If you thought the present age was full to the brim of computer technology already then you may well have to adjust your thinking after reading what the future holds for telematics. The industry which began in the 1980s with the convergence of telecommunications and informatics really took off when the United States military allowed governments and enterprises access to the global positioning service and their satellites.
A situation which is now out of the grasp of Americans and sees satellites run by several nations and corporations offering GPS services to their own populations and rival technology. This boom in satnav products and computerised tracking gave way to the thinking that our lives and actions could be monitored in so much more detail, so much more information gleamed that our lives can be made safer, our journeys more secure and costs of insurance decreased and driven down.
Vehicle Telematics Opening Up The Insurance Market
However vehicle telematics, the term borne from the original GPS infomine, will now see a full array of services and a suite of companies vying to gain access to your personal driving and vehicular information. From as early as 2015, the European Union is demanding that all new cars have an Ecall Box installed. This little telematics device will, upon button press, alert the local Emergency services to your accident spot and hopes to save lives with a quicker response time. But at the same time, millions of car owners wonder if they will be tracked continually.
Furthermore, what was to be a useful gimmick for an insurance house to save money on payouts by calculating risk as well as offering their customers a new way to supply a better quote over their competitor. Has actually in turn, seen car manufacturers take advantage of vehicle telematics technology themselves, install their own device and then go on to sell insurance and services themselves.
So what was originally a useful insurance company gimmick, may well see a more open market with car manufacturers able to offer services directly to the driver of their cars, breakdown services, sat nav and related offerings all bundled in. Indeed, CitroÎn has already started fitting such a device with other manufacturers set to follow.
The Not So Distant Future – An Automated Lifestyle
Vehicle telematics isn’t just about insurance however. The phrase will in the future grow to encompass a far reaching set of automatically recorded information that is tracked and collated by computers and sensors, in turn becoming invisible in our daily lives as it collates all the information on what we do and what we might do.
Take for instance our cars. With intelligent telematic devices fitted on all cars in the world or in a specific country, with satellite tracking, road side sensors, cars from different manufacturers all communicating and computers continually discerning information received, speeds, accident hot spots, traffic jams, slowly but surely society will end up with cars that can drive for themselves.
So while insurance is the main driver of vehicle telematics right now, the future when it comes to the industry on the whole is very promising and will in fact invade every level of our society. Already, airlines are considering pilot less flights, as with any technological development, other industries find uses. Perhaps advertising at garages and road sides will change to suit you. Information services could be delivered in-car, nearest hotel, restaurants, the computer thinking for you based on previous requests.
Inevitably the future of telematics will lead to a safer more computerised society with big brother or someone’s brother watching over every step you make. There is of course a good and a bad side to all of this intrusion. While auto telematics insurance will reduce costs, self drive cars will increase safety and carefully targeted information based on GPS positioning and previous history will save time, the fun of driving a car may disappear altogether unless a self drive car function from the iRobot film is allowed to remain.
For more information on Telematics and how it will be changing our lives, visit Telematics.com
