One in five passenger vehicles will be connected worldwide by 2019, a Juniper Research report said. Juniper forecasts that the telematics sector will continue to lead all other machine-to-machine (M2M) markets over the next five years. With smartphones as the “key disrupter” for the M2M market, sectors including CE, healthcare and retail will continue to evolve, doubling service revenue to more than $40 billion globally by 2019, Juniper said. The U.S. remains the leading geographical region for M2M, ahead of Western Europe, though China is gaining as initiatives by major Chinese carriers begin to take shape, it said. In the utility sector, the rollout of smart metering initiatives, especially in China and India, will see “rapid up-take” over the next six years, driven in part by governments' efforts to increase efficiency, including the development of smart cities, Juniper said. But the utility segment isn’t expected to generate revenue similar to that of the connected car market, it said.

Hyundai became the first car company to launch Android Auto on production vehicles when it debuted the feature on the 2015 Sonata, it said in a Tuesday announcement. Android Auto will become available on other Hyundai models later this year, it said. Android Auto “brings a high technology experience” to Hyundai owners and improves safety, Hyundai said. For example, Android Auto helps keep drivers' eyes and attention on the road “by integrating the advanced driving-related functions of the user's smartphone with the familiar centralized screen, physical controls and microphone of their car,” it said. Under Android Auto, the smartphone's screen also becomes "locked," so drivers “are not tempted to look down and interact with their phones directly while Android Auto is in use,” it said.

The multimodal transportation environment is primed for a “dramatic shift” due to disruptive technologies, including smart watches, which will accelerate a seamless in-and-out-of-the-car experience, said ABI Research Practice Director Dominique Bonte in a report summary Wednesday. Bonte cited BMW’s iRemote Apple Watch app and ride-booking services such as Uber that are “starting to blur the boundaries between public and private transportation.” Uber is offered as an option in multimodal journey planners by Google and mxDATA, said Bonte. The trends are also leading other car OEMs including Jaguar Land Rover and Ford to offer solutions beyond the “narrow context” of the vehicle to meet the needs of a broad integrated intermodal system, said Bonte. He cited mounting traffic congestion, growing concerns about environmental issues and the focus of public and private companies in the automotive and transportation industries as drivers of multimodal transportation solutions, which include real-time public transport timetable information, multimodal journey planners and smartphone-based pedestrian guidance applications. Real-time parking space availability content providers, relying in some cases on crowd-sourced data, are also playing a critical role in removing the “friction points” between different modes of transportation, said Bonte. He identified Parking Spotter, one of Ford’s 25 smart mobility projects, co-developed with Georgia Tech University, which allows information about open street-side parking spaces identified by roaming vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems sensors to be shared with other drivers via the cloud. Telematics-enabled public transport allows the integration of real-time transit-schedule information into journey planners, he said.

“Google’s driverless cars have been involved in crashes at about twice the rate reported by American drivers,” said Consumer Watchdog in a news release Tuesday. “Google says its cars have driven 1.7 million miles and been involved in 11 accidents, or 0.65 accidents per 100,000 miles driven,” the release said. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 0.3 property damage accidents per 100,000 miles driven in 2013,” it said. Consumer Watchdog has asked Google to make public its driverless car crash reports filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (see 1505110040) and on Monday, “Google acknowledged” there have been 11 cases, “but still refused to release the details publicly,” Consumer Watchdog said. “Driverless car technology is evolving and there are many situations Google’s robot cars cannot deal with,” said Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson. For example, rain and snow interfere with the vehicle’s sensors, robot cars “can’t interact reliably with hand signals given by the human driver of another vehicle or a policeman using only hand signals to direct traffic," the group said. Sunshine also can affect a driverless car’s ability to determine a traffic light’s color, and changing road conditions such as a pothole or an open manhole would largely go undetected, the group said. “If a traffic light were installed overnight as in the case of a road construction site, the car’s driverless navigation system would not expect it,” Consumer Watchdog said. “Google’s robot cars rely on detailed sensor mapping of routes before the robot car hits the road,” the group said. “If a Google driverless car tried a route that had not been specially mapped, probably even a large parking lot, it wouldn’t know what to do.” In a video released Monday, Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court said there are “too many variables on the actual roads,” and if something isn’t on a map “the robot car might not see it.” In addition to safety concerns, Consumer Watchdog is concerned the vehicles will “collect massive amounts of data about where we go, what we do, and the people around us, yet no rules prevent Google or other corporations from using that information for purposes other than driving the car.” California's DMV is drafting regulations on public use of driverless cars and Consumer Watchdog is asking safety and privacy standards be implemented.

Consumer Watchdog wrote Google CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt Monday, asking the company to release the accident reports filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles for its driverless cars and to “commit to making public all future driverless car accident reports.” Google’s robot cars have been involved in accidents, but the DMV treats driverless car accident reports confidentially and doesn’t release them in response to a Public Records Act request, the group said in a news release. Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson wrote in the letter that it’s important the public know what happened because Google is “testing driverless vehicles on public highways, quite possibly putting other drivers at risk.” Google plans to offer robot cars “without a steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator,” which would make it impossible for a person to take control in an emergency, Simpson said in the news release. Consumer Watchdog also asked Google to release reports on when the robot technology was disengaged and a test driver assumed control over the vehicle. “Google has engaged in a highly visible public relations campaign extolling the supposed virtues of driverless cars,” the letter said. “It is incumbent upon you to be candid about the cars’ failings and shortcomings as well.” Google didn't comment.

