Even if someone doesn’t purchase a smart
or connected car, they are getting more likely to come in contact with one.
While manufacturers continue to add more Internet-connected features to their new and future vehicles, other
entities are tapping into connectivity for their own fleets.
The latest is a move by Avis, which just tuned its mobile app to unlock car doors, flash the car headlights in a lot and at rental,
change cars with a swipe on a smartphone.
Cars and smartphones are increasingly being tied together.
Even Intel wants to get inside that action.
Since a substantial amount of
information, much of it in real time, is required for cars to become part of the Internet of Things, Intel sees the car as essentially the next smartphone, from an opportunity standpoint.
Having missed much of the mobile revolution, Intel’s CEO in a recent speech said the company is focusing on connected cars, since that is where mobile is heading.
Intel is not the
only company looking at connecting cars to other things.
BMW has created links from its cars to the owner’s house so the driver can monitor and manage systems like air conditioning
remotely.
And Volkswagen has teamed with smartphone maker LG to provide information both in the car or at home, the idea being that the consumers is always connected to all they own.
Car makers also are working on the longer term autonomous vehicle (AKA the self-driving car), to varying degrees.
The latest move is from Jaguar, which is planning an all-terrain, off-road
Jaguar Land Rover that has autonomous driving capabilities.
The reality is that self-driving cars hitting the roads in masses are quite a distance away, for a number of reasons, some quite
obvious.
In the short-term future, marketers realistically will be facing consumers who tap into information more continually and from more places, such as their cars.
Rather than
being around the corner, marketing to passengers who sit in cars that drive themselves is a bit down the road.
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Samsung, UnderArmour, Microsoft and Philips Lighting presenting at the MediaPost IoT Marketing Forum Aug. 3 in New York. Check it out here.