BMW iDrive. Ford MyTouch. General Motors OnStar. Mercedes-Benz M-Brace. These trademarks are synonymous with their respective automotive manufacturers and the proprietary automotive technologies they have developed. The growing question, however, is how long will these technologies continue to exist in this highly competitive and chaotic automotive IT space?

As vehicle manufacturers attempt to further strengthen their competitive advantages and differentiators with their own unique technologies, they increasingly are being pressured by the rapid encroachment of high tech companies out for new markets and revenues.  Companies such as Microsoft, Pandora and Apple are making both direct and indirect assaults on this space.  These assaults are occurring both through direct automotive IT investments as well as trends in the general marketplace that have a direct bearing on drivers such as the ubiquitous usage of personal devices in vehicles.

Furthermore, the solid separation between work, transit and home is disappearing. Globally, more individuals are dealing with longer commutes and greater work availability demands and requires the ability to work anywhere on anything. Multinational corporations now demand that workers take teleconference calls and receive documents 24/7 since business recognizes no time zones.

Vehicle Usage: More than Transportation, Now an Alternative Home & Office

What this means for vehicle manufacturers is a need to manage additional vehicle requirements from the buying public as indicated in the following figure.

The expanded requirement clusters for the connected vehicle are:

(1) Work: Traveling from the office to either work locations or client sites in order to fulfill project obligations and monitor activities.

(2) Home: Connecting to the home to determine household needs as well as overall personal connectivity.