Benefits from Vehicle Data, Better Consumer Interaction with Vehicle Emerging as Keys to Telematics Growth, Says ATX CEO

NEW YORK--May 1, 20057, 2005--Tapping into in-vehicle telematics electronics as an opportunity to enhance the profitability of automobile manufacturers and their affiliated dealerships is emerging rapidly as the catalyst for growth in the consumer vehicle telematics industry.

That was the assessment presented today to attendees of the New York Society of Security Analysts Wireless Industry Conference by Steve Millstein, President and CEO of ATX Group, the world's second largest telematics service provider to the automotive industry.

Millstein foresees telematics growing as a wireless data-centric business that re-defines how vehicles are serviced and how both vehicle manufacturers and dealers cooperatively manage an ongoing relationship with the vehicle they've sold, the person who owns or leases it, and anyone who might drive it. By managing data and customer feedback directly from the vehicle, Millstein explained that telematics providers can help the automobile industry improve vehicle performance quality, better manage warranty costs, generate more service, optional features and parts revenue, reduce costs, and spend less on new customer acquisition.

For consumers, telematics services will move beyond safety and security benefits to convenient interaction with the vehicle, enabling owners to receive real-time information about the routes to their driving destination and their vehicle's performance and operation, to ensure the vehicle is being properly maintained and serviced with a minimum of interference to personal schedules, to properly operate unfamiliar features, and to remotely access vehicle functions.

ATX Group, which launched one of the first consumer vehicle programs back in 1996 with Ford Motor Company, is a privately held company that has 670,000 subscribers in North America and Europe. Future growth in the business is also expected to result from the recently emerging migration of telematics technology as an option on luxury-brand models to a standard feature on mass-market vehicle lines. Millstein added that other than General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, the remaining automobile manufacturers had yet to deploy broad-based programs across the North American and Western European markets.

Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area and Dusseldorf, Germany, ATX Group is the world's second largest provider of telematics services for the automobile industry, serving both North America and Europe. ATX telematics services include location-specific emergency and roadside assistance, automatic collision notification, stolen vehicle recovery, remote diagnostics and real-time traffic and navigation assistance. ATX services are provided to vehicle owners through the brand names of its customers -- Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Maybach, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

For more information, visit www.atxg.com.