and office computers. What, though, does that have to do with your car?
These days, it’s rare to find a car that doesn’t come equipped with a hyper-intelligent and reactive internal computer. Thanks to the IoT, car manufacturers have already begun connecting these vehicular computers to international databases. As such, the manufacturer who made your car can program the attached computer to transmit data regarding tyre RPMs, your average speed, and the overall condition of your vehicle in less than the blink of an eye.
Most automotive manufacturers’ eventual aim is to ensure that cars can not only communicate with these existing databases but with each other. V2V, or vehicle-to-vehicle communication, will allow your car not only to respond to obstacles on the road but to the movements of other cars. Many cities across the UK are also preparing for a V2I future, or a future wherein cars can communicate with hyper-connected smart infrastructure and motorways.
5G and car connectivity
Manufacturers’ IoT dreams have been fostered as opportunities for global development and safety. To work, however, they need networks that are faster than any currently available. Enter 5G.
5G is a hotly debated topic across the globe. Many believe that it’s overambitious and will put the average person at risk. For automotive manufacturers, however, 5G networks are essential to a more connective and more automated future.
Automotive manufacturers want to use 5G networks to do more than facilitate IoT connections between vehicles, other cars, and their surrounding infrastructure. The industry’s most popular ambition is to collect driver braking data so as to better understand how cars can protect their drivers from quick stops and unanticipated changes in traffic.
5G has also proven essential to many manufacturers’ plans to integrate increasingly-active AI into existing and future vehicle releases.
The inklings of development: the IoT and 5G today
If 5G and the IoT are the ambitions of automotive manufacturers around the world, what materials do they have to work with right now?
Right now, Tesla is leading the 5G and IoT charge. Tesla has long expressed an interest in automated vehicles and has, as of 2020, improved its highway Autopilot thanks to a myriad of tests.
Outside of Tesla’s plants, you can readily find the beginnings of the IoT in your average vehicle. Any car with the ability to connect with your iPhone or Samsung device is already using the IoT to its advantage. While some automotive manufacturers mourn this connection, calling it the loss of traditional radio, drivers enjoy the improved infotainment and new in-car entertainment that comes with this personalized connection.
V2V connections may not have the benefit of 5G networks yet, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t companies using that sort of communication to their advantage. Inter-vehicle interaction has been a boon to lorry drivers everywhere. In the United States, companies like Bransys readily use V2V connections in partnership with a company IoT to track deliveries and log vehicle motion and temperature.
The IoT has even come to drivers in unexpected ways, allowing them to better hunt for parking. Apps like ParqEx take advantage of drivers’ increased connectivity to limit the amount of time each driver has to spend searching for driving on a daily basis.
What does the future hold for the IoT and 5G?
It’s clear, then, that the foundation for greater reliance on the IoT and 5G is in place. What kind of future, though, should drivers anticipate?
As mentioned, many countries currently oppose the implementation of 5G networks. It’s anticipated that, eventually, these networks will find their proper homes. After that point, many experts anticipate a surge in autonomous cars. It’s predicted that drivers will see this dramatic change to regular roadways as soon as 2030.
Pirelli, too, is anticipated to be the first tyre manufacturer to release intelligent 5G tyres onto the automotive market. According to a company’s press release, these tyres will actively communicate both with the roadway and with receptive technology in applicable locations to improve driver safety and comfort.
In this world of new technologies in the automotive industry, it seems connected cars are the way of the future. It’s only a matter of time before you can get behind the wheel for yourself.