The Most Disruptive Trends in Automotive Software Development in 2019
Digital transformation processes are happening across all industries and the automotive sector isn’t an exception. The last year was challenging for automotive sales, showing no increase in sold units at all, according to Statista. With the increase of options for users and their expectations, it’s getting harder for manufacturers to provide a product that attracts attention. Furthermore, mobility services like Uber and Lyft gained massive popularity. Only Uber’s market value as of May 2018 increased to the impressive $72 billion.
Back in 2018 automotive software developers made some further inroads in the industry, trough connected car servicer or usage-based insurance, for instance. Automotive companies managed to keep their customers satisfied through enhancing their services.
Now let’s get to the present year of 2019. Automotive technology today is fresher and more innovative than ever. However, it faces some uncertainties caused by the sensitive political environment. By the end of this year, some major fallbacks are expected as well as a way more technology-driven disruption.
Without further ado, below we’re going to list some of the most disruptive trends in automotive software development in 2019.
Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence
This first trend comes to revolutionize the automotive industry. According to McKinsey, there are about 127 new IoT devices connected to the Internet every second, it’s most likely that the number of vehicles among them grows.
IoT and AI are set to drive unprecedented transformation across vehicle and device connectivity, as well as autonomous driving and shared mobility. You can start thinking of your vehicle like it’s a smartphone. You have an in-vehicle personal digital assistant, just like Siri on your iPhone.
You’re able to connect with other vehicles and the manufacturer to receive software updates, for instance, like on your smartphone. This along with the new infotainment apps will not only make your driving experience safer but well more productive.
License Plate Recognition Software
There are lots of benefits of the LPR Software. This is an image-processing technology used to identify vehicles by their license plate, as the name suggests. The technology has various traffic and security applications, such as the access-control system and smart traffic system.
It is now developed to be stable under different camera positions and angles, as well as different weather conditions. LPR software today has an impressive average accuracy of 96,5%. More cities are developing traffic control systems to help monitor the movement and flow of vehicles around the road network. For this purpose, advanced LPR software is more needed.
A Connected Environment
A connected vehicle ecosystem is not a fiction anymore. In fact, it’s closer than you could imagine. With the new connected services and smart interiors, cars are becoming more and more connected internally and externally. Business models also evolve to keep pace with the highly networked and connected environment.
A great example is Audi’s new eTron launch strategy. It offers plenty of options where you can buy connected car features on demand. Again just like with smartphone apps, you can try freemium version or choose subscription payment models of these features.
Faster Mobility Data
You’ve probably heard of “supercomputers on wheels” in recent years. This term describes the latest car models and it seems to be pretty accurate. Not only software improvements, but new sensors are added to vehicles, providing new solutions and opening up new opportunities.
A new sensor fusion technology delivers a solution for the intelligent management of data coming from all the sensors in a modern car. The new improved network technologies, like 5G, are slowly making a way for vehicle autonomy. They allow cars to communicate with other vehicles and any device connected to the IoT.
The predictive collision avoidance technology takes safety to a new level and could be one of the most important benefits of new-age vehicles.
Connectivity is important not only for improved safety but the fundamental principles of the automotive industry. Monetization of car data could be a whole new source of revenue for automotive companies.
The rise of automotive subscription plans is a great sign of shifting business models. According to Forbes by 2025–26, vehicle subscription programs could account for nearly 10% of all new vehicle sales in the US and Europe.
Processing all the automotive big data will enable mobility companies to implement new services around predictive maintenance. As we mentioned AI is going to be the key element in managing the vast amounts of data.
A Car Needs to Know It’s Owner
This still sounds pretty weird, but it’s true. Modern cars, especially autonomous ones, need to know their owner, just like Google, for instance, knows you (we’d say your best friend, but you know, Google knows everything about him or her as well). Vehicles need an abundance of data to interact with a complicated environment.
The Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) is definitely one of the trends worth investing in 2019. Receiving data from other vehicles, infrastructure and pedestrians will be one of the main tasks of vehicles. They need to have access to as much data as possible. Sending this data to the cloud will make the elements of the connected infrastructure.
Knowing where you work, where you spend your free time, where you usually like to go and how you like to get there will soon be worries about your vehicles. It will know you so well that you’ll just need to tell them your problem and they’ll show you the destination to its solution. Of course, this becomes possible with the improvement of AI and IoT, which we mentioned in the first trend.
Other technologies’ impact on automotive development
Technologies that are already seen in other industries, may significantly impact safety, comfort, and efficiency. Back in 2014, the first electric car to heavily utilize 3D-printing during its production process was presented to the world, and it took only 44 hours to print. 2019 is the year in which we are expected to see 3D printed cars on the market.
On the other hand, Augmented Reality is set to make its debut in the automotive industry pretty soon as well. It could have a massive impact on the design, production, and maintenance of cars. It brings features like enabling drivers to “see-through” traffic which could improve safety. AR can also contribute to building trust in autonomous vehicles, as that’s expected to be an issue.
Wrapping It Up
2019 has some fresh innovations, but all in all, it’s another year with slow but steady progress. The time of autonomous vehicles isn’t here yet. However, the latest car models are more adapted to humans than ever before.
We’ve listed some of the most disruptive trends in automotive software development for 2019. As you can see innovations hardly make their way, as automotive is mostly about safety. If that’s provided it’ll be more likely for consumers to accept new solutions. Improving safety and creating a connected vehicle ecosystem lay the foundation of any other potential automotive innovation.
