Connected Cars for Chartered Surveyors

It was in 2003 when the UK government made it illegal to use a hand-held phone while driving in the UK. Yet 10 years on, many car manufacturers are looking at how technology common to smartphones could be integrated into the cars we drive.

An App For That

Smartphone style Apps could soon be common to many new cars - from Apps to find parking spaces to those projecting directions onto your windscreen. Other Apps could include those to find the nearest petrol stations and listing their prices and dashboard pop-ups telling how long before the traffic lights your sitting at will change. Voice commands would remove the need for any gadget fiddling while driving. This technology is reliant on cars being connected to the Internet.

Huge Investment

According to Intel, the “connected car” is the 3rd fastest developing technology after phones and tablets. The term commonly used by many in the automotive sector is “infotainment”. Over the next five years Intel will be investing $100m in the development of this technology.  Some car manufacturers are allocating almost a third of new car design budget to infotainment.

Commercial Agents could see this on their cars very soon. It is predicated that most of the largest car manufacturers will offer this type of technology on all of their models by the end of 2014.

Concerns

Nevertheless, safety groups have voiced concerns over the impact that such technology would have on driver safety. In the US for example, around a quarter of all traffic accidents are caused in some way, by mobile phone use.

In addition, many experts have raised fears about cars being ‘hacked’. The intercepting of wireless messages between network and car, could theoretically mean that vehicles doors could be opened and car started without the use of a key.

Philip Burrows, Marketing Consultant