In 2004, the US-based Vehicle Infrastructure Integration Consortium was established to help OEMs define a general specification for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. A US$54m co-operative agreement between the federal government and OEMs was written up, dedicated to helping OEMs work on short-range communication.
It quickly became apparent that a lot of industries with little prior experience within automotive would need to be involved in order to build up the connected eco-system. This lead to the creation of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association (CVTA) in 2005, which would allow the networking, communication, processing and backhaul industries to participate, regardless of size.
Speaking ahead of his appearance at Connected Car Detroit by Automotive Megatrends, Scott McCormick, President and Founder of CVTA, discussed some of the most exciting and challenging developments ahead for the connected vehicle.
Do you view the connected car as a revolution or an evolution of what we currently have?
It’s evolutionary – a logical extension of the changes that we’ve been moving forward with in the car, which is giving people the pervasive connectivity they want. Getting that connectivity into a moving vehicle is very difficult. Putting it on your phone or wrist-watch is fairly safe because those interfaces are designed for that. In a car you have less than a couple of seconds to take your eyes off the road and accomplish something. You need to make sure that when you introduce connectivity, you’re not creating more problems.
Will people continue to shun in-car options in favour of their phones for the foreseeable future?
Nobody really wants to buy a separate data plan for their car. They want to be able to use the same plan they have. So the choice between a US$1,000 navigation system for your car vs Google Maps for your phone is a no-brainer. The problem is the phone’s user interface paradigm, which is built to be looked at. So the question becomes, how do you make apps safe and relevant for automotive? This is a very difficult transition, particularly as different people want different things, like directions, stock prices, or their emails read out to them.
How fundamentally will connectivity change the way we drive?
It’s going to make us safer and more efficient. Ten years ago, there were 10,000 more people dying on the road every year in the US than there are now. We’re at a point where the car can do things by itself to protect the occupant. Now we want to create a network of intelligent communicating vehicles. My car can tell me when someone wants to occupy the lane I’m in, and gives me time to react. If the car is able to react, and knows there’s no-one in the lane next to me, or that there’s space behind me to brake into, we’ve moved from reactive safety into preventative safety. Connectivity can also bring in weather, and road conditions. I’ll know if the guy in front of me is on ice. Then I can push that signal to the cellular network, and cars a tenth of a mile behind me will know there’s a problem coming up. You could do the same thing if there were kids playing in the street. This can contribute to intelligent re-routing technology.
Not all drivers are keen to embrace intrusive technologies. What will change their minds?
We want to know if there’s something ahead that requires a reaction time faster than the human is capable of. If my car automatically brakes when I’m not paying attention, I’m going to appreciate that. There were plenty of people who said they didn’t need cell phones because they had people to answer their phone. But now it does lots of other things. The technology changes, and the connected infrastructure we’re creating is not a static thing – it’s a stepping stone towards things like autonomous cars, and autonomous cars are far politer than humans.
