Partnership: Airbiquity and Arynga Demonstrate Initial Technology and Cloud Platform Integration for Remote Vehicle Software Updates
The ability for automakers to execute remote vehicle software update campaigns promises to deliver huge financial and customer service benefits in the years ahead. But the automotive industry collectively have a lot of work to do before that can become a reality. Automakers need to specify and engineering vehicle components like TCUs, entertainment systems, and ECUs to receive software updates. And service delivery providers like Airbiquity need to further extend their ecosystem integration efforts to include software update providers like Arynga. Check out this video of Airbiquity and Arynga working together to integrate their technology and clouds to demonstrate remote vehicle software updates and driver notifications using smartphone connectivity. For additional information download a summary of the proof-of-concept here.
Deployment: Alpine Selects Airbiquity to Provide Service Delivery for Alpine Restyle Aftermarket Systems and Alpine Connect Infotainment Service
Select Alpine Restyle aftermarket dash systems entering the retail channel in April 2016 will include the new Alpine Connect infotainment service powered by Airbiquity. Alpine chose Airbiquity to leverage the Choreo service delivery platform, latest template-based infotainment delivery offering, portfolio of leading global and regional content providers, and back-end service delivery management capability. Yelp, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and Glympse are the first apps to launch on Alpine Connect with additional app launches planned after that. Learn more about Alpine Restyle systems with Alpine Connect by watching the video demonstration from CES 2016.
Opinion: Airbiquity's Top 2016 Connected Car Industry Predictions
Increased Recognition of Automotive Leadership Threats by Non-Traditional Technology Player
Well-known and highly capitalized Silicon Valley technology companies like Google, Apple, Tesla, Uber, and Lyft are declaring their ambitions to be automotive industry disruptors and leaders – and consumers are receptive to the idea based on the dominance of their brands, products, and track records of vision and innovation. To counter this threat, traditional automakers will fast-track internal transformations to adopt new technologies, embrace new ecosystem partners, and change outdated processes and procurement policies that are hindering progress. The good news is automakers are increasingly aware of the stakes and taking action as reported by Jason Stein in Automotive News. The bad news is a daunting task lies ahead that will test automaker management teams top-to-bottom, as well as the rank and file that must get on board to make it happen.
Tighter Integration of Connected Vehicle Programs with Product and Customer Life Cycles
In addition to providing consumers with in-vehicle infotainment content, connected cars are unique in the ability to receive remote software updates to fix recalls and enhance features, as well as provide data about vehicle operations and driving history. This ability presents tremendous cost savings and consumer engagement opportunities for automakers such as reducing recall expense, enabling real-time part and system evaluation, optimizing back-office operations and supply chain, and introducing new driving centric services and monetization. But seizing these opportunities will require automakers to better integrate the strategy and operations of connected vehicle service functions with long standing areas like design and engineering, customer experience and support, brand and marketing, and dealer channels. In 2015, Airbiquity saw an increased maturity of automaker connected vehicle service organizations, and we expect this trend to continue through 2016 given the significant brand stakes and increasingly attractive return-on-investment. Jonathan Bacon provides some marketing perspective in a recent Marketing Week article.
Increased Focus on Developing and Deploying Electrification and Autonomous Technologies
Automakers will increase investments for the development of technologies to improve electric vehicle performance and expand autonomous driving features. Regarding electrification, oil prices and consumer demand for electric vehicles may be low today, but increasing global warming concerns and efficiency mandates will press automakers to improve fleet efficiencies. Gas prices will eventually increase followed by consumer demand for more efficient vehicles across all price ranges. In response, automakers must ensure they have the right product at the right time to remain competitive. As far as autonomous goes, the future is clear: It's going to happen. If automakers want a slice of the autonomous pie they have to develop and equip vehicles with enabling technologies. The road to fully autonomous vehicles will be a long one (Airbiquity predicts 2030-35) and there will be bumps along the way. To succeed automakers need to put their stakes in the ground now. Nick Jayne's Mashable article provides a good view of Kia's commitment in these areas.
Webinars: Episodes Three and Four of Airbiquity's 2015 Webinar Series Featuring SBD Research and Analyst Insight Available for Viewing
Episode Three: Connected Car ROI - The Road to Holistic Program Value
Automakers are undergoing a transformational change in how they price and package connected car services. An underlying reason for this is a more sophisticated understanding of the value of connectivity, beyond a simple feature-list to attract car buyers to a brand. Remote diagnostics, over-the-air-updates, warranty analysis, advanced customer analytics and usage monitoring – these are the new connected car priorities for many car makers. Watch this webinar to deepen your understanding of how these new priorities are helping automakers justify a transition to standard-fit telematics with longer free subscription periods, and how to develop a holistic Return on Investment (ROI) model for connected car programs.
Episode Four: The Final Mile - Driving Connected Car Consumer Adoption via Dealer Engagement and Rewards
Automakers continue to face significant challenges educating dealers on the features and consumer benefits of their connected car service programs. While well intentioned, the majority of dealers continue to undersell connected car services in favor of more traditional vehicle features like design, drivetrain, safety systems, and cabin amenities. The benefits of solving this challenge is significant: stronger consumer engagement and satisfaction with the vehicle, increased service activation and utilization, strengthened brand loyalty, and improved return-on-investment (ROI). Watch this webinar to learn about best practices for overcoming common dealer education hurdles; understand the ROI benefit of increased investment in dealer training, support and incentives; and hear about emerging models for getting it right long-term.