Harman’s recent success in landing automotive infotainment design wins “validates our message around the central role that embedded solutions play in the connected car environment,” CEO Dinesh Paliwal said Thursday on an earnings call. In the past quarter alone, Harman won $3.2 billion in automotive contract awards, including infotainment deals with BMW and Daimler and a contract for its next-generation car audio platform with BMW, he said. Harman recently closed on its acquisitions of Symphony Teleca and Redbend, giving Harman “immediate scale in software services” and better positioning the company to “capitalize” on the IoT’s “rapid growth,” he said. “We can now deliver more powerful solutions at the intersection of cloud, mobility and analytics for our core markets of automotive and consumer electronics and also diversify to a wider range of industries, such as enterprise, telecommunications, media and retail.”

British Telecom launched what it’s calling an “ethical hacking service” to test the exposure of connected cars “and help all market players develop security solutions,” the company said in a Monday announcement. Connected cars rely on a variety of connectivity options, including WiFi, 3G or 4G mobile data links, Bluetooth and other wireless technologies, BT said. “These provide a range of new on-board features and value-added services, such as predictive systems to bypass traffic jams, reduce carbon emissions, improve safety and vehicle performance. Vehicles are also becoming more connected through electronic systems like navigation, infotainment, and safety monitoring tools.” The proliferation of these services also “raises concerns about the ability of hackers to gain access and control to the essential functions and features of those vehicles and for others to use information on drivers' habits for commercial purposes without the drivers' knowledge or consent,” it said. BT is extending its security expertise to “advise vehicle manufacturers, insurance companies and other players in the automotive industry, with the aim of identifying and fixing vulnerabilities before the keys of a new vehicle are handed to a proud owner,” it said. The program it’s launching involves a range of tests targeted at the “attack surfaces” of the vehicle, BT said. “These cover interfaces that are accessible inside the car, such as Bluetooth links, USB ports, or the DVD drive, as well as external connections such as links to mobile networks or power plugs. BT looks at the end-to-end security by testing and verifying all the systems that interact with the connected vehicle. The ultimate objective is to identify vulnerabilities that would allow unauthorized alteration of configuration settings or that would introduce malware into the car.”

The Automotive Safety Council filed in support of proposed FCC rules that would allow vehicular radar operations in the 76-81 GHz band (see 1504080035). “ASC supports the proposal to extend the frequency band available for vehicular radar usage,” the group said. “This will support wider sweep bandwidth needed for certain high resolution radars for short range applications, which is a key enabler for some advanced safety features (such as pedestrian detection / protection).” The comments were filed in docket 15-26. “As with radar technologies operating within the 76-77 GHz band, expanding the operational range to 76-81 GHz will only further increase the availability of safety technologies for vehicles, while also promoting future comfort and convenience systems available through autonomous vehicle driving,” Mercedes-Benz USA said.

A “rapid expansion” in navigation and in-car Wi-Fi will drive a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34 percent over the next five years in the connected infotainment systems market, a report from ABI Research said. More than half of the growth will come from the Asia-Pacific region by 2020, with 37 percent coming from developed regions, ABI said. Growth is largely consumer-driven as OEMs and tier one suppliers recognize the need to provide a digital experience that’s “consistent and compatible” with end users’ other consumer electronics, analyst James Hodgson said. Although many OEMs have committed to equipping the majority of their consumer vehicles in 2020 with embedded connectivity, a “significant number” will rely on smartphone integration for connectivity, ABI said. Shipments of telematics supporting smartphone integration are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 61 percent between 2015 and 2020, Hodgson said. Leveraging smartphone capabilities allows OEMs to include infotainment features at a lower cost, he said. In luxury vehicles, OEMs will likely feel compelled to include smartphone integration to “maintain relative superiority,” Hodgson said. It’s “unlikely” that platforms such as Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and the Car Connectivity Consortium’s MirrorLink will be vehicles’ sole infotainment systems but instead will complement an OEM’s proprietary system, Hodgson said, citing the Volvo XC90 model as an example.

Autonet Mobile and AT&T said Autonet Mobile’s telematics system and services are coming to the automotive market via AT&T’s 4G LTE network. The mobile applications will let consumers access their cars from smartphones, let car original equipment manufacturers update vehicles while they’re on the road, and protect proprietary vehicle information when connected to the cloud, they said Monday. Car owners will be able to remotely and securely control their vehicles from a smartphone, find and track vehicle location, receive health reports for maintenance, get alerts when airbags are deployed and connect mobile devices through the vehicle’s Wi-Fi hot spot, the companies said. Autonet’s technology will enable carmakers to monitor how vehicles perform, fix problems and boost vehicle performance via over-the-air updates, they said.