Top-rank automotive technologies, including autonomous driving, cannot exist without smart or machine-readable infrastructure. Smart infrastructure and smart cities solutions aren’t only making driving smooth and safe but are also revolutionizing car design in the most radical way. It won’t take long until lane markers, street signs, and traffic signals equipped with radio beacons are common in the urban landscape. Eventually, with full automation technology, turn signals and mirrors will no longer be needed on cars. IoT connectivity with the smart infrastructure will make our cities look like science fiction films.

Connected to a data platform, a vehicle can receive access routing, geocoding, and rendering services.

A location data platform collecting data from road infrastructure and cars is a good example of how IoT-based connections can be integrated to facilitate driving. Once connected to a data platform, vehicles receive access to a number of services including routing, geocoding, and rendering.

Receiving real-time data from smart infrastructure devices, platforms can detect potential hazards that may arise from road conditions, weather, characteristics of the road surface, and anomalies in vehicle behavior. Eventually, this analyzed data and recommendations are transmitted to other cars connected via IoT devices.

Benefit from connected cars and IoT technologies enabling in-car Wi-Fi

Many features of IoT in automotive industry can be supported by devices using 3G, 4G, or 5G connections. But the availability of Wi-Fi makes IoT accessible for millions of drivers. And IoT devices may themselves serve as Wi-Fi points, establishing V2V, V2D, and V2I connections. The latter can, in turn, be used to connect to smart infrastructure facilities, synchronize shared data, and receive real-time data on road conditions.
The connected car is now becoming a mobile hotspot for passengers via M2M SIM cards. Automobile manufacturers are revealing infotainment systems with platforms for Wi-Fi local area networks (WLANs) so passengers can wirelessly connect to the internet on their devices during the trip.
Audi’s wireless infotainment platform is a good example of this trend, enabling drivers and passengers to get parking and traffic information, access Twitter and email, and navigate with Google Earth and Google Street View.
The game-changing impacts of the Internet of Things in automotive industry are extremely vivid and powerful. IoT-based solutions lie at the core of predictive maintenance technology that will help us forget about unplanned stops and malfunctions while driving.
With the Internet of Things in automotive industry, especially IoT devices, millions of drivers can connect to over-the-air software and data platforms to receive feature updates, software upgrades, safety improvements, bug fixes, and map and traffic updates. V2V, V2I, and V2X connectivity is about to start a new era in fleet management. Finally, a Wi-Fi connection is now enough to get connected to road infrastructure, making the drive smooth and safe. The IoT reality is closer than you might think.