[VeluM]

There is no need to have a car connected to the internet. Your phone can play music/videos from the net, give directions, and is easier to use as such when in service. Your phone can act as a WiFi hotspot for those without network, and the car wouldn’t be connected when there is no service anyway.

There are no critical updates that must be applied immediately while one is driving. I believe the critical brake and steering systems must be mechanically backed up in all cars even in future.

All other updates can be done at the annual service, or at home with a pen drive or other such method.

For someone who truly wants and needs features like 24/7 monitoring, Geo-fencing, accident alerts etc, there are better purpose built solutions available in the market.

Unless we reach a point in traffic with separation requirements and automated traffic flow, cars don’t really need to be connected. Then I’d probably take the bus.

[Vid6639]

It's the next big thing with technology like V2X (V2I/V2V). The car can connect with another car or to the infrastructure. Since every car connected to infrastructure will overload mobile networks they have come up with V2V which means vehicle to vehicle.

Personally they make no difference to my purchase. I would not pick a higher model over lower just for app based connectivity.

The only place where I see V2X being useful is traffic. Will be more accurate vs what Google maps is currently doing.

VW has started using V2X in their cars internationally in Golf and Octavia models. I am not able to understand why some features would be useful. For example they say in your Golf or Octavia you can upload the memory settings of your seats, mirrors, climate control, ambient lights and radio to the VW cloud. This way when you drive another Golf/Octavia which has the same features your seat will be in your desired position in that car.

I'm wondering when would someone who has bought a Golf/Octavia get to drive another similar car? How many times does it happen that you drive the exact same car as yours.

The only use case is when this is in a rental car fleet like zipdrive or such where you would be using different cars in the fleet and then can use this.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

I'm wondering when would someone who has bought a Golf/Octavia get to drive another similar car? How many times does it happen that you drive the exact same car as yours.

.

It is a handy feature for when you participate in one of these car sharing schemes, rather than own your own car. Still relatively new, but making steady progress in some western countries. You do not own a car, but participate in a car sharing scheme and only pay for the actual usage.

If you would order your car with your phone/app the car would be all ready to go with everything set to your personal preferences before you get in!

Jeroen

[ValarMorghulis]

I love the connected car features in my Venue. The most used feature, by far, is the remote lock function. This is something that has plagued me in my previous cars and I absolutely love that I can check if I have locked my car or not instead of walking back all the way. I also like the stats it gives me on my driving style, the max and min speeds and other numbers.
Are they absolutely necessary? Probably not.
Do they help? Definitely yes.
Did I consider them while buying? Oh yes.

[Bibendum90949]

I've come across this document on ET Auto about "Connected cars and OEM outlook in India".

Dated : July 2020.

https://auto.economictimes.indiatime...k-in-india/786

[Bibendum90949]

Connected Car Market to reach $166.0 billion by 2025: Report

One of the key drivers for the Asia Pacific market is the increased demand for infotainment and navigation services, particularly in China, Japan, India, and South Korea, the report said.

ETAuto July 26, 2020, 10:17 IST

New Delhi: With the increasing trend of in-vehicle connectivity solutions and government initiatives toward developments in intelligent transportation, systems connected car market is expected to witness significant growth in the future, according to a latest report.

The new market research report "Connected Car Market by Service, Form, End Market, Network, Transponder, Hardware, & Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Connected Car Market size is projected to reach USD 166.0 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 25.2 percent. At present, this market is estimated to be USD 53.9 billion in 2020.

As per the report, one of the key drivers for the Asia Pacific market is the increased demand for infotainment and navigation services, particularly in China, Japan, India, and South Korea.

"The tech-savvy population in these countries demands a better and connected driving experience. The demand for connected cars in Asia Pacific is driven significantly by the strong economic growth, growing population, and rapid urbanization," the report highlighted.

https://auto.economictimes.indiatime...eport/77178105

[ramki.grandhi]

In future, we end up seeing a news headline “A car thief couldn’t steal a car because car doesn’t have connected tech and require physical key to open”

On a serious note, I see connected tech as marketing scheme to get more money from customers at the time of buying and also in long run too!

I’m sure car companies internally can see how many of these connected features are useless from the usage logs. I wish there is a way to see.

[lsjey]

Connect Car: 2G, Bugs and Security

I own a 5th Gen Honda City and with it got introduced to the Connected Car and the telematics solution it provides. I was high on excitement. The ability to track your car, geo-fence, get driving scores and Alexa connectivity etc were very impressive.

However, after a month of getting to know the Connected Car, I'm a sober person now. The geofencing does not work, tracking is very slow, and I keep getting "data not found" messages many times. Basically the mobile app is not fully baked.

I've been in touch with the Honda care guys to resolve these issues. During one of this interaction got to know that the connectivity speed of the eSIM in the car infotainment system for telematics purpose is 2G. The speed of 2G is around 50 kbits/s in GPRS and higher in EDGE . This will be lower in a moving vehicle. And this is what is also used by many GPS trackers/Fleet management solutions sold in the market. This kind of explains the lag that is present while tracking the car. While 2G speeds might suffice, the low cost, not much of data need to be transported, and wide footprint of 2G make a good case for choosing 2G for telematics implementations. However, this made me think a bit.

The Connected car and auto GPS tracker manufacturers in India are betting that telcos will continue to offer 2G networks. With more and more smartphone adoption, 2G may not exist in the near future (Say 5 years). They may not be profitable for the telcos to operate. In developed countries, telcos are talking of stopping 3G. If this happens the connected car will be disconnected as it is dependent on the 2G networks. See: https://www.automotive-fleet.com/332...ns-3g-shutdown

Apart from this there are many bugs/issues. I'm sharing a few here:

• In my society my car park is in basement level 2. No cellular signal reaches this level. When I check my mobile app after reaching home, that the vehicle is still running at 10 kmph or so. That is the speed at which I go in the down ramp to the basement parking. Basically the signal was lost and the car's telematics stopped reporting data. The mobile app is not able to distinguish between loss of connection with the car and vehicle continuing to be at 10kmph for a long time. This is a bug. But I'm not sure where this bug is present. If it is in the mobile app, it is easy to fix. If in the cloud servers a bit more effortful but still easy to fix. If at the car's software will take time. Imagine if a thief is stealing your vehicle and jams the 2G signal. The app will show that the car is at the place where the car sent the last installment of data.
• Scheduling trips using the app is a pain. Not sure which map solution it uses, but it is not able to find locations that Google Maps is easily able to find. Again this is a bug in the mobile app.
• While both android auto and weblink are supposed to work. I'm unable to get Weblink option to choose from the In-Car-Entertainment menu.
• While I was listening to music from Amazon Music through Android auto I accidentally pressed the source button from the steering. This switched the channel to radio. I cursed myself and pressed the source button again hoping to get back to Amazon Music. But nope it will not shift back. Had to disconnect my android auto connection and reconnect to get back to music from android auto.

Wanted to share this as it affects multiple brands of cars which provide connected car feature. Please share your views.

Regards,
lsjey

[Akhilesh Rai]

I own an MG Astor from December 2021 , which comes with a host of connected car features like remote lock/unlock, remote start, travel planning, find my car, geo fence etc. These are really useful features to have and work 99% of the time flawlessly. I think in 2022 , every car maker should absolutely provide these features in their cars.

Below is my video demo of the MG Astor app:

https://youtu.be/K6WET_3ao3g