The signs are clear: a revolution is brewing in the telematics market. New technologies, apps and services will take automobile safety, comfort, communications and entertainment to a new level in years to come. In the end, the car will turn into just another mobile device in the online world. But the complete networking of the vehicle is creating some striking challenges for OEMs.
If manufacturers do not want to cede authority over the complete solution to the heavyweights of the IT and consumer-electronics industries as they transition from the “connected car” to the “connected life,” they must shift into high gear to prepare their business models for the arrival of the networked vehicle. An attractive, customer-driven product range is just as much a key to success as modifications to the faster innovation cycles and carefully planned partnerships along the value chain, according to the Oliver Wyman study “Connected Cars – the Smartphones of the Auto Industry.”
