Connected Cars- Revolution coming to everyone

As electric cars gain momentum another type of revolution is hitting automotive industry. That revolution is connected car revolution. It may not be talked about as much as electric cars but this revolution will come to all cars faster than electric technology. Although the economics of electric car are becoming viable, it is still a long way to go before 100% of cars produced will be electric. But I can see in next 10 years all cars will have intelligence for Car to Car communication. This will be a huge deal for automotive industry as cars will communicate to each other and share sensor data and avoid collisions, address traffic congestion and assist in emergency response by informing authorities automatically.

Readers can go to MIT review of the technology to gain more understanding of the concept.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534981/car-to-car-communication/

This technology has various applications that can save millions of lives, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve driving experience.

Collision Avoidance

As cars start talking to each other and start transmitting speed, direction and navigation info over secure network of car to car communication, computer can intelligently detect potential collision and alert the driver or apply brakes to avoid accident. This will reduce number of collisions that happen due to driver error, vehicles in blind spot and accidents due to unauthorized turns. Currently lot of cars already have frontal crash detection and avoidance technology that uses radar to detect obstacle in front of the vehicle and applies brake to avoid accident.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety

Now a days smartphone has reached a large number of people and imagine the car to car communication integrates smart phone signals to avoid pedestrian and bicycle accidents. A lot of people get injured while crossing streets or due to collision with cars. In cities this is a major problem as population density is higher. Taking signals from non car devices will help map out pedestrians on the road and then the car can transmit this over car to car network to alert other cars.

Traffic Congestion Reduction

Imagine a situation where car navigation system is integrated with car to car communication. Cars ahead can warn about traffic congestion by looking at speed of car itself and cars around it. Intelligent system can reroute incoming cars with different route to reduce traffic and reduce amount of fuel wasted. Traffic police can control all the cars with a simple signaling system that allows cars to move safely and reduce congestion.

Hybrid and Electric Vehicle integration

The opportunity becomes even more attractive with introduction of hybrid vehicles. Traffic light can actually communicate to all the cars 5 seconds before turning green and hybrid car with start stop technology can start the engine without owner doing any decision making. This technology alone can dramatically reduce idling fuel wastage. This technology can be easily extended to trucks and buses to reduce idling diesel emissions. Electric vehicles can transmit availability of charging infrastructure and whether the charging station is available when owner gets to the location.

Public Service Announcements

Currently there is no way for police and ambulances to communicate with cars to give right of way. People get out of the way when they hear siren. But that is a challenge as lack of attention may cause accidents. Car to car communication can enable emergency response vehicles to provide signal of their movement way before people hear vehicle sirens.

Intelligent Cars

Cars of the future should be intelligent and should be integrated with consumer’s lifestyle. Gone are the days where car is just a tool of mobility. Car is more than just traveling from point A to point B. So features like automated parking, intelligent navigation that is integrated with your phone, mood based music, unlocking by biometrics, eco routing to improve efficiency,

These car to car technology will provide immediate benefit and reduce number of accidents and deaths on road. Specially for country like India where road deaths are a huge problem, this kind of technology needs to be deployed as soon as possible.  

Electric Car : Hybrid or Full electric Which suits the time.

With launch of Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf EV market is about to explode. Higher gasoline prices and government incentives for EVs means good business for next few years. But is the Complete electric vehicle way to go forward?. It sounds a perfect solution but not in near term. Maybe once technology in battery evolves and allows to store more energy in less space then we can think of 100% electric cars. Till then we have to live with hybrids. Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt. Many others like Ford, Honda driving in with their plug in hybrids as well so 2011 will be exciting year for auto industry.

I prefer Toyota Prius like hybrid and one that they will be launching in 2012. Hybrid which can run up to 10 miles on electricity and will have full gasoline engine is wise solution for current market. The cost of such vehicle will be less as you will be having less amount of batteries and it will also help in improving overall efficiency. I believe full electric is the way to go ahead but in stage manner.

Chevy Volt is a having engine but it is used to charge the batteries and not drive the car. It is good concept but due to that the overall price of the car goes up very high. I think hybrid car that can be used as normal car will be good success in short term. Car that can run on gas even without charging will give comfort to people to shift from their existing cars to such hybrids. The cost of such cars will also be less as battery which accounts for 50% for electric car’s cost is small in size.

At low speeds and traffic situations electric motor is the best option and at highways gasoline works fine. Car that merges these two (like Prius) will be very helpful in attracting masses to such cars. (Still hybrids are less than 3% of total vehicles). Nissan claims that 100% electric is the only car which is actually totally green. I think Green and eco friendly differently. Considering cost of Nissan leaf and Chevy Volt very few will actually buy these cars. And many buyers will be second car buyers. So this will not help environment directly. A car which can improve efficiency of gasoline engine by 25% and is affordable will be far more eco friendly on sheer numbers.

Jury is still out and experts have different opinions. So let us see how 2011 brings changes in Auto and EV market.

Sources: News about Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf and Prius from different websites, Bloomberg report on EV market, Car reviews by CNN.

Signing Off

Nikhil Parchure

Identity

India is growing fast. Consumer demand is growing and businesses are doing good. But I  see a problem. We are not finding our identity. We are not finding something that only we can have.

I will like to take example of cars. We are driving Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Fiat, Tata, Mahindra but all these cars are having designs which are European or Japanese. Where is the Indian design. You may get confused by the statement above. Let me explain.

When you say Japanese car Toyota Corolla or Honda City comes to mind. When you say European car Volkswagen comes to mind.

What comes to mind when we say Indian Car.

Yes Old Ambassador. I think though it was not originally designed in India this car truly symbolizes India in Car industry. I am very disappointed that no car after ambassador was having such Indian stamp on it. All cars were inspired by European or Japanese models and reconfigured to Indian conditions. 

Now take case of US. When you say vehicle for US market what comes to mind.

Yes true a big truck.

I want India to find its Identity. I took example of Auto industry as I saw example readily available. Unless you find your identity you will not be a leader in world. You can not be unique and important.

I think Indian businesses should start creating their own identity otherwise it will be difficult to grow and survive. I am thinking about how we can be different and yet successful. I will post my views about that shortly.

Disclaimer : The car pictures are taken from manufacturer or related websites and brands visible are owned by manufacturers. The pictures are not intended to promote or comment about quality of the product and are only used to help reader visualize the idea.

Signing off

Nikhil Parchure