Previous posts have covered both 5G NR (New Radio) https://www.vamsitalkstech.com/5g/5g-new-radio-nr-platform-architecture/ as well as 5G Usecases. While we all don’t drive autonomous cars and Teslas at the moment, the dawn of the connected vehicle isn’t too far away. Connected Vehicles are nothing but compute processes running on wheels. This post introduces the concept of Connected Vehicles and ties it to the broader 5G ecosystem.
Connected Vehicles as a 5G Use Case
Cars these days are full of various kinds of sensors and electronics. They also carry enough onboard computing power as well as systems designed to transmit various metrics such as the location of the vehicle, driver habits/behavior, engine health/diagnostics and any other telematic data. With the advent of many streaming services, in-car infotainment is another key use case. The industry is betting that with the advent of 5G RAN, these systems will all deliver highly engaging customer experiences. So whether you are an established industry player e.g. one of the automakers, or a high tech business looking to SaaS-ify the capabilities shown in the above illustration, you have a few challenges to overcome to be able to monetize.
The other driver of this trend is the ability for automotive players to harness the data from connected cars. Where 5G really helps is that it provides reliable, high speed and low latency communication for various scenarios such as Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Pedestrian (V2P), Vehicle to Network (V2N) and Vehicle to Cloud (V2C) etc.
Various industry players have found it hard to transition from purely selling cars to transitioning to a software-defined vehicle model. So what are the important capabilities and workstreams that these companies need to master to harness this market.
- Support local computing capabilities within the vehicle that allow the capture of location, driver behavior and vehicle health. These capabilities include data storage, processing using rules as well as predictive models.
- Support capabilities that enable the buildout of complex functionality such as advanced navigation, voice interaction and other safety applications
- Support reliable end to end connectivity from the vehicle to the datacenter
- Support over the air (OTA) upgrades to vehicle functionality
- Enable the creation of new applications using a DevOps style CI/CD model
Conclusion
Automakers, OEMs and ISVs are now realizing that cars are moving to a cloud native future. While 5G promises huge advances in business models, monetizing car data means investing in connectivity and software applications.